These days, robots with <a href="https://futurism.com/robot-keytar-disguise">varying degrees of impressiveness</a> can <a href="https://futurism.com/robot-keytar-disguise">manage all kinds of tasks</a>. But two diminutive humanoids seen boxing with outsize gloves at the recent World AI Conference in Shanghai may take the cake.
In a <a href="https://x.com/hlntnr/status/1950740637944320079">video posted to X</a>, AI security researcher Helen Toner — who was, it should be noted, a <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-board-member-fired-altman">driving force</a> behind the ultimately failed coup against CEO Sam Altman back in November 2023 — showed off the boxing ring prowess of two short-statured robots from the Chinese company Unitree.
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But Unitree did have the demo that impressed me most at the expo—two humanoids boxing. I’m actually not sure how much of this was autonomous vs. remote operated, but at a minimum the balance/stabilization must be automatic, and that’s impressive. Not perfect though (see 0:50) <a href="https://t.co/7llcN9uY86">pic.twitter.com/7llcN9uY86</a>
&mdash; Helen Toner (@hlntnr) <a href="https://twitter.com/hlntnr/status/1950740637944320079?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Known as the "<a href="https://www.unitree.com/boxing">Iron Fist King</a>," this new robot model has indeed made waves since <a href="https://www.popsci.com/technology/humanoid-robots-boxing-match/">Unitree unveiled it</a> in a splashy boxing tournament in May.
As Toner alludes in her post, these boxing bots aren't quite autonomous just yet. The robots are, for now, <a href="https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/china-humanoid-robot-perform-boxing">remote-controlled by human operators</a> who choreograph their ducks and punches.
Even so, the AI researcher was impressed with the robots' balance and stabilization mechanisms, which she noted in her tweet "must be automatic."
Along with that first match and the Shanghai demo, Unitree showed off the Iron Fist Kings to students at Hangzhou Qian Xuesen School in Hangzhou, China during yet another match between bots in May. Naturally, the kids ate it up.
"It's incredible," remarked one of the tykes when <a href="https://www.bastillepost.com/global/article/4870442-humanoid-robots-showcase-combat-skills-ahead-of-worlds-first-robot-boxing-match-in-hangzhou">interviewed by the Hong Kong newspaper Bastille Post</a>. "Now I really want to know how these robots can fight with each other."
It appears that same school, which is located in the town where Unitree is headquartered, has become something of a test market for the company's wares. Back in February, its better-known G1 humanoid robot was <a href="https://x.com/Neuzenai23/status/1894364224018915462">filmed dancing</a> with — and perhaps overshadowing — two people there.
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🚀Unitree G1 is dancing—LIVE with students!
At Hangzhou Qian Xuesen School, the Unitree G1 humanoid robot showcased its latest dance moves, synchronizing perfectly with students.
No CGI. No AI-generated effects. Just real robotics in action!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UnitreeG1?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UnitreeG1</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Robotics?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Robotics</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AI</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZWPg2eK3yR">pic.twitter.com/ZWPg2eK3yR</a>
&mdash; NEUZEN AI (@Neuzenai23) <a href="https://twitter.com/Neuzenai23/status/1894364224018915462?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2025</a></blockquote>
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At the AI conference in Shanghai, Toner didn't get a glimpse of G1, but she did see other companies' robots engaged in everything from <a href="https://x.com/hlntnr/status/1950737256685179366">playing tic-tac-toe</a> to <a href="https://x.com/hlntnr/status/1950735310091898953">cheerleading</a> with real pom-poms.
Still, she said that the boxing little robots were the "most impressive" of the bunch — and having seen footage them in three very different arenas, we have to agree.
More on robots: <a href="https://futurism.com/prototype-robot-cannabalize-other-robots">Scientists Create Prototype of Robot Designed to Cannibalize Parts of Other Robots and Build Them Into Itself</a>

Million Dollar Baby

Let them fight!

