Elon Musk appears to have been caught in a major lie as he tried to take advantage of the very same diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices that he <a href="https://abcnews4.com/news/nation-world/doge-details-1-billion-in-savings-from-cutting-dei-related-contracts-elon-musk-tesla-diversity-equity-inclusion-president-donald-trump-white-house-funds-tax-money">sought to destroy</a> during his brief tenure in the Trump administration.
As <a href="https://www.muskwatch.com/p/musks-neuralink-falsified-federal">MuskWatch reveals</a>, the billionaire's brain chip company, Neuralink, claimed in a <a href="https://search.certifications.sba.gov/profile/JGGFP357J8B8/7VRH1?page=1">Small Business Administration filing</a> this past April that it was a "small disadvantaged business," a designation meant to help give a leg up to companies run by racial and ethnic minorities.
In other words, Musk filed for a DEI designation — and he did so while he and president Donald Trump were <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/02/17/us-news/elon-musks-doge-puts-dei-on-chopping-block-with-termination-of-over-370m-in-education-department-grants/">actively gutting such protections</a> across the federal government.
That designation is, as MuskWatch notes, only legally allowed under <a href="https://www.sba.gov/federal-contracting/contracting-assistance-programs/small-disadvantaged-business">SBA</a> and <a href="https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-13/chapter-I/part-124/subpart-B/section-124.1001">federal regulations</a> to be claimed by companies majority owned by socially or economically "disadvantaged individuals." It feels pretty safe to say that the world's richest man, who is also white, does not fall into that category.
Just a month after that April 24 filing, Neuralink completed a fundraising round that brought its valuation up to a <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/28/elon-musks-neuralink-raises-600m-at-9b-valuation/">whopping $9 billion dollars</a> — a sum higher than the gross domestic product, <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?most_recent_value_desc=false">per World Bank data</a>, of several small countries put together.
In a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/17/elon-musks-neuralink-says-owned-by-disadvantaged-persons-in-filing.html">statement to CNBC</a>, which also reported on the filing, a Neuralink spokesperson claimed that the company "has never applied for nor received a benefit from the federal government," and that the "small disadvantaged business" box that was checked on SAM.gov, the federal government's contracting website, was clicked in error. (Let's hope they don't make any comparably <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/neuralink-seeks-second-volunteer">minor errors</a> while operating on patient's brains.)
While MuskWatch confirmed that there's no indication the brain-computer interface (BCI) company had ever gotten federal funds, even an erroneous check mark could carry legal consequences given that Neuralink CEO Jared Birchall and other executives signed the document under threat of perjury.
In the past, the multi-hyphenate billionaire has <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-blames-la-wildfires-black-firefighters-dei">cast ample aspersions</a> against so-called DEI initiatives, equating it with racism and calling it "<a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/elon-musk-criticized-dei-tesla-ditching-language">actually illegal</a>" — an extra-ironic choice of words given the potential law-breaking that happened when Neuralink applied for small disadvantaged business status.
More on Musk companies: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/waymo-responds-elon-musk-robotaxi-map">Waymo Responds to Elon Musk's "Schlong Map" by Showing That Theirs Is Bigger</a>

Corporate Diversity

Neuroscience/Brain Science

Elon hate DEI -- except, apparently, when it stands to benefit him.

Elon Musk’s Neuralink Caught Filing for Benefits Meant for Small Businesses Run by Minorities

