the digest (Page 136)

Latest in the digest

NASA has officially announced the first team of American astronauts headed to the Moon as soon as 2024 as part of its Artemis program.

BREAKING: NASA Announces Its Moon Landing Astronauts

By Victor Tangermann

YouTubers painted a car with Musou Black, a paint that absorbs 99.4 percent of light, leaving the vehicle looking more like a silhouette than an object.

Advanced Transport

This Super-Black Car Is So Dark That It Looks Like a Silhouette

By Dan Robitzski

NASA has powered up the core stage of its Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy lift rocket that's meant to one day allow Americans to return to the Moon.

NASA Is Gassing Up Its Big, Pricy Moon Rocket

By Victor Tangermann

In an effort to combat non-consensual content on its platform, Pornhub is making sweeping changes to to how it's operating, Vice reports.

Pornhub Announces Sweeping Changes to Fight Sex Videos of Children on Its Site

By Victor Tangermann

An ultrahot gas giant that's even darker than asphalt is going to crash into its star significantly sooner than scientists thought.

Science & Energy

A Super-Black Planet Is About to Literally Crash Into Its Star

By Dan Robitzski

Wall Street is about to launch futures contracts tied to the price of water for the first time in US history, as Business Insider reports.

Wall Street Is Now Betting on the Future of Water Supplies

By Victor Tangermann

The Chinese space agency instructed part of the Chang'e-5 spacecraft to crash back into the Moon after its job was done so it wouldn't become space junk.

Science & Energy

China Crashed Spacecraft Into the Moon so It Wouldn’t Become Space Junk

By Dan Robitzski

SpaceX’s Starship Scrubs First High-Altitude Test at Last Second

SpaceX’s Starship Scrubs First High-Altitude Test at Last Second

By Victor Tangermann

NASA just published a detailed report on the upcoming Artemis Moon missions, including information on the planned lunar base camp.

NASA Releases Detailed Plan for 2024 Moon Base Camp

By Dan Robitzski

Elon Musk Says He Has Moved to Texas

Elon Musk Says He Has Moved to Texas

By Victor Tangermann

On Monday, police raided the home of data scientist and whistleblower Rebekah Jones, who had refused to manipulate data for the state Health Department.

Police Raid Home of COVID-19 Whistleblower

By Dan Robitzski

A company called Ghost Robotics is building dog-like robots explicitly for military use. Soon, they'll guard an Air Force base in Florida.

Oh No: This Company Is Building Robodogs Specifically for Combat

By Dan Robitzski

The Smellicopter, a small autonomous drone that tracks down scents, relies on the biological machinery of a live moth antenna.

Tiny Cyborg Drone Navigates Using Surgically Removed Moth Antenna

By Dan Robitzski

After countless delays, SpaceX's eighth Starship prototype is finally on the launch pad getting ready for its first high-altitude Starship test flight.

Here’s How to Watch SpaceX’s Epic Starship Launch Today

By Victor Tangermann

A retired Israeli general turned whisteblower has claimed that aliens are not only real, but have made contact, and that the world isn't ready to know.

Former Israeli General: Aliens Exist, and Earth Is Not Ready to Deal With Them

By Foster Kamer

Iran Insists That Its Nuclear Scientist Was Killed by a “Satellite-Controlled Machine Gun”

Iran Insists That Its Nuclear Scientist Was Killed by a “Satellite-Controlled Machine Gun”

By Victor Tangermann

Eagle-eyed early reviewers of "Cyberpunk 2077" spotted an NPC in the background that looks astonishingly like SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

There Appears to Be an Elon Musk Cameo in “Cyberpunk 2077”

By Victor Tangermann

The Japanese government plans to invest in local prefectures that develop new matchmaking AI to help singles in the area find love.

Artificial Intelligence

Japan’s Government Is Using AI to Set Up Lonely Singles on Dates

By Dan Robitzski

A team of researchers in South Korea are developing an artificial "skin" that could allow soldiers to perfectly blend in with their surroundings.

Researchers Invent Material That Could Create Invisibility Cloak

By Victor Tangermann

Etsy account "Makebuilder" will sell you a hand crafted ten-foot-tall "Utah monolith replica" made out of 7 gauge 304 stainless steel for $10,000.

You Can Now Buy a $10,000 Replica Monolith on Etsy

By Victor Tangermann

After spending more than a year studying Ryugu, an asteroid some 180 million miles away, Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft has returned to drop off some samples.

Japanese Spacecraft Returns Asteroid Samples to Earth

By Victor Tangermann

NASA is paying startups for any Moon dust they collect on missions scheduled for the next few years, but the payment is largely symbolic.