We Must Admit That This Video of Two Small Robots Punching Each Other With Boxing Gloves Is Pretty Awesome

We interrupt your regularly scheduled doomscrolling to bring you a new development from the blossoming world of child surveillance: the sneaker brand Skechers is selling new kids shoes that come with a hidden AirTag compartment, enabling parents to quietly track their meandering progeny at all times.
Readers, we're officially Skech'd out.
According to the sneaker company, the tiny Apple tracking devices can be slotted into a hole in the heel of the shoes that's accessed by lifting the sole. That's the only difference with the shoes in its newly dubbed "<a href="https://www.skechers.com/find-my-skechers/">Find My Skechers</a>" line — otherwise, they're visually indistinguishable from regular pairs. They were announced earlier this month, but weren't spotted until this week, when they were <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/07/30/sketchers-lets-parents-hide-an-airtag-in-kids-shoes">noticed by Apple Insider</a>.
Skechers seems to be aware of how creepy this all sounds, because its carefully worded marketing would have you believe that people want to use $30 AirTags to keep track of shoes that at most cost $60, and definitely not the kids that would be wearing them.
"Know where your kid's shoes are at all times and give yourself comfort of mind," reads one marketing line.
"See where your kid's shoes are with the Find My app," reads another.
"Each pair is designed with a secure, hidden pocket under the insole that perfectly fits an Apple AirTag®*, so you can always know where their favorite shoes are."
To be clear, the "Find My Skechers" are for younger kids and not, say, teenagers, who are old enough to demand some privacy away from their parents. And Skechers may argue that it's merely filling an existing demand, as many parents already use AirTags to keep tabs on their toddlers. The peace of mind it could give a beleaguered mom or dad who has to wrangle a bunch of wandering ankle-biters is a powerful thing indeed.
Still, in our age of <a href="https://futurism.com/police-facial-recognition-random-arrest">mass surveillance</a>, be it through algorithms or cameras, it does feel a little icky. And who's to say this won't inspire other brands to start selling their own AirTag ready apparel, until we reach a point where teens or adults are expected to wear them, too?
"A lot of 12-year-olds are going to learn the phrase 'op sec' in the next few years," <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/johnrogers.bsky.social/post/3lv73k2fosc22">quipped</a> one user on Bluesky.
More nefariously, what if someone slips an AirTag into one of these compartments without consent — be they a parent or a stranger? What then? Maybe that sounds extreme, but Apple has had to constantly update its AirTag software to combat it <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/2/23707920/apple-google-airtag-stalking-bluetooth-tracker-alert-standard">being used as a stalking tool</a> — <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/indiana-county-apple-air-tag-stalking-charges/">which it has been</a> on an <a href="https://futurism.com/man-caught-airtag-stalking">alarming number</a> <a href="https://futurism.com/woman-apple-tracking-device-car">of occasions</a>.
Helpful as it may be, the shoes are a testament to how casual of a practice surveillance has become.
"Sync it to your drone for literal helicopter parenting," joked one user in The Verge's <a href="https://www.theverge.com/news/716076/find-my-skechers-shoes-apple-airtag-tracking#comments">comments</a>.
More on privacy: <a href="https://futurism.com/dating-app-matches-browsing-history">Cursed New Dating App Matches You Based on the Most Deranged Thing We Can Imagine</a>

Sole-Searching

"Sync it to your drone for literal helicopter parenting."

