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The Biggest Simulation of the Universe Yet Stretches Back to the Big Bang
Remember the philosophical argument our universe is a simulation? Well, a team of astrophysicists say they’ve created the biggest simulated universe yet. But you...
Drugs, Robots, and the Pursuit of Pleasure: Why Experts Are Worried About AIs Becoming Addicts
In 1953, a Harvard psychologist thought he discovered pleasure—accidentally—within the cranium of a rat. With an electrode inserted into a specific area of its...
Walmart Is Launching an Autonomous Delivery Service in Three US Cities
Walmart has been America’s biggest retailer since the 1990s, its focus on low costs and ultra-efficient logistics helping it edge out competitors and keep...
Tele-Driving Startup to Deploy Remote-Controlled Cars as a Step Towards Full Autonomy
Self-driving cars are taking longer to hit roads than many experts predicted. Despite impressive progress in the field—like trucks using self-driving features to move...
The CRISPR Family Tree Holds a Multitude of Untapped Gene Editing Tools
Thanks to CRISPR, gene therapy and “designer babies” are now a reality. The gene editing Swiss army knife is one of the most impactful...
Electrifying the Future: Toyota Puts Over $13 Billion Into Battery Technology
The world’s largest car manufacturer by volume has been sluggish in its efforts to electrify compared to competitors. But Toyota has just announced a...
New Study Finds a Single Neuron Is a Surprisingly Complex Little Computer
Comparing brains to computers is a long and dearly held analogy in both neuroscience and computer science.
It’s not hard to see why.
Our brains can...
This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through September 11)
LONGEVITY
Meet Altos Labs, Silicon Valley's Latest Wild Bet on Living Forever
Antonio Regalado | MIT Technology Review
"Altos is pursuing biological reprogramming technology, a way to...
New Research Reveals Animals Are Changing Their Body Shapes to Cope With Climate Change
Global warming is a big challenge for warm-blooded animals, which must maintain a constant internal body temperature. As anyone who’s experienced heatstroke can tell...
The World’s Largest Direct Air Capture Plant Is Now Pulling CO2 From the Air...
A little over four years ago, the world’s first commercial plant for sucking carbon dioxide out of the air opened near Zurich, Switzerland. The...
Hyundai Goes All-In on Hydrogen With Its ‘Trailer Drone’ and More
Between the grim outlook reported by the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report last month and frequent reports of extreme weather events all over the world,...
Gene Therapies Are Almost Here, But Healthcare Isn’t Ready for Sky-High Prices
Zolgensma—which treats spinal muscular atrophy, a rare genetic disease that damages nerve cells, leading to muscle decay—is currently the most expensive drug in the...
New Mini-CRISPR Systems Could Dramatically Expand the Scope of Gene Therapy
CRISPR has revolutionized genome engineering, but the size of its molecular gene-editing components has limited its therapeutic uses so far. Now, a trio of...
This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through September 4)
COMPUTING
The $150 Million Machine Keeping Moore's Law Alive
Will Knight | Wired
"The technology will be crucial for making more advanced smartphones and cloud computers, and...
This Room Can Wirelessly Charge Devices Anywhere Within Its Walls
Today, wireless charging is little more than a gimmick for high-end smartphones or pricey electric toothbrushes. But a new approach that can charge devices...
A Quarter of Sun-Like Stars Eat Their Own Planets, According to New Research
How rare is our solar system? In the 30 years or so since planets were first discovered orbiting stars other than our sun, we...
Better Than Batteries? A Startup That’s Storing Energy in Concrete Blocks Just Raised $100...
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its Sixth Assessment Report in early August, and the outlook isn’t good. The report has added renewed...
Deep Learning Is Tackling Another Core Biology Mystery: RNA Structure
Deep learning is solving biology’s deepest secrets at breathtaking speed.
Just a month ago, DeepMind cracked a 50-year-old grand challenge: protein folding. A week later,...
America’s Biggest 3D Printed Building Is This New Military Barracks in Texas
3D printing is picking up speed as a construction technology, with 3D printed houses, schools, apartment buildings, and even Martian habitat concepts all being...
Newly Classified Hycean Exoplanets Could Accelerate the Search for Alien Life
In the search for life beyond our planet, scientists have long focused on conditions similar to those found here. This makes sense. Earth is...
This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through August 28)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
What Would It Be Like to Be a Conscious AI? We May Never Know
Will Douglas Heaven | MIT Technology Review
"It’s possible that one...
Cerebras Upgrades Trillion-Transistor Chip to Train ‘Brain-Scale’ AI
Much of the recent progress in AI has come from building ever-larger neural networks. A new chip powerful enough to handle “brain-scale” models could...
We Could Power Our Homes With Food Scraps. Here’s What’s Stopping Us
Imagine if you could power your kettle using the energy generated from the vegetable cuttings quietly breaking down in your kitchen’s compost bin. That...
The World’s Biggest Wind Turbine Is Being Built in China
In 2018, GE unveiled its Haliade-X turbine, and it has since been the largest and most powerful offshore wind turbine in the world. At...
Surprise! Our Bodies Have Been Hiding a Trojan Horse for Gene Therapy
Nature hides astonishing medical breakthroughs.
Take CRISPR, the transformative gene editing tool. It was inspired by a lowly bacterial immune defense system and co-opted to...
