the digest (Page 144)

Latest in the digest

The Trump Administration's de facto ban on Chinese-made drones has prevented the Interior Department from starting controlled burns to limit forest fires.

Leaked Memo: Trump’s Chinese Drone Ban Made Wildfire Season Worse

By Dan Robitzski

A NASA satellite that launched in 1964 — over half a century ago — just burned up as it reentered the Earth's atmosphere.

Amazing Footage Shows Ancient NASA Satellite Burning Up During Reentry

By Victor Tangermann

An American Airlines pilot made a bizarre discovery upon landing his jet at the LA International Airport on Sunday evening: a man wearing a jetpack.

Advanced Transport

Pilots: Man With Jetpack Was Flying Near Planes at LAX

By Victor Tangermann

SpaceX is planning to start assembling a prototype of the massive Super Heavy rocket booster for Starship as soon as "this week" according to Elon Musk.

Elon Musk: SpaceX Is Starting Work on Starship Super Heavy Booster

By Victor Tangermann

According to a leaked FBI bulletin obtained by The Intercept, criminals are hacking into internet-connected smart doorbells track law enforcement.

Oops: FBI Says Criminals Are Using Ring Cameras to Spy on Cops

By Victor Tangermann

Cryptographer Seny Kamara urges his peers in computer science to assume responsibility for how their work is used, especially against marginalized groups.

Computer Scientist: We Can’t Ignore How Our Work Hurts Marginalized Groups

By Dan Robitzski

The team behind NASA's Curiosity Mars rover have uploaded a fascinating GIF video of a dust devil rolling over the Red Planet's Gale crater.

NASA Shows Off GIF of a Dust Devil on Mars

By Victor Tangermann

Amazon Prime Air, the retail giant's drone delivery company, was designated an "air carrier" by the Federal Aviation Administration today.

Amazon Gets Permission to Start Making Drone Deliveries

By Victor Tangermann

Elon Musk just compared his secretive brain-computer interface startup Neuralink to the dystopian science fiction show "Black Mirror."

Elon Musk Compares Neuralink to “a ‘Black Mirror’ Episode”

By Jon Christian

In order to learn how cells can navigate large distances within our bodies, scientists plopped them into increasingly-complex mazes.

Researchers Forced Living Cells to Navigate Tiny Mazes

By Dan Robitzski

After its first successful flight test of a Starship prototype earlier this month, SpaceX is planning to try again on Sunday.

SpaceX Is Planning to Fly Its Starship Prototype This Weekend

By Jon Christian

A NASA satellite from 1964 is going to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere for an extremely fiery retirement at some point this weekend.

Science & Energy

A NASA Satellite From the 1960s Is About to Die

By Dan Robitzski

Thanks to powerful new lasers, scientists can now observe space debris orbiting the Earth during the daytime and better predict their paths.

Science & Energy

Scientists Saw Space Debris During the Day for the First Time

By Dan Robitzski

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has issued a mea culpa in the case of a drone photographer who was told to stop filming at the company's Giga Texas construction site.

Elon Musk: Tesla Security Was “Overzealous” In Kicking Out Drone Photographer

By Jon Christian

A new Electrek story details the saga of Jason Hughes, a whitehat hacker who says he seized control of the company's entire fleet of electric vehicles.

A Hacker Reportedly Gained Access to Tesla’s Entire Fleet

By Jon Christian

The Japanese Company SkyDrive Inc just conducted a successful test of its eVTOL flying car vehicle with a human pilot on board.

Advanced Transport

Japanese Company Tests a Flying Car — With a Human On Board

By Dan Robitzski

Scientists just watched as a doomed sungrazer comet hurtled directly toward the Sun, ultimately crumbling apart along the way.

Science & Energy

This Dumbass Comet Just Flew Directly Into the Sun

By Dan Robitzski

Scientists found a shark that had its teeth and skin almost completely eaten away by ocean acidification and chemical pollution.

Pollution Dissolved This Shark’s Teeth and Skin, Researchers Say

By Dan Robitzski

The FBI helped foil a plot by Russian hackers to target Tesla's Nevada Gigafactory with a massive insider ransomware hack.

FBI Reportedly Foils Russian Hack at Tesla Factory

By Jon Christian

According to some bizarre theoretical physics, the human-traversable wormholes from science fiction should be possible to create.

Physicists: Wormholes Large Enough to Travel Through Are Possible

By Dan Robitzski

In order to protect the Moon from destructive lunar mining operations, one scientists suggests granting the Moon legal personhood.

Scientist: We Should Grant the Moon Legal Personhood

By Dan Robitzski

WRAL reports that a Raleigh driver was watching a movie on his phone while his Tesla was on Autopilot slammed into two police cars.