Surveillance-Minded Parents Can Now Hide AirTags In Kids Shoes

Google has for years been harnessing the power of its Android smartphones to detect and measure tens of thousands of earthquakes.
In a new paper <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads4779">published in the journal Science</a>, researchers from the search giant described how they used motion sensors from its two billion-strong network of phones running Android between the years 2021 and 2024 to detect and alert quakes to users in almost 100 countries around the world.
Known as "Android Earthquake Alerts" (AEA), this early warning system has uses the smartphones' accelerometers to detect telltale vibrations as they happen and inform residents of quakes in their areas. With its <a href="https://crisisresponse.google/android-alerts/">two-tiered severity levels</a> — the weaker "be aware alert" for lower-magnitude quakes that sends typical push notifications, and the more pressing "take action alert" for moderate or extreme shakes that issues a loud beeping alarm that overrides "Do Not Disturb" settings — Google boasts that it has warned of more than 11,000 quakes.
While such a system has invariably saved lives, however, AEA is far from flawless.
In the case of Turkey's deadly quakes in 2023 that claimed more than 55,000 lives and injured over 100,000 people, the company now admits that it erroneously sent its lower-level notifications to hundreds of thousands of people — a massive failure during one of the deadliest natural disasters in recent history.
Both in the Science paper and in a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c77v2kx304go">statement to BBC</a>, Google admitted that it only sent 469 "Take Action" alerts during the first of the two earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria in February 2023, and instead mass-notified half a million people with the "Be Aware" version, the less severe of the two warnings. Because the first earthquake occurred at around 4:15 in the morning, that quieter warning likely went unseen by people who were asleep and had their phones silenced.
That discrepancy appears to be the result of bad seismic readings from the phones' sensors. Initially, the system's algorithms estimated that the first quake was between a 4.5 and 4.9 on the moment magnitude scale (MMS), but it was actually a far more serious 7.8. During the second quake, the AEA also underestimated the magnitude, sending only 8,158 "Take Action" alarms and almost four million "Be Aware" alerts. (That shoddy algorithm, the company says, has since been updated.)
Until now, <a href="https://www.engadget.com/androids-earthquake-warning-system-failed-in-turkey-according-to-the-bbc-210612253.html">Google deflected blame</a> for the system's failure, even after the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66316462">BBC investigated</a> the AEA in the aftermath of the quakes and found it to be severely lacking.
Though this sort of admission is better late than never, it's still concerning that Google took more than two years to admit the system's failures during the Turkey earthquakes. With so many people relying on the tech monolith for life-saving alerts, taking accountability for the AEA's failures is paramount — and that accountability should have been much swifter.
More on disasters: <a href="https://futurism.com/extreme-heat-killing-thousands">Extreme Heat Is Killing Unfathomable Numbers of People Worldwide</a>

Early Warning

This early warning system can save lives — as long as it gets the algorithm right.

Google Has Quietly Been Detecting Earthquakes by Sensing Rumbling in Android Phones For Years

The 21st century has seen startups rise from a relatively niche business approach to a multi-trillion-dollar phenomenon. Between 2021 and 2023, startups generated an estimated <a href="https://startupqatar.qa/assets/front/pdf/startup-ecosystem-report.pdf">$7.6 trillion</a> in global value. From 2019 to 2023 — a rocky period for the economy overall — the number of startups in the US still <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/entrepreneurship-startups-and-business-formation-are-booming-across-the-u-s/">increased by 16 percent</a>.
But with all that success comes a whole lotta risk. It's estimated that over <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/05/why-start-ups-fail">two-thirds of startups fail</a> to deliver a positive return to investors. Many fail before they deliver any returns whatsoever.
That failure rate encourages would-be entrepreneurs to throw ideas at the wall and see what sticks. Over the past few months, we've been graced with such inspiring ventures as a <a href="https://futurism.com/startup-protector-rent-private-security">Rent-A-Thug app</a>, a <a href="https://futurism.com/alarm-app-advertisement-snooze">for-profit alarm clock</a>, and even an AI-powered camera that <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-throne-toilet">analyzes turds</a>.
Adding to the mix is a shiny new "genetics" startup that would make <a href="https://library.missouri.edu/specialcollections/exhibits/show/controlling-heredity/america/heredity">Charles Davenport</a> blush: Herasight.
Herasight was unveiled by geneticists Tobias Wolfram and Alex Strudwick Young, who recently announced the company was coming out of "<a href="https://www.bondcollective.com/blog/stealth-mode-startup/">stealth mode</a>," a period of secret development startups can use to protect intellectual property. In the announcement, Young billed the company as an "in-vitro fertilization (IVF) startup," claiming it could predict the likelihood of 17 various diseases developing in a given set of embryos.
In a <a href="https://x.com/AlexTISYoung/status/1950575617294180510">post on X-formerly-Twitter</a>, Young claimed that Herasight had already screened "hundreds of embryos." His announcement was accompanied by a screenshot of an interactive widget developed by the company — which included another striking measurement: an intelligence range for predicting a baby's IQ score.
To <a href="https://www.herasight.com/">use the widget</a> to predict IQ, users first pick "intelligence" from a list of traits and diseases including schizophrenia, melanoma, and gout. Then, users select the mother and father's racial ancestry, as well as the mean family IQ. From there, one simply inputs the "embryo count" — anywhere from 3 to 20 — and let the algorithm work its magic.
Though screening embryos for traits like IQ is technically legal in the US, the practice is forbidden in other countries such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/oct/18/us-startup-charging-couples-to-screen-embryos-for-iq">the UK</a>, and many scientists point to a <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6957074/">lack of evidence</a> that embryonic screening can actually predict traits like height or intelligence.
Still, when has some murky science ever slowed down a startup?
"Today we come out of stealth with a paper showing that our predictors for 17 diseases — validated within-family — beat the competition, with improved performance in non-Europeans," Young beamed on X.
For his part, Young's collaborator Wolfram was tight-lipped on the announcement, preferring instead to repost positive press.
"From a market perspective, having children is one of the few times that people think seriously about genetics, and this particular application is also a rare case where genetic results are directly actionable," buzzed <a href="https://x.com/joe_pickrell/status/1950602527646556420">one of the congratulatory posts</a>.
The Herasight team likewise released a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EpFi160I1t11RWYFe1_uJZ0ixP4WL-Na/view">white paper</a> in which they detail the ways their work differs from other eugenics projects, like the subscription-based IVF platform <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/genetics-startup-eugenics-app">Nucleus Genomics</a>, or Orchid, which has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/07/16/orchid-polygenic-screening-embryos-fertility/">reportedly been used</a> by billionaire Elon Musk to produce at least one of his children.
The paper reveals the Herasight team's attempts to repackage the highly contentious topic of selective human breeding. The authors are careful to pay lip service to "bioethical concerns" with their business model, like the fact that genetic screening has a very real chance of expanding <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6563838/">real-world inequality</a>.
"Despite these methodological concerns, comprehensive validations of state-of-the-art disease [screening] remain scarce... and none employ within-family validation strategies to distinguish direct genetic effects from population-level confounding," one section reads. "To address these gaps, we constructed seventeen disease [screenings]... and we rigorously assessed their predictive performance in both population-based and within-family contexts."
In other words: sure there might not be any scientific evidence that traits like intelligence can be fine-tuned like a piano, and the entire concept smacks of eugenics, but we're being really careful about it, unlike our competition.
While the authors cautiously acknowledge technical limitations of genetic screening and the research it encompasses, they fall short of engaging with the <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/14/11/3885#:~:text=IVF%20paved%20the%20way%20for,with%20their%20modifications%20%5B11%5D.">eugenicist foundation</a> of their startup — a telling gap, and likely a revealing one for the future of human reproduction.
More on startups: <a href="https://futurism.com/startup-investors-gig-jobs-ai">Startup Investors Foaming at the Mouth To Carve Up Your Job With AI</a>