The way Westerners diet — often alternating dubious and restrictive food regimens with binge eating, in a phenomenon known as "yo-yo dieting" — may be messing with their gut flora and their brains.
In a new study published in the <a href="https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202501214">journal Advanced Science</a>, researchers from France's University of Rennes and Paris-Saclay University found, after conducting a series of studies with mice, that yo-yo diets appeared to result in long-lasting changes to their gut bacteria.
Also known as "weight cycling," this form of dieting often involves people taking on restrictive — and often extreme or trendy — plans to lose weight, only to get so hungry from such the vast and unsustainable change in their habits that when they go back to the way they ate before, they end up eating too much, and gaining back all the weight and then some.
While it's well known that yo-yo dieting is a bad idea compared to making sustainable choices to eat healthier foods, recent studies have begun to show its links to other detrimental health effects, including increased risk of <a href="https://www.endocrine.org/news-and-advocacy/news-room/2025/yo-yo-dieting-may-significantly-increase-kidney-disease-risk-in-people-with-type-1-diabetes">kidney</a> and <a href="https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-minute-why-yo-yo-dieting-might-be-bad-for-your-heart/">heart disease</a> and <a href="https://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-diet-yo-yo-diet-effect">hormonal changes</a> that can slow down the metabolism.
In their new study, the researchers from Rennes and Paris-Saclay simulated human yo-yo dieting by alternately feeding mice a higher-fat and higher-sugar diet reminiscent of those eaten by the modern Westerner and one that was lower fat, over a period of several weeks.
When they were switched back onto the richer diet, the mice started showing signs of binge eating. Not only was this effect seen in the mice who were subjected to the yo-yo diets, but also to rodents who had eaten healthier food but were implanted with "altered" gut bacteria from the other mice.
Curiously, the French researchers also found that shifts in the rodents' diets appeared to change their relationship to food as well, adding to the body of evidence that fad diets and the yo-yo effect they instill could be considered a <a href="https://nedc.com.au/eating-disorders/eating-disorders-explained/disordered-eating-and-dieting">form of disordered eating</a>.
"By carefully analysing the brain patterns of the mice on the dieting schedule, the researchers could see that they were probably eating for pleasure rather than because they were hungry," a <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/yo-yo-dieting-may-trigger-long-lasting-changes-in-gut-bacteria">press release</a> about the study notes, "as if the brain's reward mechanism had been rewired."
While it's far too soon to tell whether that effect will be replicable in humans, anyone who's experienced the yo-yo dieting effect personally can attest that that first bite of a burger or fries after going weeks without is indeed very, very satisfying.
More on mice studies: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/gene-hacked-mice-produce-ozempic-like-drug">Scientists Gene Hack Mice So Their Livers Produce Their Own Ozempic-Like Drug</a>

Next of Atkin

Studies

"As if the brain's reward mechanism had been rewired."

Scientists Find Evidence of Grim Long-Term Effects of Fad Diets

Not content with polluting the <a href="https://www.texasobserver.org/remembering-boca-chica-beach-before-spacex/">Boca Chica Beach</a> on South Texas's Gulf shore — a sacred site, <a href="https://thebarbedwire.com/2024/10/30/locals-say-spacex-is-polluting-sacred-land-this-project-aims-to-preserve-it/">according to certain ancient beliefs</a> — Elon Musk's SpaceX is now seeking to wreak havoc on another site considered holy to indigenous peoples in Hawaii.
As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/17/hawaii-elon-musk-spacex-rocket-debris">The Guardian reports</a>, the Federal Aviation Administration has quietly granted SpaceX permission to detonate rockets above the waters surrounding Mokumanamana, a remote and uninhabited island located 400 miles from Honolulu that holds deep religious significance to native Hawaiians.
William Aila, the former chair of Hawaii's land and natural resources department who now runs the island state's housing department, told The Guardian that in Native Hawaiian spirituality, Mokumanamana sits at the boundary between "'pō,' the darkness, and 'au,' the light." When a Native Hawaiian dies, their soul travels up near Mokumanamana, and after meeting their ancestors there, they potentially get to advance into the great beyond with them in the dark waters west of the island.
Despite that island's spiritual importance, the FAA gave Musk and SpaceX permission to expand its so-called "splashdown area" — the wide swath of water where it's allowed to litter exploded rocket parts — into the Pacific, making its marine junkyard whopping 75 times larger.
Along with allowing Musk to rain schrapnel down near Mokumanamana, the FAA also granted SpaceX the ability to do so around Hawaii's eight main islands — which are populated with American citizens who may end up having their <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/island-littered-starship-debris">houses or property hit by debris</a> — and portions of the Papahānaumokuākea marine national monument, a UNESCO world heritage site that's home to thousands of diverse species of animal and plant life.
When Hawaii-dwelling activist and former physicist Lynda Williams learned of Musk's plans — which she claims were rammed through without any consultation with local officials — she <a href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2025/01/public-should-weigh-in-on-spacexs-plans-to-splash-down-near-hawai%CA%BBi/">urged her fellow Hawaii residents to speak out</a>.
During a public comment period held just ahead of president Donald Trump's inauguration, Williams spoke first and with vitriol.
"Earth is not a sacrifice zone for Elon Musk’s ego trip to Mars," the activist said during the meeting, per The Guardian. She called the billionaire's Mars colonization plan a "whole Trojan-Horse bullshit lie," and said she wanted to "shred" that talking point.
Though lots of other concerned citizens from both Texas and Hawaii spoke out about the severe environmental impacts SpaceX's explosive launches will have on these holy and nominally protected waters — former president Joe Biden <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/biden-harris-administration-noaa-designate-18th-national-marine-sanctuary">granted Papahānaumokuākea a sanctuary designation</a> during his final days in office, which should have given it more legal cover — the FAA granted Musk his Pacific splashdown permission regardless.
"The government is doing a number of things trying to reduce the influence and impact of environmental laws," decried Aila, who also used to chair Papahānaumokuākea’s advisory council. "Who does that benefit? It benefits Elon Musk. And that should be a huge ethical issue."
More on SpaceX: <a href="https://futurism.com/mars-society-expert-elon-musk-ruining">Elon Musk's "Hubris and Arrogance" Are Ruining Our Chances of Actually Getting to Mars, Says Leading Expert</a>