Tesla Driver, Watching Movie on Autopilot, Slams Into Police Cars

By Jon Christian

Researchers in Japan say bacteria could survive on the outside of a spacecraft for the entire duration of a trip to Mars.

Scientists: Bacteria Could Survive Trip to Mars on Outside of Spacecraft

By Jon Christian

With fires causing dangerous levels of airborne particulates, Colorado officials are urging residents to set up "safe rooms" with air purification systems.

Colorado Urges Residents to Hide Inside Air Filtrated “Safe Rooms”

By Jon Christian

An engineer trained an artificial intelligence algorithm on the King James Bible and had it write bizarre doomsday scripture.

Artificial Intelligence

AI Trained on the Bible Spits Out Bleak Religious Prophecies

By Dan Robitzski

Research suggests scientists should pay greater attention to their lab mice's well-being. Not only for the mice's sake, but because it improves the science.

Scientists: Lab Mice Deserve Happier Lives

By Dan Robitzski

After federal law enforcement seized millions of dollars' worth of crypto from terrorist organizations, Congress is left with questions.

The IRS Seized Millions in Terrorists’ Crypto. Congress Has Questions

By Dan Robitzski

Elon Musk just cranked expectations for his brain interface startup even higher, tweeting plans to show off a "working Neuralink device" this Friday.

Elon Musk Says He’ll Show Off Functional Neuralink Device This Week

By Jon Christian

A new report slammed SpaceX's plans to launch more than 30,000 Starlink low-Earth satellites, noting their "extreme" impact on scientific endeavors.

Astronomers Slam SpaceX’s Growing Starlink Satellite Constellation

By Victor Tangermann

Researchers at Harvard built a tiny microscale surgical robot, only about the size of a tennis ball, which was inspired by origami.

This Miniature Surgery Robot Was Inspired by Origami

By Victor Tangermann

The good news is that the air is leaking out of the space station very slowly. But the bad news is that they still haven't found it yet.

NASA Still Hasn’t Found the Damn Leak on the Space Station

By Jon Christian

A team of astronomers were able to track down a mysterious fast radio burst thanks to years of previous research allowing them to predict when it woke up.

Science & Energy

That Mysterious Space Signal Just Woke Up Again, Just as Predicted

By Victor Tangermann

An energy startup called NDB says it's making progress on a battery technology powered by small pieces of nuclear waste. Oh, and they say it's safe.

Researchers Test Battery Powered by Nuclear Waste

By Jon Christian

NASA astronomers spotted a galaxy some 500 million light-years away that looks suspiciously like Darth Vader’s TIE fighter spacecraft from 'Star Wars.'"

Science & Energy

NASA Amused by Galaxy That Looks Like a TIE Fighter

By Victor Tangermann

The Air Force just showed off a prototype of a flying car — and it looks, well, like something out of an early 2000s Pixar animation movie.

Advanced Transport

The Air Force’s Flying Car Looks… Incredibly Goofy

By Victor Tangermann

Scientists say that bacteria "scream" as they die, giving off chemical alarms that warn their brethren of danger like antibiotics.

Science & Energy

Scientists: Unfortunately, Bacteria Scream When They Die

By Jon Christian

This week, Elon Musk plans to show off progress by Neuralink, his startup that's working on an interface between human brains and computers.

Elon Musk Is Planning to Show Off Neuralink Progress This Week

By Jon Christian

TikTok has officially sued the Trump administration for banning transactions with its parent company ByteDance.

TikTok Officially Sues the Trump Administration Over Ban in US

By Victor Tangermann

Tesla fanatic and DIY tinkerer extraordinaire Rich from Rich Rebuilds built a full-scale take on the "Cyberquad," the ATV cousin of the Cybertruck.

Advanced Transport

This Guy Built a DIY Cyberquad and It’s an Absolute Monster

By Victor Tangermann

In a new study, two astronomers argue that 'Oumuamua can't be a giant lump of molecular hydrogen. It's probably too old and wouldn't survive as an iceberg.

Science & Energy

Astronomers: There’s Still a Chance ‘Oumuamua Is Alien Tech

By Victor Tangermann

The Arecibo Observatory, a staple of the SETI research community, will be out of commission for months after a supper cable mysteriously fell.

Science & Energy

SETI Telescope Down for Months After Mysterious Damage

By Dan Robitzski

The number of unemployment claims for the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program is growing exponentially, raising the alarm.

Economists Predict “Tsunami” of Unemployment

By Victor Tangermann

NASA warns that harvesting lunar ice for future settlers' drinking water could make it impossible to study the ice down the road.

Mining Lunar Ice Could Irrevocably Damage the Moon’s Environment

By Dan Robitzski

A new NASA facility will communicate with distant spacecraft via lasers, vastly improving the bandwidth of interplanetary communications.

