Anyone who makes a habit of losing their keys has a new excuse: you didn't forget — your memory just moved.
That's courtesy of neuroscientists at Northwestern University, who recently <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09245-y.epdf?sharing_token=PBjcwXEuIexDPTaSH1WXmNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0OT9_NoKucHQyNJ3nZoZFD8uvY8P33YrT0KICqJsYkZE3cADDKzXKzm3VnwaGkc4ilTi_WTcUtXMtD-bEIgc-ytHRHbpEgjjzGerW1J0zc0_9kZADyN-JCc0awfTNWueMQw3P5sNpXrNjn48A4NvrfADoP9SCQwak7F_iEdj-D95MbeX9fpCKU-Me5MHHGprW8%3D&amp;tracking_referrer=www.livescience.com">published a study</a> looking into the brain patterns of mice.
The new research explores how the hippocampus — a crucial part of the brain for spatial memory — changes over time. The paper sheds new light on a phenomenon first uncovered in 2013, when a study <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.3329">in the journal </a><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.3329">Nature Neuroscience</a> found that neurons in the hippocampus can change their patterns over time — that memories related to place, in a meta twist, are literally moving around in the brain.
To conduct the experiment, mice were set on a treadmill flanked by screens on all sides. The screens showed the innards of a maze, which the mice were able to explore based on how they navigated the treadmill. A familiar scent was likewise pumped in, while white noise was played in the background.
Though the mice were subjected to a number of cardio sessions over several days, the layout of the maze, the scent, and the noise for the control group remained the same throughout.
Using high-tech imaging devices to track brain activity in real-time, the Northwestern researchers observed changes in the mouse's brains as they navigated the virtual environment.
Interestingly, the researchers found that this recently-uncovered neuron-shifting phenomenon, termed "<a href="https://www.thetransmitter.org/learning/what-drifting-representations-reveal-about-the-brain/">representation drift</a>," occurred regardless of changes to the mouse's environment.
The results would seem to dispel the idea that representation drift has mostly to do with a mouse's surroundings — the exact opposite hypothesis the researchers went in with.
"I was sure we were going to reduce this representational drift," Daniel Dombeck, the lead author of the study <a href="https://www.livescience.com/health/memory/memories-arent-static-in-the-brain-they-drift-over-time">told Live Science</a>. "I was sure that the memory was going to look more stable over days — and that's not what we found."
Instead, the study authors hypothesize, representation drift could just be the brain's way of sorting new but familiar information as it collects it — like a return visit to your favorite restaurant.
Still, there are some limitations, and as is usually the case, and further research is needed to expand on this fascinating finding. For one thing, these are mice, and though both mice and humans are mammals, human brains are vastly larger and more sophisticated in ways both large and small. (That said, the study's authors note that representational drift has been recorded across many parts of the brains of many species, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-40144-w">including humans</a>.)
Another notoriously difficult factor to control for is scent, as the study notes that "mouse behavior can be strongly affected by even small changes in the sensory environment."
Going into it, the team reasoned that "the olfactory environment —particularly surface odors, which are difficult to clean, could change over days and be detected by the mice — was a significant uncontrolled sensory feature in previous mouse... representational drift studies."
Nonetheless, the team found that their observed drift rate was comparable regardless of whether odor was controlled, and even when it was purposefully made to fluctuate over several days. In essence, they write, "only sensory modalities with behavioral relevance have a strong influence on the cognitive map."
It's currently unclear how this kind of internal neuron moving affects our understanding of memory — but it's certainly a study to remember.
More on neuroscience: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/microplastics-brain-mental-health">The Microplastics in Your Brain May Be Causing Mental Health Issues</a>

Hippo Camping

Neuroscience/Brain Science

"I was sure that the memory was going to look more stable over days — and that's not what we found."