Designer Darwinism

"From a market perspective, having children is one of the few times that people think seriously about genetics."

New IVF Startup Claims It Can Predict an Embryo's IQ

Two women who attended an event in Las Vegas called "Revolution Against Aging and Death Festival" — please bask in the red flags that have already appeared in this sentence — received peptide injections at a booth organized by an unlicensed physician specializing in "age reversal" therapies.
As <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/peptide-injections-raadfest-rfk-jr">ProPublica reports</a>, not long after receiving the shots at a conference booth, they both fell ill and had to be wheeled off in ambulances. They were hospitalized and left in critical condition, highlighting the severe dangers of unlicensed therapies.
Their tongues reportedly started swelling up, and one had to be intubated. The other woman lost control of the muscles in her neck and couldn't open her eyes, per a police report.
Public health investigators are now looking to determine if anybody else at the festival experienced a similar fate. Local law enforcement determined that up to seven people at the conference had been hospitalized as well.
The news comes as noted anti-vaxxer and Health and Human Services secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. has promoted the amino acid chains known as peptides as a way to stave off aging. Last year, Kennedy <a href="https://x.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1849925311586238737">vowed</a> to end the Food and Drug Administration's purported "war on public health," accusing it of "aggressive suppression" of various potentially dangerous substances, including peptides.
Kent Holtorf, the doctor overseeing the booth, has similarly called for looser regulations for alternative therapies, ProPublica reports. He had to hire a practitioner to carry out one of the injections, since he's not licensed in Nevada. A second contracted practitioner, who administered the injection to the second woman, also didn't have the necessary Nevada licenses.
Holtorf — whose practice was <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/warning-letters/covid-19-letter_to_holtorf_medical_group.pdf">chastized by the Federal Trade Commission</a> for claiming that its peptide therapies could prevent COVID-19 — told ProPublic that he doesn't think "it was the peptides, but I don’t want to try and push the blame and say it wasn’t us."
Investigators have yet to determine the exact cause of the illness or whether it was indeed related to the injections. Holtorf told ProPublica that he's not sure where the peptides that were used in his booth came from.
Peptides are already approved in dozens of medications for the treatment of various health problems, including cancer and diabetes. However, its use for age reversal or regenerative health by compounding it into new formulations remains unreviewed by the FDA. At least 18 of the most popular compounding components of popular peptide treatments have been deemed to have "significant safety risks" by the agency.
At least one component in one of the peptide concoctions one of the two women received is on that list.
The so-called "Revolution Against Aging and Death Festival" in Las Vegas is part of a much broader network of for-profit entities claiming to have discovered the fountain of youth, helping people achieve "immortality."
But given the latest news, these unorthodox approaches, especially when deemed as unsafe by regulators, come with plenty of risk. Considering the current political climate — and the fact that an anti-vaxxer who champions the use of potentially dangerous alternative medicines is in charge of the HHS — it's unlikely to be the last time we hear of such incidents.
More on anti-aging: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/psilocibin-mushrooms-aging-study">Evidence Grows That Tripping on Shrooms Might Increase Your Lifespan</a>

