Read the latest articles from Futurism (Page 1059)

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have discovered genetic variants that protect people from obesity and its symptoms.
Health & Medicine

Scientists Find Genetic Variants That Prevent Obesity, Diabetes

"This study drives home the fact that genetics plays a major role in why some people are obese."

By Kristin Houser

IBM is halting development and sales of its Watson AI designed to find promising new medications, according to a new STAT story.
Artificial Intelligence

IBM Pulls the Plug on Drug-Discovering Watson AI

It's starting to look like IBM's high hopes for Watson Health were misplaced.

By Kristin Houser

The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly considering holding Mark Zuckerberg directly responsible for Facebook's privacy scandals.
Future Society

The Government Wants to Make an Example out of Mark Zuckerberg

Federal regulators are meeting behind closed doors to discuss how to handle Zuck.

By Dan Robitzski

China has announced what local media is calling the "world's first armed amphibious drone boat."
Military

China’s Military Built an Autonomous Amphibious Landing Vehicle

This weird autonomous vehicle is designed for combat missions on land and sea.

By Victor Tangermann

Boston Dynamics has debuted the version of its SpotMini robot dog that it plans to actually sell to consumers — but it has yet to announce a price tag.
Boston Dynamics

Boston Dynamics Unveils SpotMini You’ll Actually Be Able to Buy

What the company hasn't unveiled: a price.

By Kristin Houser

The governor of Puerto Rico just signed a bill that will quickly move the island away from non-renewable energy sources within the next few decades.
Climate Change

Puerto Rico Will Stop Burning Coal Next Year

The goal is switch to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050.

By Dan Robitzski

A neural network is grinding out the blast beats, super-distorted guitars and bellowing vocals of death metal — and livestreaming it.
Artificial Intelligence

Listen to Brutal Death Metal Made by a Neural Network

This is the finest death metal that AI can dream up.

By Jon Christian

The European Space Agency just greenlit a UK aerospace manufacturer's tests of a novel air-breathing rocket engine that sucks up atmospheric oxygen.
Off-World

Amazing New Rocket Engine Sucks up Atmospheric Oxygen for Fuel

The same payload could be delivered to orbit at half the vehicle mass of current launchers.

By Victor Tangermann

Nick Bostrom, author of "The Simulation Argument," says humanity needs to embrace mass surveillance to avoid the destruction of civilization.
Future Society

Professor: Total Surveillance Is the Only Way to Save Humanity

The author of "The Simulation Argument" says one bad technology could destroy humanity — and the only way to prevent it is an AI overlord.

By Kristin Houser

Almost every active nuclear reactor in the U.S. is unprepared for flooding and storm surge caused by climate change; industry groups chose not to act.
Climate Change

Climate Change Could Cause Fukushima-Style Meltdowns in the US

Almost all American nuclear power plants are unprepared for floods and storms, according to a new analysis.

By Dan Robitzski

Denver, Colorado, may soon decriminalize the personal use of psilocybin-containing mushrooms, making it the first place in the U.S. to consider doing so.
Future Society

Denver Is Voting on Whether to Decriminalize Psychedelic Mushrooms

Personal use and possession would no longer be punishable by law.

By Dan Robitzski

GermFalcon, a company specializing in airplane sanitizing tech, developed a kind of space Roomba that can blast sterilising UV rays at the walls of the ISS.
Sleep

This Space Roomba Could Clean the ISS While Astronauts Sleep

Blasting the walls with UV is bound to curb the spread of microbes.

By Victor Tangermann

Infamous tech entrepreneur John McAfee says he's going unmask Bitcoin's creator, but the clues he's shared so far do little to narrow the field.
Bitcoin

John McAfee Vows to Reveal Bitcoin’s Creator

But so far, his "clues" about Satoshi Nakamoto haven't narrowed down the field much.

By Kristin Houser

Scientists finally detect helium hydride, a combination of helium and hydrogen, thought to be the first molecule to form in the universe.
Science & Energy

Astronomers Finally Found the Universe’s First Type of Molecule

Decades of hunting has paid off.

By Kristin Houser

When India blew up a satellite, it introduced a lot of debris into orbit. Lockheed Martin's experimental Space Fence is keeping an eye on it.
Off-World

India Blew up a Satellite. Now A “Space Fence” Is Tracking Its Debris

Lockheed Martin's experimental tech is monitoring the satellite fragments.

By Dan Robitzski

The legal industry isn't ready for AI-generated music, leading to all sorts of new questions about copyrights in the age of creative machines.
Artificial Intelligence

Expert: AI-Generated Music Is A “Total Legal Clusterf*ck”

What happens when an AI is trained to mimic just one artist's style?

By Kristin Houser

The Mueller Report, heavily redacted, describes a number of high-tech Russian operations designed to undermine and sway the 2016 Presidential election.
Bitcoin

The Mueller Report Confirms We’re Living in a Cyberpunk Dystopia

Forget partisan politics. This is a dark vision of the future of digital espionage.

By Dan Robitzski

Scientists have a new plan to try and spot dark matter by searching for particular particles once the Large Hadron Collider's upgrades are complete.
Physics

When the Large Hadron Collider Turns on, It May Trap Dark Matter

Physicists are getting ready to look for a new, slow-moving particle.

By Dan Robitzski

When the Notre Dame blaze got too dangerous for humans to continue battling, the Paris Fire Brigade called in a firefighting robot named Colossus.
Robotics

See the “Colossus” Firefighting Robot That Helped Save Notre Dame

When the fire got too dangerous for humans to battle alone, the Paris Fire Brigade called in Colossus.

By Kristin Houser

The Boring Company's Loop project connecting Washington, D.C., and Baltimore has moved one step closer to breaking ground.
Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s “Loop Project” Is One Step Closer to Breaking Ground

It's not the East Coast hyperloop Musk envisioned, but it's a start.

By Kristin Houser