Scientists Find Evidence That Memories in Brain Are Physically Moving Around

Children who are provided with access to smartphones before the age of 13 are, per a jarring new study, far more likely to suffer severe mental health problems down the line.
Published <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19452829.2025.2518313">in the </a><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19452829.2025.2518313">Journal of Human Development and Capabilities</a>, this new paper out of a neuroscience startup called Sapien Labs found that among current young adults in Generation Z, the first generation to grow up with smartphones, the younger that use of the gadgets began, the worse the mental health outcomes were.
Using longitudinal data from the <a href="https://sapienlabs.org/global-mind-project/">Global Mind Project</a>, a massive mental health database assembled by Sapien, a team led by the company's cofounder and chief scientist Tara Thiagarajan found that among the more than 100,000 18-to-24-year-olds whose outcomes they tracked, those who got phones when they were younger experienced more suicidal ideation, aggression, reality detachment, and hallucinations as they aged.
In that same cohort, girls reported lower self-image, self-worth, confidence, and emotional resilience, and boys were less calm, stable, and empathetic as compared to their counterparts who got their first smartphones when they were above the age of 13.
That age in particular matters because, as Thiagaran and advocacy groups like <a href="https://6abc.com/post/families-join-wait-8th-movement-delay-smartphone-use/16590746/">Wait Until 8th</a> insist, kids aren't neurologically or developmentally ready to be exposed to social media on personal devices until they're 13.
"This calls for urgent action limiting access of children under 13 to smartphones as well as more nuanced regulation on the digital environment young people are exposed to," the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/21/health/smartphones-not-safe-preteens-wellness">study leader told CNN</a>.
As Thiagaran explained in a <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1091598">press release</a>, there are lots of factors that lead to Sapien's new results, including "social media access, cyberbullying, disrupted sleep, and poor family relationships." Those factors appear to lead to adult mental health symptoms that stray from traditional diagnostics, she said, and "can be missed by studies using standard screeners."
Along with advising parents to not give their kids smartphones until at least the age of 13, Thiagaran and her team are boldly calling on global policymakers to "adopt a precautionary approach, similar to regulations on alcohol and tobacco, by restricting smartphone access for under 13s, mandating digital literacy education, and enforcing corporate accountability."
We've already seen the latter when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the Senate in early 2024 to <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/zuckerberg-apologizes-families-senate">apologize to the families</a> of children harmed by his social network — though his statements <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/feb/01/parents-tech-ceos-us-senate-hearing">left much to be desired</a>.
Beyond calls to action, this study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that smartphones aren't just nebulously "bad" for children, as many a Luddite will bemoan, but that they can have real and severe mental health consequences for them.
More on kids and tech: <a href="https://futurism.com/lonely-children-ai-chatbots">Vast Numbers of Lonely Kids Are Using AI as Substitute Friends</a>

Phone Home

Studies

This is quite alarming. 

A New Paper Just Found Something Horrifying About Kids Who Get Phones Early in Life

<h2>Pink Slip Pride</h2>
Workforce reductions are no longer an admission that companies are struggling; instead, CEOs are using them to boast about their investments in AI.
As the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/layoff-business-strategy-reduce-staff-11796d66">Wall Street Journal reports</a>, CEOs are now bragging about shrinking their companies' staff, highlighting a cooling job market and an unwavering commitment to automation at all costs.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg told investors last week that the telecom had been "very, very good" on headcount, meaning that "it's going down all the time," as quoted by the WSJ.
"Being honest about cost and head count isn’t just allowed — it’s rewarded," Sloane &amp; Co strategic advisor Zack Mukewa told the newspaper, noting that changes in how we view headcount reductions have become a "powerful kind of reframing device."
Put simply, firing human workers has turned into a perverse point of pride among the C-suite class, a worrying new reality as executives continue to <a href="https://futurism.com/microsoft-boss-ai-advice">lay off thousands of workers</a> while simultaneously making deep investments in AI tech.
<h2>Super Pumped</h2>
Worse yet, the industry has shown few signs of fighting back.
"I’m worried it’s happening in plain sight with no blowback, no pushback, and it’s going to become the norm," Brookings Institution senior fellow Molly Kinder told the WSJ. "I don’t think that’s good news for the American worker."
The brash and brutally honest tone of executives bragging about headcount reductions is reaching astonishing levels.
"CEOs are extremely excited about the opportunities that AI brings," AI advisor Elijah Clark <a href="https://gizmodo.com/the-end-of-work-as-we-know-it-2000635294">told Gizmodo</a> recently. "As a CEO myself, I can tell you, I'm extremely excited about it. I've laid off employees myself because of AI."
"AI doesn't go on strike. It doesn't ask for a pay raise," he added. "These things that you don't have to deal with as a CEO."
Others are taking on a slightly more optimistic tone, predicting that AI tech could lead to the creation of new types of jobs.
"Some jobs will be lost," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/13/business/ai-huang-nviida-technology-manufacturing">told CNN</a> last month. "Many jobs will be created and what I hope is that the productivity gains that we see in all the industries will lift society."
More on AI automation: <a href="https://futurism.com/microsoft-list-jobs-replaced-ai">Microsoft Releases List of Jobs Most and Least Likely to Be Replaced by AI</a>

Revolving Door

"I don’t think that’s good news for the American worker."