Immortan Joe's Anti-Aging Popup Experience

Treatments

They were hospitalized and left in critical condition.

Women Take Peptide Injections at "Age Reversal" Event, End Up Leaving in Ambulances

Microplastics are so pervasive that they're now found in our <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/scientists-microplastic-human-blood">bloodstreams</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304389424018454">bones</a>, and — according to <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/brains-microplastics-study">one alarming study</a> — even our brains in enough quantities to make a plastic spoon. 
But where do they all come from? One of the biggest sources may surprise you: car tires.
Or maybe it isn't that surprising, now that we've brought it up. Yet, the role of civilization's addiction to the automobile tends to go overlooked in these discussions in favor of more obvious forms of waste like <a style="font-weight: 400;" href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/bottled-water-microplastics">plastic bottles</a>. But cars are everywhere, and so are their rubber feet. And as these tires wear down, that material has to go somewhere.
That somewhere often tends to be nearby waterways, write Boluwatife S. Olubusoye and James V. Cizdziel, two environmental chemists from the University of Mississippi, in a new <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/one-of-the-biggest-microplastic-pollution-sources-isnt-straws-or-grocery-bags-its-your-tires">writeup for The Conversation</a>. That runoff, they warn, is wreaking havoc on aquatic life like fish, crabs, and oysters. 
And little is being done to stop it, even though as much as 45 percent of all microplastic pollution may come from tire wear particles, according to the researchers. (Other <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/almost-30-of-microplastics-come-from-a-hugely-overlooked-source">estimates</a> say it's closer to 28 percent, which is still a shocking proportion.)
"In Oxford, Mississippi, we identified more than 30,000 tire wear particles in 24 liters of stormwater runoff from roads and parking lots after two rainstorms," they write, referring to a <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/9/4080">study</a> they published earlier this year.  "In heavy traffic areas, we believe the concentrations could be much higher."
Tires aren't solely rubber — they also contain a chowder of other chemicals. One, a compound called zinc oxide, is extremely toxic to fish, the pair note. Another, called 6PPD-Q, has been linked to a <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abd6951">mass die-off</a> of coho salmon in Washington in 2020.
Besides its ubiquity — tires shed some six million metric tons of microplastics per year, according to <a href="https://www.plasticstoday.com/medical/tire-wear-a-major-source-of-microplastics-say-researchers">one estimate</a> — what makes tire pollution so nefarious is that the particles are tiny enough to be present in the air, and thus can easily be inhaled. A 2022 <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.2c00821">study</a> conducted by Chinese researchers, for example, found 6PPD in the urine of children and adults, and in even higher concentrations in pregnant women. The true extent of its hazardous effects isn't known, but the substance has been linked with organ damage. 
The good news, for our aquatic friends at least, is that Olubosoye and Cizdziel think they have a way of sparing aquatic life from being poisoned by tire waste. As detailed in a <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/9/4080">study</a> published in the journal Sustainability, they designed a simple filtration system that uses pine wood chips and biochar, a type of charcoal made by heating biomass waste like leftover rice husks that's typically used in soil. The takeaway is that the materials are inexpensive and environmentally friendly.
In their experiments, they placed a biochar "filter sock" at the mouth of a drainage outlet and monitored it over the course of two months. By the end, they found that compared to runoff that didn't to undergo filtering, the concentration of tire wear particles had been reduced by as much as 97.6 percent.
"The unique elongated and jagged features of tire wear particles make it easy for them to get trapped or entangled in the pores of these materials during a storm event," the pair explained. "Even the smallest tire wear particles were trapped in the intricate network of these materials."
The advantage of this approach is that it's cheap and reuses agricultural waste — but it only addresses one vector of tire pollution, and there's significant questions about how feasibly it could be scaled up. In lieu of transitioning to a carless society or revolutionizing how we design tires, however, it could be a helpful band-aid.
More on microplastics: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/microplastics-glass-plastic-bottles">You'll Be Flabbergasted to Learn Which Contains More Microplastics: Plastic Bottles or Glass Bottles</a>

