Read the latest articles from Futurism (Page 495)

Amazon publicly announced last week that it would launch drone-delivery Prime Air in Lockeford, California — news to many of the rural town's residents.
Drones

"I think they’re going to wreck everything for us."

Canada has announced it is banning "harmful single-use plastics" to "keep them out of the environment," becoming the latest jurisdiction to do so.
Science & Energy

"We promised to ban harmful single-use plastics, and we’re keeping that promise."

The Food and Drug Administration is getting ready to boot the popular e-cigarette company out of the US market, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Developments

Game over.

During a crucial Artemis 1 take-off test, the NASA's seemingly doomed Space Launch System sprung a leak in a hydrogen fuel valve.
Moon

Will this thing ever make it off the ground?!

Researchers have come up with a new way to cause objects to levitate using sound waves alone, an impressive feat of mixed-reality technology.
Virtual Reality

"No eye-wear or tricks required, simply 3D shapes sharing the very space in which we live."

Reporter Kevin Collier had a bizarre encounter at this year's NFT NYC conference — not with rapper Calvin "Snoop Dogg" Broadus Jr, he says, but a lookalike.
NFTs

"The guy said actually that's an impersonator, legally can't say it's him..."

These might be major moves towards providing future users with a virtual reality system that human visual processes interpret as "real."
Virtual Reality

"I don’t think it’s going to be that long until we can create scenes with basically perfect fidelity."

Straight from the depths of AI hell hails Crungus — or somewhere like that, because until a few days ago, nobody knew this thing existed. 
Artificial Intelligence

What IS that thing???

A long-running human trial has shown that CRISPR gene editing could prove to be a highly effective way of treating two rare blood disorders.
Gene Editing

This is really promising.

Michio Kaku says that he often gives his students a particular experiment in which he has them calculate the probability that they wake up on Mars tomorrow.
Quantum Physics

"There’s a tiny but calculable likelihood that our quantum wave will tunnel its way through space-time and wind up [on Mars]."

China is hoping to leapfrog NASA by becoming the first nation to return Mars samples, SpaceNews reports, and by July 2031.
Mars

Watch out, NASA.

Elon Musk's daughter has filed to change her name and gender identity marker because she doesn't want to be associated with her famous father. 
Elon Musk

"I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form."

According to leaked documents obtained by Ars Technica, NASA's plans to return astronauts to the surface on the Moon are in serious trouble.
Moon

Are we ever going to make it back to the Moon?

Scientists say they've figured out at least part of North America's invasive, imported fire ant problem by turning a virus that kills them into a weapon.
Viruses

It's because they're murderers and vandals.

Does virtual reality nature have the same positive health effects that IRL nature does? A new study used virtual reality to put plants in a city.
Virtual Reality

Virtual trees might make our brains happy.

"We’re changing Starlink’s default wifi name to Stinky," Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted yesterday. Will he really call the Starlink wifi Stinky?
Elon Musk

Whoever smelled it dealt it.

The clock is ticking for Voyager 1 and 2. NASA says the Voyager vehicles will run out of power by 2025, ending a decades-long mission launched in 1977.
NASA

An era closes.

Google engineer Blake Lemoine says the AI program called LaMDA is sentient and retained a lawyer for itself. Lemoine says LaMDA is a sentient person.
Google

"Once LaMDA had retained an attorney, he started filing things on LaMDA’s behalf."

Videos a TikTok account literally named "Unreal Margot," are posting are deepfakes, not real clips of actress Margot Robbie, the "Suicide Squad" star.
Future Society

It's literally called "Unreal Margot."

Around 300 secret polar bears have been secluded from other polar bear populations in Greenland for about 200 years, scientists said in a new study.
Climate Change

Is this what hope feels like?