CEOs Are Publicly Boasting About Reducing Their Workforces With AI

Since the rise of commercial chemical manufacturing in the 1940s, the environment has been plagued by a growing concentration of man-made substances like <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10675727/">microplastics</a>, <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6225882/">PCBs</a>, and <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10573430/">bisphenols</a>.
There's even a new one rising to prominence: the chemical compound trifluoroacetic acid, or TFA.
New <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02259-6">reporting by </a><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02259-6">Nature</a> detailed the troubling rise of TFA and its inexorable creep into every corner of the natural world. TFA comes mostly from synthetic petrochemicals found in pesticides and landfills, where they break down from PFAS, commonly known as <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/chemicals-product-safety/per-polyfluoroalkyl-substances.html">forever chemicals</a> because they can take hundreds or even thousands of years to degrade on their own.
As a tiny and highly soluble chemical, TFA is incredibly agile, following the water cycle with alarming ease. A <a href="https://www.pan-europe.info/sites/pan-europe.info/files/public/resources/reports/Report_TFA_The%20Forever%20Chemical%20%20in%20the%20Water%20We%20Drink.pdf">recent study</a> of drinking water across 11 European countries detected TFA in 94 percent of tap water samples, and in 12 of 19 bottled waters.
TFA levels have exploded throughout the natural world in recent decades, with dramatic increases recorded across <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.2c00164">tree species in Germany</a>, the deep sea waters of the <a href="https://www.fluorocarbons.org/news/3-uba-report-analysis-of-current-seawater-samples-for-trifluoroacetic-acid/">Atlantic ocean</a>, the Swiss <a href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-2861/egusphere-2025-2861.pdf">mountain saddle of Jungfraujoch</a>, and even <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2020GL087535">ice cores in the Arctic</a>.
It's even being found in most of the world's <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/16/detroit-tfa-forever-chemical">rainwater</a>, according to Nature. However, terrestrial TFA doesn't evaporate with water — meaning the typical industrial polluters associated with PFAS aren't necessarily to blame for this type of acid rain. Instead, TFA typically joins with gaseous water molecules through <a href="https://www.netregs.org.uk/environmental-topics/air-pollution/fluorinated-gases-f-gases/what-are-fluorinated-gases/">fluorinated gases</a>, a byproduct of refrigerants, air conditioners and fire extinguishers.
Though the full effects of TFA on human health aren't well established, <a href="https://chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxiv/article-details/66717b9a01103d79c57ccb54">animal studies</a> have shown the chemical to have harmful impacts on embryos and blood-filtering organs like the liver.
Nature notes that, though researchers have been concerned with TFA levels since the late 1980s, some petrochemical industry researchers have turned the chemical byproduct into a scientific debate, arguing that TFA shouldn't be <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/youve-probably-never-heard-of-this-forever-chemical-scientists-say-its-everywhere/">classified as a PFAS</a> at all. (The US <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/07/13/tfa-forever-chemical-pfas/">Environmental Protection Agency</a> currently classifies TFA as a non-PFAS.)
Specifically, they say the <a href="https://www.healthandenvironment.org/latest-research/blog/the-global-threat-of-trifluoroacetic-acid-(tfa)">consequences of TFA exposure</a> are overblown, and point to massive amounts of it in the ocean water as evidence that the planet is coping just fine with the human-made chemical. Therefore, the argument goes, it's not worth fretting over the dramatic influx of TFA into ecosystems throughout the globe.
This attitude runs all the way to the top of European governments, with research groups convened by the United Nations Environment Programme arguing that synthetic TFA levels pose a "<a href="https://ozone.unep.org/system/files/documents/EEAP-2022-Assessment-Report-May2023.pdf">minimal risk</a>," allowing governing bodies like the <a href="https://www.ftm.eu/articles/pollution-crisis-threatens-europe-lobbyists-sway-brussels?share=7hwEWat%2BdQV5r1oy9KpxaQzmj7jRDsopKnAPDNTcRcCqAvfK1eAbjlUHyq9bHn4%3D">European Commission</a> to brush aside TFA concerns and delay regulation. That's a huge boon to multinational corporations like <a href="https://www.toxicdocs.org/d/KJBDz7Zwenp1ZDLY3r45N3eG6">Honeywell</a>, which aren't exactly shy about their take on the issue.
However loud — and <a href="https://www.pan-europe.info/blog/bayer-and-basf-business-model-pollutes-our-drinking-water">well-connected</a> — the naysayers are, many in the scientific community disagree. A <a href="https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/1e6d35c1-e51d-4d1a-aa0f-5ad9688a226d/content">2021 study</a> by a team of University chemists in Canada, for example, found no "sufficient evidence that TFA occurs naturally," declaring it a myth that has been accepted without scrutiny.
The researchers don't mince words, asserting that "natural TFA should not be invoked in any discussions about the production and/or regulation of TFA."
TFA's own ancestry shows us the danger of taking the petrochemical industry at its word. Though companies like 3M and DuPont have been churning out PFAS since the 1940s, evidence of its harms didn't make it into the scientific record until the late 1990s — despite <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10237242/">compelling evidence</a> that the petrochemical industry knew PFAS was "highly toxic" since at least 1970.
By then, it was too late. In 2001, a <a href="https://grondrecht.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/PFAS_2001-Giesy-Kannan-report.pdf">widely influential study</a> on the proliferation of PFAS found traces of the forever chemicals had spread throughout North America, Europe, and the Arctic, through the tissue of species like bald eagles, polar bears, mink, and seals.
Thanks to decades of corporate inaction, cancer- and disease-causing PFAS can be found in measurable amounts in virtually every person and animal on the planet. Given their track record on PFAS, the chemical industry's PR work on TFA feels right as rain. 
More on chemicals: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/trump-children-toxic-chemicals">Trump Admin Cancels Programs to Protect Children From Toxic Chemicals</a>