End of the Road

There's no escaping it.

One of the Biggest Sources of Microplastics Will Make You Mad as Hell

<h2>Bottlenecked</h2>
The next time you need an energy boost, you might end up getting tipsy instead.
In a recall notice that's both bizarre and unintentionally comical, the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/high-noon-announces-recall-its-vodka-seltzer-beach-pack-12-pack-due-inclusion-celsiusr-astro-vibe-tm">Food and Drug Administration</a> is warning that some 12-packs of High Noon vodka seltzer may contain mislabeled cans of Celsius — a non-alcoholic energy drink that's popular everywhere these days, but perhaps <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/2025/01/14/celsius-politics-capitol-hill-mike-johnson-energy-drinks/">particularly on Capitol Hill</a> — which are, in a convoluted twist, actually full of High Noon, complete with the hooch.
Though they're not otherwise affiliated, both companies share a third-party packaging facility where a spectacular mixup resulted not only in Celsius cans being inadvertently filled with the boozy beverage, but also being placed inside boxes of High Noon.
The recall specifically impacts High Noon "Beach Variety" 12-packs, carrying specific lot numbers that were sent to stores in Florida, Ohio, New York, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin between July 21 and July 23. The mislabeled Celsius cans within them are either ASTRO VIBE or Sparkling Blue Razz flavor, and they also carry specific lot numbers that can be found on the FDA recall.
<h2>Shut It Down</h2>
Beyond the lot numbers and shipping states, there's not a lot known about the snafu, including which packaging plant the drinks actually came from — though the FDA and Celsius both note that the impacted energy drink cans have silver lids instead of the company's standard black.
In a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/07/31/nx-s1-5486730/high-noon-celsius-recall">statement to NPR</a>, a spokesperson for Gallo, High Noon's parent company, said a joint investigation is being launched alongside Celsius to figure out what exactly went wrong.
"We are working with the FDA, retailers, and distributors to proactively manage the recall to ensure the safety and well-being of our consumers," the spokesperson said.
Though the FDA is advising retailers and individual consumers to throw out any impacted 12-packs or cans, there's a non-zero chance that at least some of the untold thousands of stores where the mixed-up drinks inevitably ended up won't take them off the shelves.
Needless to say, it would be pretty messed up if any <a href="https://www.bonappetit.com/story/how-celsius-became-the-king-of-energy-drinks-gen-z?srsltid=AfmBOorOC0VnuEEARFs5qhyPWjDaCftUFL6v1_IAW6YqSvFrtrnNl4uW">underage Celsius stans</a> inadvertently downed a can of booze instead of caffeine, or a recovering alcoholic, or someone operating a motor vehicle. And knowing how teenagers can be, there's little doubt that some are already intentionally looking for those silver-topped cans — but luckily, High Noon vodka seltzers only contain a <a href="https://bevmo.com/products/250073">meager 4.5 percent ABV</a>, which means that any youthful thrill-seekers probably won't get too buzzed from them.
More on drinks: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/heavy-drinking-brain-research">Doctors Just Found Something Horrifying in the Brains of Heavy Alcohol Drinkers</a>

Booze Cruise

This is quite the mixup. 

Surprise! Random Cans of Celsius Energy Drink Actually Contain Vodka After Factory Accident, Company Admits

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>