NASA Will Pay This Startup $1 to Collect Moon Dust. Wait, What?

By Dan Robitzski

China plans to expand its weather modification system to cover 5.5 million square miles. Neighboring India is worried it could become a weapon.

China Is Rolling Out an Enormous “Weather Modification” System

By Dan Robitzski

An artificial chicken venture called the Chicken seems to have nailed the flavor and texture of a fried chicken sandwich using lab-grown cells.

Science & Energy

Lab-Grown Chicken Sandwich Tastes Like Real Thing, Says Person Who Ate It

By Dan Robitzski

A video uploaded to the Boring Company's Twitter account shows the entire Las Vegas Convention Center Loop terminal light up in rainbow colors.

Elon Musk’s Boring Company Turned Its Vegas Tunnel Into a “Rave”

By Victor Tangermann

John Ratcliffe, the U.S. national intelligence cirector, wrote in an op-ed that China experimented on military members to try and create supersoldiers.

US Official Claims China Is Testing Biologically Enhanced Supersoldiers

By Dan Robitzski

Alabama-based startup Aevum has unveiled a fully autonomous drone designed to release satellite-launching rockets in midair — and its an absolute monster.

This Is the World’s Biggest Drone

By Victor Tangermann

China has successfully powered up its "artificial sun" nuclear fusion reactor for the first time according to Agence France Presse.

China Just Powered Up Its “Artificial Sun” Fusion Reactor

By Victor Tangermann

Scientists working at the Arecibo Observatory, right until it collapsed earlier this month, are calling for the massive radio telescope to be rebuilt.

Science & Energy

Researchers Call For Rebuilding Collapsed SETI Observatory

By Victor Tangermann

On Wednesday, Google fired a prominent AI ethicist at the company who had spoken out about diversity and censorship within the company.

Google Ousts Top AI Ethicist

By Dan Robitzski

A team of researchers from University of Science and Technology of China have just claimed quantum supremacy using a photon-based quantum computer.

Quantum Physics

China Claims Quantum Supremacy

By Victor Tangermann

Newly released footage, including several drone shots, shows the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico collapsing in on itself.

Science & Energy

Dramatic Drone Video Shows Collapse of Alien-Hunting Observatory

By Victor Tangermann

The European Space Agency compiled the most detailed map of the Milky Way galaxy in history, plotting the location and course of nearly 2 billion stars.

Science & Energy

This Is the Most Detailed Map of the Milky Way in History

By Dan Robitzski

China has confirmed that its Chang'e-5 lunar lander's ascent vehicle has taken off, bringing with it the first lunar samples since the 1970s.

Breaking: Chinese Lander Takes Off From Lunar Surface

By Victor Tangermann

Some scientists suggest that gene-hacking trees to grow faster and be more resilient could help fight climate change by restoring carbon sinks.

Report: Climate Change Is Now Causing “Worrying” Health Impacts

By Dan Robitzski

China's lunar lander Chang'e-5 just beamed back color photos of the surface of the Moon — and they're a lot more beige than what you'd expect.

Chinese Lander Sends Back Color Pictures of the Moon

By Victor Tangermann

Astrophysics professor Ray Norris discusses how he and his colleagues spotted strange, unusually shaped objects in recent radio astronomical data.

Science & Energy

Astronomers Puzzled by “Ghostly” Unidentified Objects in Deep Space

By Victor Tangermann

A third monolith appeared on top of Pine Mountain in Atascadero, California, as spotted by local news correspondent Connor Allen.

Robots and Machines

A Third Monolith Just Appeared in California

By Victor Tangermann

To help his war veteran father with PTSD, Tyler Skluzacek invented a smartwatch that can disrupt nightmares by measuring heart rate and body movements.

The FDA Approved a Device to Stop Nightmares

By Victor Tangermann

Ian Beer, a professional hacker at Google, found an exploit that lets him completely take over any nearby iPhone with little more than a WiFi antenna.

Science & Energy

Horrifying Hack Takes Over iPhones Just by Pointing an Antenna at Them

By Dan Robitzski

China released video footage today of its Chang'e-5 spacecraft approaching and then safely landing on the surface of the near side of the Moon.

China Releases Footage of Lander Touching Down on Lunar Surface

By Victor Tangermann

Earlier this week, Google's DeepMind AI researchers broke the record for predicting how proteins will assemble. Scientists in the field remain unimpressed.

Scientists Unimpressed by Google’s Protein Folding Algorithm

By Dan Robitzski

In a world's first, US-based company Eat Just's lab-grown meat just went on sale in Singapore following regulatory approval.