Singin' in the Rain

And the best part: it's here to stay.

Almost All Rain Drops Contain the Same Weird Chemical

Tesla just got handed one of its biggest legal blows yet — one that could have seismic implications for its future operations.
On Friday, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/business/tesla-autopilot-federal-trial-verdict.html">Miami jury ruled</a> that the Elon Musk-owned automaker's Autopilot driver assistance software was partially at fault for a <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-autopilot-tracking">horrendous collision</a> that killed a 22-year-old woman in 2019 and severely injured her boyfriend.
In total, the jury ordered Tesla to pay $329 million to the surviving family of the victims, Naibel Benavides and Dillon Angulo, including $200 million in punitive damages and $129 million in compensatory damages.
It was not considered to be primarily at fault: the driver of the Tesla Model S involved in the crash, George McGee, was found to bear 66 percent of the blame for the crash. Tesla shoulders the remaining 33 percent.
"Tesla designed Autopilot only for controlled access highways yet deliberately chose not to restrict drivers from using it elsewhere, alongside Elon Musk telling the world Autopilot drove better than humans," Brett Schreiber, counsel for the plaintiffs, said in statement on Friday, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/01/tesla-must-pay-329-million-in-damages-in-fatal-autopilot-case.html">as quoted by </a><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/01/tesla-must-pay-329-million-in-damages-in-fatal-autopilot-case.html">CNBC</a>. "Tesla's lies turned our roads into test tracks for their fundamentally flawed technology, putting everyday Americans like Naibel Benavides and Dillon Angulo in harm's way."
The tragic incident took place while McGee was driving his Tesla while Enhanced Autopilot was enabled. When he bent down to pick up his phone after dropping it, the Model S careened through an intersection at nearly 60 miles per hour and smashed into a parked SUV, which Benavides and Angulo were standing behind. Benavides died at the scene, and Angulo survived with horrific injuries.
While on the witness stand, McGee said he believed Autopilot would protect him and brake on its own to prevent a crash. Schreiber accused Tesla of running a "misinformation campaign" that vastly overstated Autopilot's capabilities, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/business/tesla-autopilot-federal-trial-verdict.html">per the New York Times</a>.
"I feel like we were experimented on," Angulo <a href="https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/trial-against-tesla-begins-in-deadly-2019-crash-in-key-largo-involving-autopilot-feature/3657076/">told NBC6 South Florida</a> in 2023, "and this technology was out on the road before it was safe."
The ruling could drastically impact Tesla's autonomous vehicle efforts — which it's been increasingly leaning into as its sales falter — and perhaps reshape the self-driving landscape at large. These are enormous damages, and the prospect of being on the hook anytime the experimental software kills or injures a bystander could dampen investor enthusiasm for the tech. 
It also comes at a critical moment for Tesla, which launched a limited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, in June, and expanded its driverless fleet this week to San Francisco. Musk is hoping that a pivot to robotaxis could <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/29/business/elon-musk-tesla-robotaxi.html">rake in the company trillions of dollars</a>. Prior to the launch, he estimated that Tesla could have a million robotaxis on American roads by the end of 2026. In light of the ruling, that's a lot expensive legal liabilities waiting to happen.
"This will open the floodgates," Miguel Custodio, a car crash lawyer not involved in the lawsuit, <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/08/01/business/elon-musks-tesla-ordered-to-pay-329m-in-autopilot-crash-case/">told the Associated Press</a> after the ruling. "It will embolden a lot of people to come to court."
This may have been a long time coming for Tesla. Its self-driving software — which are actually driver assistance features, regardless of their overconfident brand names — have been involved in multiple <a href="https://futurism.com/footage-tesla-grandma">deadly crashes</a>. The automaker has frequently been criticized for exaggerating how autonomously its cars can operate and has been <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/government-investigating-tesla-autopilot">repeatedly</a> <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/18/teslas-full-self-driving-software-under-investigation-by-federal-safety-regulator/">investigated</a> by federal regulators and sued by state authorities. 
Tesla says it will be appealing the decision.
"Today's verdict is wrong and only works to set back automotive safety and jeopardize Tesla's and the entire industry's efforts to develop and implement life-saving technology," the company said in a statement.
More on Tesla: <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-robotaxis-human-drivers-bay-area">Tesla Rolling Out Robotaxis With Human Drivers in the Driver's Seat, Defeating the Purpose of a Robotaxi</a>

