the digest (Page 145)

Latest in the digest

Scientists have long suggested that microbes could theoretically live in the sulfurous clouds of Venus. An MIT team has more ideas on how that would work.

MIT Scientists Suggest Life Could Thrive in the Clouds of Venus

By Dan Robitzski

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter that his space company's Raptor engine just aced an important pressure test "without exploding."

SpaceX Tests Highest Pressure Rocket Engine In History

By Victor Tangermann

NASA scientists have been tracking a strange "dent" in the Earth's magnetic field as its slowly moving westwards over the southern Atlantic Ocean.

Science & Energy

NASA Is Tracking a “Dent” in the Earth’s Magnetic Field

By Victor Tangermann

Northrop Grumman's MEV-2 spacecraft will attempt to dock to an actively functioning satellite called Intelsat 10-02 while in geosynchronous orbit.

Robots and Machines

Northrop Grumman Launches Second Satellite Rescue Mission

By Victor Tangermann

Scientists want to improve our ability to forecast weather in space due to concerns that a solar storm could wipe out our entire electronic infrastructure.

Scientists Are Worried About Solar Storms Frying all our Electronics

By Dan Robitzski

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) signed a contract with the extremely controversial facial recognition tech company Clearview AI.

ICE Signs Contract With Controversial Facial Recognition Company

By Victor Tangermann

Trump's EPA just rolled back the last of the Obama-era carbon emission regulations that held oil companies responsible for methane leaks.

Trump’s EPA Says Oil Industry Can Relax About Methane Leaks

By Dan Robitzski

Jack Dorsey has a message for aspiring tech entrepreneurs: Elon Musk's approach and work ethic is some serious "bullshit."

Jack Dorsey, Who Once Said He Drinks “Salt Juice,” Called Elon Musk’s Routine “Bullshit”

By Dan Robitzski

Scientists refuse to stop using indecipherable, vague acronyms that could have multiple meanings, and it's a serious problem for accessibility.

Science & Energy

Scientists Furious That Scientists Keep Using Indecipherable Acronyms

By Dan Robitzski

The star S62 whips around the Milky Way's central black hole at a dizzying eight percent of lightspeed. It's so fast scientists can see time slow down.

Science & Energy

This Star Is Moving So Fast it Visibly Warps Spacetime

By Dan Robitzski

Scientists just blew the distance record for long-range quantum-encrypted messages after beaming one down from a satellite in orbit.

Quantum Physics

Chinese Scientists Figured Out How to Beam Quantum Messages From Satellites

By Dan Robitzski

You Can Now Waste $6,000 on an Elon Musk-Themed iPhone

You Can Now Waste $6,000 on an Elon Musk-Themed iPhone

By Dan Robitzski

Thanks to new, skintight sensors, AI may finally be able to learn what's going on with our hands when we make everyday gestures.

Artificial Intelligence

New AI Might Finally Decipher Human Gestures

By Dan Robitzski

U.S. federal law enforcement reportedly funneled millions in crypto from terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS in a record-breaking seizure.

Science & Energy

The US Seized Millions in Crypto From Terrorist Groups

By Dan Robitzski

A team of researchers have created a negative pressure "gravity suit" to help astronauts counteract some of the dangers of spending time in microgravity.

Researchers Built a “Gravity Suit” to Keep Astronauts Healthy

By Victor Tangermann

A team of AI scientists want to launch a well-intentioned but ethically-complicated study that involves monitoring parolees to cut down on recidivism.

Artificial Intelligence

AI Developers Want to Perform a Bizarre Study on Released Prisoners

By Dan Robitzski

Project Maven, the notorious Air Force AI system that Google helped develop and makes drones more lethal, is about to be deployed next month.

Artificial Intelligence

Air Force’s Notorious Project Maven Goes Live Next Month

By Dan Robitzski

Japan is pouring money into the development of flying cars with aims of commercializing the futuristic mode of transportation as soon as 2023.

Advanced Transport

Flying Cars Are Actually, Finally Becoming a Reality in Japan

By Victor Tangermann

Apple filed a patent describing AirPods that can automatically adjust volume in either ear based on where you are and what you're up to.

Artificial Intelligence

Bizarre Apple Patent Describes Self-Aware AirPods

By Dan Robitzski

Tesla senior industrial designer Remy Labesque, who normally works on solar panels and EV chargers, just reinvented the chocolate chip.

Science & Energy

Tesla Designer Reinvents the Chocolate Chip

By Dan Robitzski

A team of researchers at Washington University in St Louis have figured out a way to turn regular ol' bricks into batteries.