Splash Zone

"Earth is not a sacrifice zone for Elon Musk’s ego trip to Mars."

Government Gives Elon Musk Permission to Detonate Rockets Over a Sacred Hawaian Island

<h2>Turbo Mode</h2>
A company made up of former F1 racing engineers has unveiled an outrageous e-scooter that can reach a top speed of north of 100 miles per hour — and covers a whopping 150 miles on a single charge.
The bizarre contraption, dubbed The Turbo, was developed by UK-based e-scooter company Bo, whose existing lineup targets the more premium end of the last-mile — or last 150 miles, in this case — mobility market.
The Turbo's specs are borderline hard to believe. The metal-clad and girthy two-wheeler features a 24,000-watt dual-motor engine and an enormous 1,800-watt-hour battery. Aerodynamic air intakes funnel wind to keep everything cool.
But as anybody who's lived in a major city in recent years can attest, e-scooters are turning into a major plague — and a measurable threat to public safety. Emergency room care has spiked, with e-bike injuries nearly doubling every year between 2017 and 2022, according to a <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-popularity-of-e-bikes-and-e-scooters-is-soaring-but-are-they-safe-202409093069">frequently cited study</a>. (Given the wide proliferation of cheaper scooters, it's not a stretch to assume the trend has continued since then.)
In short, ripping through a bike lane at anywhere near 100 mph is the last thing we need right now.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-358939" src="https://wordpress-assets.futurism.com/2025/07/download-2-1200x677.webp" alt="" width="954" height="538" />
<h2>Concussion Pushin</h2>
The reason why this death trap even exists in the first place isn't exactly surprising. Bo is targeting to set a new Guinness World Record by accelerating to 100 MPH on its Turbo at Bonneville Speed Week, which is scheduled for early next month, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/bo-turbo-e-scooter-guinness-world-record/">Wired reports</a>.
Worst of all, Bo is looking to start delivering its Turbo e-scooter to private customers, meaning it's not purely a marketing stunt. CEO Oscar Morgan told Wired that a customer in Spain had already ordered one.
But it won't come cheap. The souped-up speed demon will go for a steep $29,500. At least compared to a trip to a US hospital, particularly without insurance, that's an absolute bargain.
More on e-scooters: <a href="https://futurism.com/hackers-remotely-access-electric-scooter">Hackers Can Access Your Electric Scooter While You're Riding It</a>

Watch Out Bike Lanes

Designed by former F1 engineers. Pure danger.