Twisted Metal

This is seismic.

"This Will Open the Floodgates": Tesla In Trouble as Jury Orders It to Pay $329 Million After Autopilot Death

President Donald Trump's new European tariffs may spell bad news for Novo Nordisk, maker of Ozempic and Wegovy.
As <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/07/29/drug-prices-tariffs-eu-trump">Axios reports</a>, the 15 percent tariffs he's levying on goods imported into the United States from the European Union are likely to drive up already-expensive drug prices for the <a href="https://qz.com/ozempic-glp-1s-non-diabetic-use-triples-study-1851774076">blockbuster weight loss jabs</a>, which can already <a href="https://www.novocare.com/obesity/products/wegovy/let-us-help/explaining-list-price.html">cost more than $1,300</a> per month's supply without insurance.
Slated to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-effect-05bc12428163b9f28ef80f952cf9dafd">go into effect on August 7</a>, this new agreement doesn't just target pharmaceuticals. Still, in scary letters <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-31/trump-demands-pharma-companies-slash-us-drug-prices-in-letter">sent to drugmakers</a> on both sides of the pond, the American president also threatened to levy higher taxes on "freeloading" pharma companies if they don't proactively cut a deal with the White House to lower their drug prices.
With that 60-day deadline giving Novo time to bend the knee, it will be a few months before we know how much more expensive its popular injectables might become. Still, the Ozempic manufacturer's stock has already suffered from the tariff news — and with its <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/20/novo-nordisk-shares-plunge-22percent-after-cagrisema-obesity-drug-trial-results.html">months-long</a> downward value trajectory, the company can't really afford to lose any more money.
The Danish drugmaker's stock fell below $50 per share in the wake of the EU trade deal announcement earlier in the week. As <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/novo-nordisk-shares-dip-further-wegovy-gains-nearly-erased-2025-08-01/">Reuters notes</a>, Novo is now ever closer to erasing the gains it got from Wegovy, the weight loss-specific version of the drug, that saw share prices soar up to nearly $150 per share last summer.
While the new EU tariffs and the threat of more to come are already hurting Novo's bottom line, the long-running American pharma company Eli Lilly, which makes competitor injectables Mounjaro and Zepbound, is faring much better despite also being <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/31/trump-drug-prices-eli-lilly.html">targeted by Trump</a>.
Though it experienced a small share value dropoff in the wake of the news, reflecting the financial anxiety of the tariff news across industries, Lilly is still beating out Novo in the court of public opinion thanks to headlines about its reportedly <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/lilly-set-strong-quarter-after-novo-profit-warning-2025-07-29/">strong second-quarter earnings</a> and a new study suggesting <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/31/eli-lillys-mounjaro-shows-similar-heart-health-benefits-as-trulicity.html">Mounjaro may have protective heart health benefits</a>.
Though both companies are more than 100 years old and hold diverse medication portfolios outside of their buzzy weight loss jabs, Lilly seems far more likely to weather this latest financial storm on the sheer credential of being American in a protectionist economy. Despite Ozempic having become a Xerox-style catch-all for GLP-1s writ large, Novo nevertheless looks poised to take the brunt of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/03/trumps-idiotic-and-flawed-tariff-calculations-stun-economists">Trump's foolhardy tariffs</a>.
More on Ozempic's finances: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/ozempic-inventor-generic-fee">Something Comically Bad Just Happened to the Inventor of Ozempic</a>