Science & Energy

They Turned a Brick Into a Battery

By Victor Tangermann

AI-Generated Sound Effects Are Now Fooling Human Ears

Artificial Intelligence

AI-Generated Sound Effects Are Now Fooling Human Ears

By Dan Robitzski

A London courtroom declared the South Wales Police's notorious use of mass facial recognition surveillance is unlawful due to a lack of safeguards.

Facial recognition

UK Court Slams Automatic Facial Recognition Tech as “Unlawful”

By Dan Robitzski

Tesla competitor Lucid Motors claims its Air electric sedan has a whopping 517 miles (832 km) on a single charge, as certified by the EPA.

Tesla Competitor, Lucid, Claims Their Car Will Have a 517 Mile Range

By Victor Tangermann

Mitochondria, as we all know, are the powerhouse of the cell, but if something dampers the mighty mitochondria it can be difficult to determine why.

Science & Energy

Scientists Made Mice Glow in the Dark to Study Mitochondria

New York's mass transportation agency, fed up with folks taking off their masks to unlock their iPhones, wants Apple to improve facial recognition features.

Artificial Intelligence

New York City Subway System Asks Apple to Improve Masked Face ID

How much effort should we place on preserving World Heritage Sites threatened by climate changes brought on by human activity?

New Climate Paper: Maybe Let’s Let Venice Sink?

The UK government has been funneling millions of dollars into a gun and knife crime prediction tool that uses artificial intelligence. Turns out it sucks.

Artificial Intelligence

Minority Report-Style Crime-Predicting AI Predictably Sucks At Its Job

By Victor Tangermann

The Department of Energy recently signed a contract with an AI lab to come up with a machine learning bird watcher to study bird around solar farms.

Artificial Intelligence

Scientists Are Using an “AI Bird Watcher” to Solve a Solar Farm Bird Massacre Mystery

By Victor Tangermann

The aerospace startup Hermeus won a contract to build a hypersonic version of Air Force One capable of reaching speeds up to Mach 5.

Advanced Transport

Air Force One’s Successor Could Go 5x the Speed of Sound

By Dan Robitzski

NASA is finally taking stock and getting rid of the various racist nicknames the space agency has granted objects in space over the years.

Science & Energy

NASA Says It Will Stop Using Racist Names for Space Objects

By Dan Robitzski

Scientists treated the Moon like a giant mirror to study the Earth's atmosphere, a trick they say could help search for inhabited worlds.

Science & Energy

Scientists Are Using The Moon as a Giant Mirror to Search For Aliens

By Dan Robitzski

Genetics research is full of errors because Microsoft Excel reformats some gene names into calendar dates. To fix it, scientists just renamed the genes.

Science & Energy

Scientists Had to Rename Genes Because They Confused Microsoft Excel

By Dan Robitzski

Astronomers have discovered that a gigantic wall of clouds is traveling around the surface of Venus every 4.9 days and has been doing so for decades.

Science & Energy

A Poisonous Tsunami Is Screaming Across the Surface of Venus

By Victor Tangermann

Scientists suggest that the key to settling Mars or the Moon is hiding underground in lava tubes. Now we know the caverns are actually big enough.

Scientists: Martian Lava Tubes Large Enough to Fit Planetary Base

By Dan Robitzski

The private equity firm Blackstone just purchased Ancestry as well as its massive databse of customers' genetic information.

A Private Equity Firm Just Bought the Largest Consumer DNA Database

By Dan Robitzski

Advocacy groups accuse Democrats Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi of enabling mass surveillance and underminnig attempts to strengthen privacy.

Democrats Accused of Letting Cops Access Americans’ Browsing Histories

By Dan Robitzski

CEO of Tesla competitor and truck maker Nikola Mark Russell recently took aim at Elon Musk's passion project, the Cybertruck — and he didn't mince words.

Tesla Competitor Slams Cybertruck For Looking “Like a Doorstep”

By Victor Tangermann

A team of scientists made a version of the game "Go" that's played at the quantum scale with entangled photons rather than black-and-white stones.

Scientists Played a Game of Go at the Quantum Scale

By Dan Robitzski

A team of scientists figured out how new exoplanets could form around a black hole. They've named the theoretical worlds "blanets."

Science & Energy

Astronomers Say That Planets Orbiting Black Holes Are Called “Blanets”

By Dan Robitzski

Astronomers have observed an unusual young exoplanet some 150 light-years from Earth that's far more dense for its size and age than thought possible.

Science & Energy

Like Your First Quarantine Sourdough Attempt, This Exoplanet Is “Surprisingly Dense”

By Victor Tangermann

A new video uploaded by SpaceX shows off the company's impressive first full-scale Starship hop in glorious HD. We even got an inside view.