This Bonkers 100 MPH E-Scooter Is a Ludicrous Safety Hazard

OpenAI is releasing a new AI agent, creatively dubbed ChatGPT Agent — which is not to be confused with the two other AI agents it's already released (did we mention that OpenAI has a <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/sam-altman-gpt-name-change">bit of a branding problem</a>?)
In an <a href="https://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-agent/">announcement</a>, the Sam-Altman-led company says the tool uses its own "virtual computer" to perform tasks on your behalf, like using your calendar to brief you on upcoming meetings, buying the ingredients to make breakfast, and creating a slide deck analysis of business competitors.
The new agent synthesizes the capabilities of its <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-ai-agent-monitored-nonstop">Operator</a> agent, which could carry out web browser-based tasks, and its <a href="https://futurism.com/replicate-openai-deep-research-ai-tool-24-hours">Deep Research agent</a>, which was designed to conduct multi-step research tasks like generating a personalized report, and plunks them into ChatGPT, allowing you to access the tool from the comfort of the chatbot's UI while also being able to fine-tune its performance through conversational exchanges.
But there's a huge caveat. According to OpenAI's announcement, "ChatGPT requests permission before taking actions of consequence" — meaning that for any actually important task, you can't just walk away after setting things into motion. A human — you — must be present before the bot pulls the trigger on some of these tasks it's supposed to be automating.
From a safety point of view, this is unequivocally a good thing, given that AIs are extremely prone to making mistakes. What if it's about to book the wrong flight? Or what if it fell victim to a <a href="https://futurism.com/easy-jailbreak-every-major-ai-chatgpt">prompt injection</a> attack, stumbling on a website designed by hackers to trick an AI model into doing something dangerous, or giving away your money?
Yet this intervention underscores just how untrustworthy this technology remains, which by extension incapacitates its usefulness, suspended in this awkward limbo in which it's both too dumb and too powerful to just let loose.
This was the same hangup that held back Operator, which also required human approval before "finalizing any significant action." Like Operator, the ChatGPT Agent also puts users in a "takeover mode" to type in sensitive information, like login credentials and payment info.
At the time, users complained about Operator's <a href="https://futurism.com/openai-asks-permission-important">sluggishness</a>, with it taking excruciatingly long to navigate a desktop, and sometimes nagging for a human's help with tasks it should've been able to complete on its own.
That doesn't appear to have gone away with ChatGPT Agent. As the project's research lead Isa Fulford admits, the world-beating AI struggled to order a bunch of cupcakes within an even remotely reasonable timeframe.
"That one took almost an hour," Fulford <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/openai-chatgpt-agent-launch/">told Wired</a>, "but it was easier than me doing it myself, because I didn't want to do it."
OpenAI's demonstration of its bot's purported capabilities in the announcement video doesn't make a convincing case, either.
Instructed to plan a trip to visit every Major League Baseball stadium in the US, the ChatGPT Agent produces a map (depicted in this Reddit <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/comments/1m2g42y/from_openais_demo_of_their_agent_tool_a_map_thats/">screenshot</a>) showing a stop smack dab in the Gulf of Mexico. Last we checked, there aren't any ball stadiums sitting out in the open sea. The game times also appear to be wrong. A grand slam, this is not. 
"Cool looking map, I guess," says product lead Yash Kumar in the video. (Alternatively, you could literally just type "visit all MLB stadiums" in Google, and will find dozens of websites with advice on how to do exactly that, including a tool called "Baseball-RoadTrip.com.") 
Mistakes like these generally aren't commented on by the OpenAI presenters in the video. They seem reluctant to double-check the AI's work throughout, and probably for good reason.
The Agent is first being released to Pro users, who will be capped at 400 prompts per month, and will be rolled out to Plus and Team subscribers soon, who will be limited to just a tenth of that. No timeline was provided for free users.
More on OpenAI: <a href="https://futurism.com/openai-engineer-pure-chaos">OpenAI Engineer Quits, Says Company Is Pure Chaos Inside</a>

Double Agent

It'll test your patience.

OpenAI's New AI Agent Takes One Hour to Order Food and Recommends Visiting a Baseball Stadium in the Middle of the Ocean