Stock Weight Loss

Things just keep getting worse for Novo Nordisk.

A Side Effect of Trump's Tariffs: Making Ozempic Way More Expensive

The world of quantum computing has barged into a new frontier: space.
A tiny quantum computer housed in a satellite is now in orbit around Earth, <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/quantum-computer-space-physics">ScienceNews reports</a>, residing some 330 miles above our planet after being launched aboard a SpaceX rocket last month.
It's a trailblazing experiment intended to test how well these delicate devices can survive the extreme conditions of space, where they could allow satellites to quickly and efficiently perform intense calculations on their own.
The experiment is also a ripe opportunity to put some fundamental physics principles to the test, according to project lead Philip Walter, a physicist at the University of Vienna.
"Being the first here also means we have the duty and privilege to investigate if things operate in the way as we'd be used to on the ground," Walther told ScienceNews.
Built in just eleven days, the idea behind the device was to "shrink a whole quantum laboratory down to the size of a satellite payload," Walter said in a <a href="https://rudolphina.univie.ac.at/en/quantum-computer-from-vienna-for-outer-space">statement</a> before the launch. It's safe to say that they delivered on that premise. At a size befitting its quantum ambitions, the finished device is less than a gallon in volume, weighs just 20 pounds and some change, and will on average use only 10 watts of power, and no more than 30.
The potential — and we stress potential — advantage of using a quantum computer in space is that it can perform "edge computing," or process data directly on the satellite. Otherwise, that data needs to be beamed down to Earth, put through calculations on a ground-based computer, and sent back up, which expends extra time and energy. 
Most importantly, they can theoretically perform specific types of calculations faster than classical computers, making them an enticing option in fields such as machine learning. Or at least, that's what they promise to do eventually. This device in particular is a photonic quantum computer, which uses individual photons — the massless particles that make up light — to represent units of information called qubits. A qubit, unlike a classical, electron-based bit, can be a 1 or 0 at the same time using a spooky quantum property known as superposition.  
As an added bonus, quantum computers have shown that they can potentially be more energy efficient. That's great news for satellite missions, which operate with extremely tight energy budgets. The fuel they launch with is essentially what they work with. 
Quantum computing in space may sound like a no-brainer, then — we've been testing <a href="https://futurism.com/china-just-used-a-quantum-satellite-to-send-data-from-space-to-earth">quantum communications</a> up there for years now — but it's important to remember that it still highly experimental tech with a whole lot unrealized potential and few applications outside of a laboratory. Though there have been <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-announces-quantum-supremacy">pretenders to the throne</a> in the past, no one has yet achieved clear "<a href="https://futurism.com/google-quantum-computer-parallel-universes">quantum supremacy</a>," a point where a quantum computer can perform calculations that a classical one can't.
One of the biggest issues in the field is that a quantum computer typically require a meticulously controlled environment to function, because even the slightest disturbance can cause a qubit to lose its quantum state, and thus, its information. In space, where there's no protective atmosphere, the computer's electronics are at the mercy of extreme temperature swings and blasts of cosmic radiation.
The good news is that Walter's team has confirmed that its hardware is now operational, he told ScienceNews. Its long-term resilience will have to be borne out, but it's an encouraging start.
Once its work is finished, the satellite will make a controlled re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, where it will meet a fiery — but safe — end. Until then, it'll hopefully keep itself busy by taking images of Earth and crunching the numbers.
More on quantum computing: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/hackers-quantum-computer-military-encryption">Chinese Hackers Use Quantum Computer to Break Military Grade Encryption</a>

One Small Step

It's the first — but will it last?