Lab-Grown Meat Is Officially Going on Sale, for the First Time Ever

By Victor Tangermann

Billions of years from now, scientists predict that the Sun's hold on planets will wane and other stars will steal them out of the solar system.

Eventually, Other Stars Will Steal our Solar System’s Planets

By Dan Robitzski

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that he is "highly confident" that his space company will land humans on the Martian surface as soon as 2026.

Elon Musk “Highly Confident” SpaceX Will Land Humans on Mars Within 6 Years

By Victor Tangermann

China's robotic Chang'e-5 space probe successfully gathered up lunar samples and is poised to be the first successful lunar retrieval mission since 1976.

Science & Energy

Chinese Robot Mission Successfully Collects Moon Rocks

By Dan Robitzski

A second mysterious monolith that was spotted near a famous archeological site in northern Romania has disappeared, Reuters reports.

Robots and Machines

The Second Monolith Has Now Also Disappeared

By Victor Tangermann

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that would be open to "have this conversation" about a merger with another carmaker if it "would be a good idea."

Elon Musk: Tesla Open to Merging With Another Carmaker

By Victor Tangermann

A new AI algorithm called RoboGrammer can design robot bodies that are optimized for specific tasks or crossing specific terrain.

Artificial Intelligence

MIT Engineers Built an AI That Design Its Own Robots

By Dan Robitzski

A startup called NewRocket developed a gel-like rocket fuel that's less toxic and more easily controlled than existing fuels.

Science & Energy

New Rocket Engine Could Use Slimy Gel as Fuel

By Dan Robitzski

The founder of Arcimoto, a company producing electric three-wheelers in Oregon, claims that Tesla CEO Elon Musk crashed one of their cars into a brick wall.

Electric Car Maker Claims Elon Musk Crashed Its EV Into a Brick Wall

By Victor Tangermann

China's Chang'e-5 spacecraft successfully landed on the Moon, where it's expected to bring the first lunar samples back to earth in almost 50 years.

Science & Energy

China Lands on Moon Before Returning to Earth With Lunar Rocks

By Dan Robitzski

Google's DeepMind AI team built an algorithm called AlphaFold 2 that can solved the protein folding problem with better accuracy than any other team.

Google AI Solves Longstanding, Near-Impossible Biology Problem

By Dan Robitzski

Researchers have developed a system that could pull significant amounts of oxygen and hydrogen out of the briny water present on Mars.

New System Separates Oxygen From Salty Martian Water

By Victor Tangermann

Building fiber optic cables with a hollow, air-filled core could finally address an issue that's plagued the tech for 50 years.

Science & Energy

We Can Improve Fiber Optics by Filling Them With Air

By Dan Robitzski

A team of space law experts argues that we need strong international accords to prevent military conflicts either in or fought over space.

Here’s How We Could Avert Off-Planet Warfare

By Dan Robitzski

As soon as the mysterious twelve-foot metal monolith in Utah disappeared, a new mysterious monolith appears in northern Romania.

Robots and Machines

Reports Emerge of Second Mysterious Monolith in Romania

By Victor Tangermann

The European Union expects to meet two of its three 2020 climate goals, setting the stage for even more ambitious projects in the future.

It Looks Like Europe Will Hit Two of its Three 2020 Climate Goals

By Dan Robitzski

SETI Institute senior astronomer Seth Shostak is willing to bet you a cup of joe that we will find aliens by 2036, The Debrief reports.

SETI Institute Scientist Says We’ll Find Aliens by 2036

By Victor Tangermann

FCC chairman Ajit Pai has announced he's leaving the position on January 20 following the inauguration of president-elect Joe Biden.

Net Neutrality Hater Ajit Pai Is Stepping Down From the FCC

By Victor Tangermann

With the recent discovery of phosphorus, scientists have found all six elements on a list of crucial ingredients for life on various comets.

Comets Can Carry the Six Most Important Elements for Life on Earth

By Dan Robitzski

Tesla competitor Nikola Motors has officially announced that its deal with General Motors to produce its hydrogen-electric pickup called the Badger is off.

Advanced Transport

Remember That Hydrogen-Powered Cybertruck Killer? It’s Officially Dead

By Victor Tangermann

The European Space Agency is planning to launch a massive claw designed to clean up larger pieces of space junk.

Europe Is Launching a Giant Claw to Grab Space Junk

By Victor Tangermann

In the latest perplexing turn of events, state officials say the a mysterious monolith has vanished from the Utah desert.

Robots and Machines

Mystery “Monolith” Disappears From Utah Desert

By Jon Christian