You've heard of Rent-a-Cops before, but this is the real deal.
A <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/protector-launches-patrol-app-to-bring-elite-protection-to-los-angeles-homes-and-families-302488837.html">recently released</a> app called "Patrol" has rolled out to affluent Los Angeles neighborhoods, including Brentwood, Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Holmby Hills, and Malibu, with "more areas coming soon."
A spinoff of the company "Protector" — an Uber-style rentier app that lets users <a href="https://futurism.com/startup-protector-rent-private-security">temporarily hire an armed bodyguard</a> — Patrol offers property owners the chance to rent out "off-duty police officers to help protect their homes."
"When you book a private patrol, you're getting more than just presence," declares a marketing video on the company's <a href="https://x.com/bookprotectors/status/1945867105410101583">X account</a>. "You're getting protection from trained, off-duty officers. You might not always be home, but with Patrol, someone always is."
While Protector is geared toward individuals, the <a href="https://www.patrol.so/">marketing material</a> for Patrol overwhelmingly features shots of single-family houses, white families, and affluent suburban neighborhoods.
Indeed, whether you're stuck in traffic and need someone to watch the kids, heading out on a vacation, or, as Patrol puts it, "it's just another quiet night, and you'd rather sleep knowing someone's looking out for you" — your personal police officer has you covered.
According to a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/protector-launches-patrol-app-to-bring-elite-protection-to-los-angeles-homes-and-families-302488837.html">press release</a>, Patrol "officers" are "vetted professionals" from law enforcement, military, and special forces backgrounds.
"Protection isn't only about responding to danger. It's about creating the kind of calm that lets families focus on living," said Nick Sarath, the CEO of Protector.
While the world portrayed in Protector's marketing materials is bright and hopeful, some say these apps are anything but.
"Sounds like there's a systemic problem with your community that you won't address and instead are saying rich people can protect their stuff, but everyone else, get used to crime," <a href="https://x.com/Eslatt13/status/1945998504242921481">raged one user</a> on social media.
"The cops' main job has always been to protect the rich &amp; their property," <a href="https://x.com/AshAgony/status/1946061455482048761">commented Ashoka Jegroo</a>, a journalist who writes for Common Dreams. "Now, with the help of this app, that relationship is even clearer and even more direct. A great reminder that the police aren't here to keep you safe!"
A <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/protector-app-hires-officers-misconduct_n_67db3f49e4b03fb9aaaa6281">deep dive by </a><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/protector-app-hires-officers-misconduct_n_67db3f49e4b03fb9aaaa6281">HuffPost</a> on Protector found that a number of police officers working for the company had been previously disciplined by the LAPD or are embroiled in ongoing civil litigation over use of excessive force.
Zooming out, Protector and its sister app are functionally ways to monetize and stratify access to safety and security — a perk that, in an <a href="https://lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk15026/files/2025-02/58-3_Dhaliwal.pdf">ideal world</a>, would be afforded to everybody by tax dollars.
In reality, police have long been criticized as primarily guardians of property, something which goes back to the foundations of policing, a system with deep roots in <a href="https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/origins-modern-day-policing">US chattel slavery</a>. This was made clear in a <a href="https://prospect.org/justice/police-have-no-duty-to-protect-the-public/">2022 Supreme Court ruling</a>, which found — staggeringly — that police are under no actual obligation to protect the public.
Mohammad Tajsar, a senior attorney with the ACLU of Southern California told HuffPost that at their core, these apps are an attempt to "gamify warfare."
"It's the perfect Silicon Valley gimmick," he told the site. "Take a fake problem — rising crime — offer a fake solution that you only find in video games, dress up your own squad of goons and roll it out to a crowd of internet-brained pseudo wealthy people who want this kind of dystopian future."
More on startups: <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-throne-toilet">New Device Mounts to Your Toilet to Analyze Your Turds Using the Power of AI</a>

Got Your Six

"It’s the perfect Silicon Valley gimmick."