Science & Energy

NASA Facility Will Beam Messages to Space Through Lasers

By Dan Robitzski

Tesla is seeking approval from the FCC to market a sensor that can tell if a child is being left behind in a hot car, Reuters reports.

Tesla Asks USA For Permission to Automatically Detect Kids Left in Hot Car

By Victor Tangermann

Engineering firm Furrion has built a four-legged exo-suit, a 9,000 pound monstrosity straight out of "Pacific Rim" — and it wants you to pilot it.

Robots and Machines

This Fully Functional, 9000 Pound Mech Suit Looks Absolutely Amazing

By Victor Tangermann

NASA recently put out a weird little cartoon that introduces kids to surprisingly complex topics like special relativity and the scale of the universe.

Video Shows NASA’s Bizarre Guide to Near-Light-Speed Travel

By Dan Robitzski

An AI-controlled virtual fighter jet just beat a human pilot in a dogfight, winning five rounds to zero as part of a DARPA contest.

Artificial Intelligence

AI Fighter Jet Obliterates Human Air Force Pilot in Simulated Dogfight

By Victor Tangermann

NASA is investigating a small air leak on board the International Space Station. Luckily, the three current crew members aren't in immediate danger.

International Space Station

NASA Says There’s a Small Leak on the International Space Station

By Victor Tangermann

Scientists developed a new kind of plastic that can be broken down and recycled an indefinite number of times without losing quality.

Science & Energy

A New Kind of Plastic Could Be Recycled Indefinitely

By Dan Robitzski

A team of researchers have built a tiny microbot that weighs less than a gram and can run entirely on methanol, a type of alcohol.

Relatable: This Tiny Robot Is Powered by Alcohol

By Victor Tangermann

Watching a short video explaining how the questions on an IQ test work can boost one's score by 18 points, calling the test's validity into question.

Science & Energy

Watching This Video Raises Your IQ Score 18 Points, Researchers Say

By Dan Robitzski

Army engineer Frank Gardea is developing self-reconfiguring and self-repairing materials to make robots that he says are inspired by the Terminator.

Robots and Machines

US Army Scientist Brags That He’s Trying to Build the Bad Guy From “Terminator 2”

By Dan Robitzski

DARPA is training artificial intelligence algorithms to fly fighter planes then pitting them against each other in virutal combat.

Artificial Intelligence

DARPA Is Testing F-16s Flown by AI in Virtual Combat

By Dan Robitzski

Once the James Webb Space Telescope launches, NASA plans to use it to take 3D images of distant quasars and their host galaxies.

Science & Energy

3D Space Images Could Reveal How Quasars Influence Galaxies

By Dan Robitzski

Newly-discovered bacteria can help neutralize dangerous toxins, potentially leading to a new way to clean Superfund sites.

Scientists Find Bacteria That Devours Cancer-Causing Pollutants

By Dan Robitzski

Electric car company Lucid Motors just announced that its Lucid Air luxury sedan "will be the fastest charging electric vehicle ever offered."

Tesla Competitor Claims Its Car Will Be the “Fastest Charging” EV Ever

By Victor Tangermann

An upcoming experiment called DUNE hopes to scoop up neutrinos, elusive particles blasted out by supernova explosions, as they sail through Earth.

This Underground Experiment Will Hunt for Supernova Shrapnel

By Dan Robitzski

According to a new report, Facebook only flags about 16 percent of the medical misinformation that gets posted on the platform.

Facebook Only Catches 16 Percent of Medical Misinformation Posts

By Dan Robitzski

MIT engineer Asegun Henry has a dire warning: if we don't stop pouring heat into the environment soon, humanity won't live much longer.

MIT Professor: I Fear Imminent Human Extinction

By Dan Robitzski

Scientists saw bacteria subjected to different conditions rapidly develop different evolutionary strategies, helping explain why some become dangerous.

Scientists Just Watched Bacteria Evolve in Real Time

By Dan Robitzski

An army of 100,000 volunteers have identifed almost 100 of a new class of frigid brown dwarf floating near our solar system.

Science & Energy

An Army of Citizen Scientists Found Nearly 100 Nearby Brown Dwarfs

By Dan Robitzski

Multiple federal law enforcement agencies are buying people's cell phone location data, circumventing the need to obtain a warrant.

Science & Energy

Cops Are Buying Your Social Media Location Data Without a Warrant

By Dan Robitzski

SpaceX just beat its own record by reusing a single Falcon first stage called B1049.6 for the sixth time after launching from Cape Canaveral this morning.

SpaceX Just Reused a Single Booster for the 6th Time

By Victor Tangermann