latest advancements in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), including medical breakthroughs, space exploration, and new gadgets and software.
This is where Moonlight will come in. The system may involve three navigation satellites in lunar orbit plus one dedicated to communication. That way, multiple satellites can ping Earth at any given time, and the system would be resilient if a single orbiter fails. (Because the moon lacks an atmosphere, the satellites would be more …
SUBSCRIBE: Apple | Spotify This is the last part of a three-part Science, Quickly Fascination. Listen to Episode One. Listen to Episode Two. Transcript Allison Parshall: So a few months ago I was at a dinner party with some friends from college. A friend of a friend mentioned that she’s now an editor at a pretty prominent news organization. That …
If AI Starts Making Music on Its Own, What Happens to Musicians? Read More »
After two decades, a massive US governmental effort has reached a new milestone in its battle to defend the global HIV/AIDS epidemic: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced earlier this month that, by 2022, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) had provided lifesaving antiretroviral therapy treatment to more than 20 …
Millions of People Living with HIV Are Alive, Thanks to a 20-Year Public Health Effort Read More »
A last bastion of privacy, our brains have remained inviolate, even as sensors now record our heartbeats, breaths, steps and sleep. All that is about to change. An avalanche of brain-tracking devices—earbuds, headphones, headbands, watches and even wearable tattoos—will soon enter the market, promising to transform our lives. And threatening to breach the refuge of …
Wearable Brain Devices Will Challenge Our Mental Privacy Read More »
Editor’s Note (3/27/23): A deadly tornado struck Mississippi in the evening hours last Friday. This December 2021 story explores why tornadoes that strike at night and in the Southeast are often more fatal. It was around 9:30 PM, hours past sunset, when a violent tornado leveled the town of Mayfield, Ky., on December 10. The …
Tornadoes at Night and in the Southeast Are Especially Deadly Read More »
Editor’s Note (3/27/23): Today a shooter killed at least six people, including three children, at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn. This story from 2022 discusses how firearms have become the leading injury-related cause of death for children in the US For much of the past few decades motor vehicle crashes were the most common …
Guns Now Kill More Children and Young Adults Than Car Crashes Read More »
She wanted to know if I had any suggestions, and asked what I thought all the new advances meant for lawmakers. I’ve spent a few days thinking, reading, and chatting with the experts about this, and my answer morphed into this newsletter. So here goes! Though GPT-4 is the standard bearer, it’s just one of …
Whether it’s based on hallucinatory beliefs or not, a gold rush has started over the last several months to make money from generative AI models like ChatGPT. You can practically hear the shrieks from corner offices around the world: “What is our ChatGPT play? How do we make money off this?” But while companies and …
AI’s gold rush, and how to regulate generative models Read More »
To find out if the microbes being introduced might be “good” or “bad,” Fackelmann and her colleagues analyzed the microbiomes and looked up individual types of microbes in databases to learn what they do. They found that with more plastic, there were more microbes that are known to break down plastic. There were also more …
Microplastics are messing with the microbiomes of seabirds Read More »
It can take Lisa Harrington two hours to pack a single order from one of her customers. Not because it’s particularly challenging or the items she’s packing require anything special. It just takes time to set up all the camera angles and get the lighting right. Harrington founded her drinkware brand, Mermaid Straw, in 2018; …
Unboxing Is So 2012. The Internet Wants Packing Videos Read More »
There are apps for Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS, and Linux, as well as extensions for all major web browsers. Bitwarden also has support for Windows Hello and Touch ID on its desktop apps for Windows and MacOS, giving you the added security of those biometric authentication systems. Bitwarden recently introduced passwordless authentication support, meaning you …
5 Best Password Managers (2022): Features, Pricing, and Tips Read More »
This might be why her team got contrasting results in their analysis: The more individual microplastics in the gut, the greater the microbial diversity, but the higher mass of microplastics, the lower the diversity. The more particles a bird eats, the greater the chance that those hitchhiking microbes take hold in its gut. But if …
Life/farm sim games are seemingly a dime a dozen. Hell, some of them are free-to-play, so they don’t even cost that much. Yet each time a new one drops, be it from a AAA studio or an indie developer, it gets harder and harder to tell what, if anything, is new. Then came Disney Dreamlight …
I Could Play ‘Disney Dreamlight Valley’ Until the End of Time Read More »
I’ve never really admired Sonos’ speakers for their actual sound quality. Sure, the prior Play One and Five series speakers, the company’s soundbars, subwoofer, and even the portable Roam sound perfectly decent. But the main draw of a Sonos speaker is the technology behind the grill. Boosting integrations with Alexa, Apple, Google, and virtually every …
Sonos Era 100 Review: The New Smart Speaker Standard Read More »
Is bigger better? This question can lead you down an existential rabbit hole with nearly every product, but when it comes to speakers, the answer has traditionally been a firm “yes.” In general, bigger speakers provide larger (or more) drivers and roomier cabinets to serve up more power, deeper bass, and a more expansive soundstage. …
Ecosia, which uses Bing results and invests its profits in environmental projects, is considering potential partners to develop its own chatbot. Its leaders would be eager to license Bing’s chatbot technology if Microsoft was willing to share. “It’s important to ensure that this isn’t another tool for these companies to further entrench dominance,” says CEO …
ChatGPT Opened a New Era in Search. Microsoft Could Ruin It Read More »
Paulita Paupel, who runs the European branch of the adult industry trade body the Free Speech Coalition, says the crackdowns are having worrying impacts on people and their ability to share content online. “People are fleeing the country,” Paupel says. “Most major content creators have already changed their residence to other European countries, mostly Austria, …
They Posted Porn on Twitter. German Authorities Called the Cops Read More »
The species Homo sapiens evolved some 300,000 years ago and has come to dominate Earth unlike any species that came before. But how long can humans last? Eventually humans will go extinct. At the most wildly optimistic estimate, our species will last perhaps another billion years but end when the expanding envelope of the sun …
CLIMATEWIRE | The United Nations’ latest climate assessment has upped the ante for energy policy in the United States, making it clear that rich nations need to cut their emissions more deeply than some of the most ambitious targets. The report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change introduced a new deadline that the …
Editor’s Note (3/21/23): The dangerous fungus Candida auris is spreading rapidly in hospitals and other health care facilities, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Monday. Our June 2021 feature story, republished here, explains why C. auris can be so lethal and who is most at risk. It also describes why this pathogen …
Deadly Fungi Are the Newest Emerging Microbe Threat All Over the World Read More »