Dystopian Startup Lets the Wealthy Rent Off Duty Cops on Demand

Chinese researchers say they've devised a new way to extract water from lunar soil and convert it into fuel.
As detailed in a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542435125001874">new paper</a> published today in the journal Joule, the team found that their proposed "photothermal strategy" — essentially converting light into heat — could effectively convert carbon dioxide from extracted water into carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and oxygen gas, a "potential route for sustaining human life on the Moon and enabling long-term extraterrestrial exploration."
"The sustainable utilization of local resources is essential for long-term human survival on the Moon and beyond," the researchers write, pointing out that bringing water from Earth is cost-prohibitive at roughly $83,000 per gallon.
"We never fully imagined the 'magic' that the lunar soil possessed," said Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen professor and coauthor Lu Wang in a <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1090785?">statement</a>.
"The biggest surprise for us was the tangible success of this integrated approach," he added. "The one-step integration of lunar H2O extraction and photothermal CO2 catalysis could enhance energy utilization efficiency and decrease the cost and complexity of infrastructure development."
While plenty of questions remain about our future efforts to harness local resources on the surface of the Moon, it's a glimmer of hope that humanity could indeed establish a more permanent and potentially sustainable presence there.
For their research, the team focused on simplifying existing proposals for how to extract water from lunar regolith, which tend to be energy-intensive and stop short of breaking the water down into its usable elements.
The researchers also propose using the extracted water to turn carbon dioxide exhaled by astronauts into carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas, which could be used to make fuels.
The team tested their photothermal approach on actual Moon samples gathered during China's Chang'E-5 mission, which launched in November 2020, and collected samples from the northwest of the Moon's near side before returning to Earth.
While their lab-based experiments turned out to be a success, the actual lunar surface will likely prove a far more challenging place to extract and convert lunar water. As the paper points out, radiation, low gravity, and extreme temperature fluctuations could complicate matters significantly.
However, the advancements highlight how far the Chinese space program has come in a matter of years. A mere two decades ago, China was a distant underdog in the international space race. But now that the country is launching its own astronauts to space while the Trump administration is effectively <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-budget-nasa-horrifying">looking to eviscerate NASA</a> when it comes to space science, China could stand a chance to surpass the US in its plans to build a Moon base <a href="https://www.space.com/china-moon-base-south-pole-2035">by 2035</a>.
More on extracting lunar water: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/chinese-scientists-water-lunar-soil">Chinese Scientists Extract Water From Lunar Soil</a>

Ripe for the Taking

"We never fully imagined the ‘magic’ that the lunar soil possessed."

Chinese Scientists Invent System for Extracting Oxygen, Water and Rocket Fuel From Moon Dust

While leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, billionaire Elon Musk oversaw massive spending cuts that have rattled the scientific community to its core.
He stood unblinkingly by the side of president Donald Trump, a climate change denier who has been carrying out a ruthlessly anti-science agenda after <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/07/elon-musk-transformation-trump-climate">championing environmentalism for years</a>.
And while the unlikely pair no longer see eye to eye following a <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-threatens-doge-musk">chaotic falling out</a>, the damage has already been done. Musk has been enormously harmful to science — something that researchers aren't likely to forget any time soon.
As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jul/17/royal-society-elon-musk-resign-science-fellowship-tesla">The Guardian reports</a>, the Royal Society, the UK's national scientific academy and the oldest institution of its kind in the world, has called for Musk to resign his fellowship. The news comes after the mercurial CEO was elected a fellow of the academy in 2018 for his contributions to the electric vehicle and space industries.
Seven years later, Musk's reputation on the world stage has taken an <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-tesla-spacex-reputation-sentiment">absolute beating</a>. The billionaire's deranged embrace of far-right extremist ideologies has left a bitter taste in people's mouths, going as far as to <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-employees-musk-fears">alienate the investors</a> of his many businesses.
He's alienated Democrats and Republicans alike. Even leaders in the AI industry have been <a href="https://futurism.com/openai-anthropic-xai-grok-scandal">disgusted</a> by his AI chatbot, which recently <a href="https://futurism.com/grok-mocks-developers-racist-posts">started calling itself "MechaHitler</a>" while spewing racist and antisemitic vitriol.
His ruthless gutting of government agency budgets, while at the helm of DOGE, has also rattled the scientific community.
The Trump administration's actions against the institutions of science have been nothing short of catastrophic. According to a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00938-y">Nature poll</a> earlier this year, the <a href="https://futurism.com/majority-scientists-considering-fleeing-america">vast majority of scientists</a> said they're now considering leaving the United States given the greatly diminished role of research and evaporating funding.
Experts are warning Trump's outright anti-science agenda could have devastating knock-on effects for anybody looking to make a career in the sciences.
Even NASA, which allowed Musk's SpaceX to both survive and thrive, is <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-budget-nasa-horrifying">standing at the edge of a precipice</a>, with the Trump administration planning to deal its science directorate a <a href="https://futurism.com/democrats-republicans-unite-effort-save-nasa">devastating blow</a>.
His cabinet members have made a mockery of the scientific community, with anti-vaccine crackpot Robert Kennedy Jr. bungling public health policy amidst the <a href="https://publichealth.jhu.edu/ivac/2025/us-measles-cases-hit-highest-level-since-declared-eliminated-in-2000">largest measles outbreak</a> in the US since it declared the preventable disease eliminated in 2000. Newly elected leaders at the Energy Department are known for rejecting an overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change, as the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/climate/trump-climate-energy-department.html">New York Times reported</a> earlier this month. Trump's health officials are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025/07/16/nih-research-viruses-trump-administration/">still furthering contested conspiracy theories</a> that the COVID-19 pandemic was caused by a lab leak in China.
In short, that kind of blatantly anti-science agenda flies in the face of the Royal Society's role of promoting science and fostering international cooperation.
In an email sent to the fellowship, revealed this week by The Guardian, president-elect Sir Paul Nurse said that he had warned Musk in March of the "extensive damage" Trump had inflicted on science, asking the entrepreneur to "step in and reverse this tragedy."
Of course, that's not what happened — far from it. In May, Nurse followed up, asking that he consider resigning his fellowship.
Musk never bothered replying until Nurse and current president Sir Adrian Smith warned him the correspondence would be publicized to the fellowship.
However, despite "sharp and opposing" differences of views, Musk "remains a fellow of the Royal Society," as a spokesperson told The Guardian.
The humiliating warning highlights just how far Musk has fallen from once being seen as a pioneer in the electrification of cars and developing reusable rockets that could allow humanity to build out a sustainable presence in space.
But now that's ancient history. Musk has sent a clear message to the scientific community: as always, he's slamming the door behind him.
More on Musk: <a href="https://futurism.com/openai-anthropic-xai-grok-scandal">OpenAI and Anthropic Are Horrified by Elon Musk's "Reckless" and "Completely Irresponsible" Grok Scandal</a>