Scientists Just Launched the First Quantum Computer Into Space

<h2>Snapped in Half</h2>
Terrifying video footage going viral on social media shows an amusement park ride splitting in half and collapsing in western Saudi Arabia.
The video shows the "360 Big Pendulum" ride failing dramatically, sending passengers crashing to the ground.
As <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/amusement-park-ride-saudi-arabia-collapses-injures-20-124278074">ABC News reports</a>, the incident occurred in the city of Taif, roughly a 2.5-hour drive east of Jeddah. More than 20 people were injured, forcing the entire amusement park, Green Mountain Resort, to close temporarily.
Local officials have since started an investigation. It's unclear how many of the victims had to be hospitalized. According <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2025/08/01/amusement-park-ride-snaps-saudi-arabia/85459257007/">to USA Today</a>, three people were critically injured.
The horrific incident may be hard to watch — but fortunately, according to experts, the chances of being involved in something similar remain extremely low.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A ride in an amusement park in Saudi Arabia snapped mid-air leaving 23 people injured, three in critical condition.
The amusement park in the south-western town of Taif has been closed, and an investigation into the cause of the accident is underway. <a href="https://t.co/IvaTqqBbmy">pic.twitter.com/IvaTqqBbmy</a>
&mdash; Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) <a href="https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1950966029393261010?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<h2>Safety First</h2>
It's exceedingly rare for amusement park rides to fail and cause injuries, at least in the US.
According to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, the "chance of being seriously injured on a fixed-site ride at a US amusement park is 1 in 15.5 million rides taken."
Deaths are even more rare, but not unprecedented. A <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sweden-amusement-park-roller-coaster-accident-229bdc163b968482b21f58bc5bbb85c6">rollercoaster derailment</a> at Sweden's oldest amusement park caused one woman in her 30s to plunge to her death, while two others received serious injuries.
There have also been sporadic <a href="https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/14-crazy-amusement-park-accidents-that-resulted-in-death.htm#pt13">reports</a> of <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/water-park-explodes-sweden">explosions</a>, <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/10/01/us-news/5-year-old-boy-on-disney-world-ride-goes-into-cardiac-arrest/">heart attacks</a>, <a href="https://www.ladbible.com/news/us-news/action-park-water-slides-new-jersey-dangerous-230459-20240607">electrocutions</a>, and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/india-amusement-park-fire-1.7215056">fires</a> on amusement park rides.
So while the graphic footage may have you thinking twice about going back to an amusement park, the chances of something bad happening are still astronomically low.
"Incidences that are extremely severe are very rare in our industry," Jim Seay, president of attractions manufacturer Premier Rides, told <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/experience/america/theme-parks/2023/03/15/how-safe-theme-park-rides/11364244002/">USA Today in 2023</a>, explaining that they draw attention "because it is so rare."
More on theme park disasters: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/water-park-explodes-sweden">Water Park Explodes</a>

Mr. Bones' Wild Ride

Thankfully, nobody died.