Watch SpaceX’s Epic Starship Test Flight From Inside the Giant Rocket

By Victor Tangermann

Incredible: Watch SpaceX Fly Full-Scale Starship Prototype to 500 Feet

Incredible: Watch SpaceX Fly Full-Scale Starship Prototype to 500 Feet

By Victor Tangermann

According Elon Musk, Tesla is "highly likely" to produce a smaller version of it's long-awaited Cybertruck for the European market.

Elon Musk: “Highly Likely” Europe Will Get a Smaller Tesla Cybertruck

By Victor Tangermann

Cosmologist Katie Mack says that understanding the ways our universe could theoretically come to an end is "freeing," and makes her feel more connected.

Science & Energy

Physicist: Knowing How the Universe Will Die Comforts Me

By Dan Robitzski

Scientists thought exoplanets appeared bright in sky surveys because of reflective lava oceans, but new research shows something else has to be helping.

Science & Energy

Super-Earth Exoplanets Could Have Bright-Shining Metallic Atmospheres

By Dan Robitzski

For the first time, physicists observed the Higgs boson decay into a pair of particles called muons, further reinforcing the Standard Model.

CERN Says the Higgs Boson Did Something Unexpected

By Dan Robitzski

Thanks to San Francisco-based startup Formant, you can remotely a control a Boston Dynamics Spot robot dog to go for a stroll.

Boston Dynamics

This Site Lets You Control an Actual Boston Dynamics Robodog With a PlayStation Controller

By Victor Tangermann

Photos have emerged of large tents and heavy tunneling machinery belonging to Elon Musk's Boring Company in the California desert north east of LA.

There’s a Theory That Elon Musk Is Digging a Tunnel Between LA and Vegas

By Victor Tangermann

Elon Musk defended the name of Tesla's oft-criticized "Autopilot" mode, saying confusion over its capabilities is "idiotic."

Elon Musk Defends Tesla’s Misleading “Autopilot” Mode

By Dan Robitzski

Science & Energy

This Galaxy Cluster Is Spewing a Surplus of Stars Because of a Lazy Black Hole

By Dan Robitzski

While NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley were trapped inside SpaceX's Crew Dragon for hours, they made several prank calls to pass the time.

Bored Inside Their Spacecraft, NASA Astronauts Made Prank Calls to Pass the Time

By Victor Tangermann

Over the weekend, the Trump administration gave TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance 45 days to sell off the app — or get kicked out of the US market.

Microsoft Offers to Buy TikTok Following Trump Crackdown

By Victor Tangermann

Space tourism company Virgin Galactic just announced it's working with Rolls-Royce to develop a supersonic jet meant for air travel.

Advanced Transport

Virgin Galactic Shows Off Sleek Supersonic Jet Concept

By Victor Tangermann

After two NASA astronauts splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday afternoon, more than a dozen private boats came up right to the capsule.

More Than a Dozen Private Boats Came Out to Greet SpaceX Astronauts After Splashdown

By Victor Tangermann

After undocking with the International Space Station Saturday evening, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley made it safely back down to Earth.

Mission Accomplished: SpaceX Crew Dragon Splashes Down in Atlantic

By Victor Tangermann

Israel startup Urban Aeronautics announced this week that it's partnering with hydrogen fuel cell maker HyPoint to devise a hydrogen-powered flying car.

Advanced Transport

New Hampshire Passes Law That Allows Flying Cars

By Jon Christian

Details are starting to emerge about how hackers accessed the Twitter acounts of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Kanye West and a rash of other public figures.

This Is How Hackers Accessed Elon Musk’s Twitter Account

By Jon Christian

Aerospace giant Airbus is planning to bring back the first ever rock samples from Mars using what it claims to be the "first interplanetary cargo ship."

Robots and Machines

Airbus Is Officially Building an “Interplanetary Cargo Ship”

By Victor Tangermann

Shortly after rocketing into orbit, NASA's Perseverance rover experienced a couple of small hiccups: a minor communications and temperature glitch.

NASA’s New Rover Hit a Glitch After Launch, Entered “Safe Mode”

By Victor Tangermann

After being dragged to the surface and fed a little snack, ancient oceanic bacteria from over 100 million years ago sprang back to life.

Science & Energy

Scientists Revive 100-Million-Year-Old Lifeforms

By Dan Robitzski

Studying the rings of photons swirling around the black hole Pōwehi can help scientists understand the history of the universe.

We May Be Able to Extract “Movies” of the Universe From Black Holes

By Dan Robitzski

China is installing massive 20-megawatt generators to its warships to power high-energy weapons, including lasers and rail guns.

Chinese Navy Installs Generators to Power Rail Guns, Energy Weapons

By Victor Tangermann

State-backed Chinese hackers allegedly hacked the Vatican to get a leg up on upcoming diplomatic negotiations over Catholocism in China.

Science & Energy

China Allegedly Hacked the Vatican, Other Catholic Computer Systems

By Dan Robitzski