Enabling Anti-Science Bigotry

Serves him right.

Elon Musk Humiliated by Top Scientific Organization

A rock from Mars that traveled tens if not hundreds of millions of miles before improbably landing on our planet's surface has found its final resting place: the private collection of some secretive plutocrat, whose identity has not been revealed to us members of the nosy public. 
At roughly 54 pounds, NWA 16788, as it's been dubbed, is by far the largest known rock we have from the Red Planet — the <a href="https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?code=74127">runner up in the category</a> is barely half that weight — and is one of the only 400 meteorites confirmed to be of Martian origin ever found, according to a <a href="https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?sea=&amp;sfor=names&amp;stype=contains&amp;lrec=50&amp;categ=Martian+meteorites&amp;srt=">database</a> maintained by the Meteoritical Society. That such a large portion survived a crash landing on Earth makes it an incredibly valuable object to scientists.
On Wednesday, the rock was bought at an auction at Sotheby's in New York for $5.3 million. It's now the most expensive meteorite ever sold, according to the luxury items broker.
"You get close to it, you can feel like you're looking at the planet," Cassandra Hatton, vice chairman for science and natural history at Sotheby's, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2025/07/16/mars-meteorite-record-sale-sothebys-auction/">told the Washington Post</a>. "This really looks like a piece of Mars, whereas pretty much every other Martian meteorite you see is going to just kind of look like a little rock."
Discovered in November 2023 by a meteorite hunter scouring a remote region of Niger, an analysis determined that NWA 16788 was likely catapulted into space by another, much larger meteor smashing into Mars, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/16/science/mars-rock-auction-million-sold#openweb-convo">according to CNN</a>. The Martian surface is pockmarked with <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/a-single-asteroid-caused-two-billion-craters-on-mars-scientists-claim">countless scars</a> documenting encounters like these.
Hatton declined to reveal who the buyer of the huge rock was. While we can't say for certain what will happen to it, or what the anonymous buyer's intentions are, some scientists aren't happy with the idea of this ultra-rare space rock being locked away, or even being put up for sale in the first place.
"It would be a shame if it disappeared into the vault of an oligarch. It belongs in a museum, where it can be studied, and where it can be enjoyed by children and families and the public at large," Steve Brusatte, a professor of paleontology and evolution at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/16/science/mars-rock-auction-million-sold#openweb-convo">told </a>CNN before the rock was sold.
Meteorites "carry information about the history of the solar system that cannot be learned any other way," Paul Asimow, professor of geology and geochemistry at the California Institute of Technology, told WaPo.
More streetwise scientists argue, however, that this is what it takes to keep the lights on, so to speak.
"Ultimately, if there was no market for searching, collecting and selling meteorites, we would not have anywhere near as many in our collections — and this drives the science!" Julia Cartwright, a planetary scientist at the University of Leicester in England, told CNN.
For scientists whining about losing access to this massive Mars slab, Hatton recommends they consult with the literal crumb of evidence that's been graciously left behind for them to examine, preserved at the Purple Mountain Observatory in China.
"A sample has been taken and analyzed and published in the meteoritical bulletin, so they could go and get that," Hatton <a href="https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/the-largest-mars-meteorite-on-earth-has-sold-for-usd4-3-million">told Space.com</a>.
More on Mars: <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-shut-down-spacecraft-orbiting-mars">Trump Wants to Shut Down Several Perfectly Good Spacecraft Orbiting Mars for No Reason</a>