Horrifying Video Shows Amusement Park Ride Breaking Apart Mid-Ride

It appears that Tesla's new Los Angeles diner is about as <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/tesla-diner-elon-musk-review-1235394091/">sturdily built as a Cybertruck</a> — which is to say, not at all.
As <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2025/07/28/woman-injured-by-falling-umbrella-tesla-diner-hollywood/">TMZ reports</a>, a pair of young parents are mighty perturbed after a large, pole-bound outdoor patio covering on the Hollywood diner's roof came loose and struck the mother in the head, missing their baby's head by inches.
In an interview with the website, George, the husband and father, said that the massive contraption briefly knocked out his 21-year-old wife Valentina and left her confused after it "brutally" struck her cranium.
After the couple alerted the diner's staff, video footage of the incident was reviewed and they confirmed it to be real, which is apparently how they handle customer service and safety at the "<a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-burger-prices">epic bacon</a>"-peddling restaurant. The Los Angeles Fire Department was also called, and although the woman had slight swelling on her head, she wasn't bleeding and declined to take an ambulance to the hospital.
The couple said they plan to file a lawsuit against Tesla, which did not respond to comment when TMZ reached out.
CEO Elon Musk also doesn't seem to have responded about his restaurant's snafu either, though considering the <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91377388/tesla-diner-goes-viral-for-long-waits-and-mixed-reviews">bad press</a> it's gotten since opening a week ago, that's not all that surprising.
Along with having an infuriatingly expensive and basic food menu and weird customer service, the Tesla Diner has apparently been a nuisance to live near since 2023.
In <a href="https://www.404media.co/living-next-to-tesla-diner-is-absolute-hell-neighbors-say/">interviews with 404 Media</a>, people who lived near the retrofuturist restaurant on Route 66 said they have for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/dining/elon-musk-restaurant-diner.html">nearly two years</a> dealt with everything from massively bright floodlights and illegal middle-of-the-night construction to destructive guests and protesters alike.
Kristin Rose, a former resident of an apartment building next door, told her building's management company back in February 2024 that living next to the Tesla Diner construction felt "like we're at the world's worst rave" due to the bright strobing lights going off at the site all night. She told 404 it was "absolute hell" to be near, which is why she no longer lives in her previously well-located building right by LA's famous Santa Monica Boulevard. (Tesla, <a href="https://electrek.co/2021/04/28/elon-musk-no-new-tesla-pr-department-manipulating-public-opinion/">naturally</a>, didn't respond to 404's request for comment.)
In the end, the Tesla Diner serves as a metaphor not just for the way the company builds, but also for the way it handles issues: by building an eyesore, operating outside legal boundaries, and without any consideration for the people who have to deal with it.
More on Tesla: <a href="https://futurism.com/cybertruck-aging-poorly">The Cybertruck Is Aging Like Fast Fashion on Temu</a>

Drive-By Diner

Tesla is not beating the "sloppiness" allegations.

Tesla Diner Patio Covering Collapses, Smashes Mother on Head and Barely Misses Baby

<h2>Dirty Laundry</h2>
Humanoid robots remain far-fetched — but certain demos are starting to suggest a plausible future in which they could actually become common fixtures in regular households.
In an impressive new demo, humanoid robot company Figure founder Brett Adcock showed off the company's F.02 robot effortlessly loading dirty laundry from a basket into a washing machine.
Adcock can be seen adding items of clothing to the basket as the robot is loading the machine, demonstrating it wasn't part of a pre-scripted demo.
"This is not teleoperated," he <a href="https://x.com/adcock_brett/status/1950685629265879313">explained</a> on X-formerly-Twitter. "We’re running Helix, our in-house neural network."
"First time seeing a humanoid robot actually doing a task in a home," another user <a href="https://x.com/T0M248/status/1950941410540024218">commented</a>. "Makes me realise how close we are to this becoming a reality."
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Here&#39;s a F.02 in my home, using Helix to do my laundry <a href="https://t.co/MXFf1o81EG">pic.twitter.com/MXFf1o81EG</a>
&mdash; Brett Adcock (@adcock_brett) <a href="https://twitter.com/adcock_brett/status/1950685253447913798?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<h2>Laundry Robot Uprising</h2>
Adcock was talking about Figure's "<a href="https://www.figure.ai/news/helix">generalist Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model</a>," called Helix, which allows its humanoid robots to make decisions on the fly based on perception and language inputs.
We've already seen the F.02 robot <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/figure-robot-sort-packages-video">expertly sorting packages</a> at a logistics warehouse, dealing with packages of various sizes, shapes, and hardnesses and manipulating their orientation with impressive deftness.
Last year, the company <a href="https://www.bmwgroup.com/en/news/general/2024/humanoid-robots.html">tested its robots at a BMW car factory</a> in South Carolina, supporting "plant employees performing ergonomically awkward and exhausting tasks to take the strain off them."
Figure is only one player in the <a href="https://futurism.com/humanoid-robots-warehouse-jobs">growing humanoid robot industry</a>. Companies including Tesla, Boston Dynamics, and Agility Robotics are racing to gain a first-mover advantage with a truly practical model.
When their offerings will gain the necessary skills to make them financially feasible remains to be seen. However, Chinese companies, most notably Unitree, are starting to offer humanoid robots for <a href="https://futurism.com/robot-learned-kung-fu">extremely competitive prices</a>, suggesting we could be seeing far more of them at the workplace and even loading our washing machines sooner than you'd think.
More on Figure: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/figure-robot-sort-packages-video">Watching This Humanoid Robot Sort Packages Is Quite Something</a>