Rock and Fold

"It would be a shame if it disappeared into the vault of an oligarch."

Scientists Saddened as World's Largest Mars Rock Is Sold at Auction

<h2>Measuring Contest</h2>
Tesla CEO Elon Musk's infatuation with <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-tweets-toilet">low-brow humor</a> and <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-officials-calling-musk-crazy-uncle-elon">dad jokes</a> — including <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/jewish-leaders-elon-musk-holocaust-jokes">horrendously inappropriate gags about the Holocaust</a> — is a pretty well-known thing.
Earlier this week, for instance, the billionaire's EV firm <a href="https://x.com/robotaxi/status/1944717529538015677">posted a picture</a> of the expanded service area of its robotaxi service, which <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-robotaxi-geofence-shape">firmly resembled the shape of male genitalia</a>.
"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," the company wrote in a tongue-in-cheek caption.
"<a class="underline hover:text-futurism hover:no-underline transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1944688226037325868">Bigger, longer, and uncut</a>," Musk added, childishly and redundantly.
Tesla's service area appeared to be slightly larger than its fiercest competitor's, Alphabet's Waymo, which also runs an autonomous ridehailing service in the city.
But Waymo didn't rest on its laurels. On Thursday, the company countered Musk's dick joke expansion by <a href="https://x.com/Waymo/status/1945861048134701167">unveiling its own, even bigger map</a> — covering some 90 square miles of the Texas city, a major step up from just 37 square miles.
While the two companies do appear to be in a bizarre "service area" measuring contest, Waymo didn't go with a phallic shape, opting instead for a far more logical boundary, determined by major thoroughfares.
Besides the juvenile humor, Waymo's counterattack highlights growing competition in an industry that hasn't seen much of it to date. Waymo has established itself as the robotaxi service to beat, with little in the way of other companies coming for its bottom line. General Motors' robotaxi company, Cruise, <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/failed-robotaxi-company-laying-off-workforce">crashed and burned last year</a>, imploding into an extremely costly footnote for the US carmaker.
<h2>Big Fleet</h2>
It remains to be seen how Waymo or Tesla will fare — or if there even is a lucrative future for taxis that drive themselves. The former's fleet has already caused plenty of mayhem on public streets in several US cities, while the latter's June launch has already been mired in <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-problem-elon-musk-image">technical issues</a> and <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-robotaxi-jerks-wheel">terrifying close calls</a>.
Despite the growing pains, Waymo is firmly in the front seat when it comes to the scale of its operation. The company <a href="https://www.inc.com/reuters/waymo-just-crossed-100-million-miles-of-driverless-rides-meanwhile-tesla-has-started-small/91213739">boasted earlier this week</a> that it's completed 100 million miles of fully autonomous driving. Its fleet is comprised of over 1,500 vehicles across five major urban areas across the country.
Tesla, on the other hand, has yet to get on the leaderboard. Its fleet of "<a href="https://insideevs.com/news/760242/tesla-robotaxi-launch-june-10-cars-musk/">ten to 12</a>" robotaxis, which can only be hailed by a handpicked number of influencers, is still being accompanied by human safety drivers sitting in the passenger seat.
More on robotaxis: <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-problem-elon-musk-image">The Reason Tesla Is Failing Is That Elon Musk Is an Extremely Unlikeable Person</a>