the digest(Page 177)

Latest in the digest

Amazon has officially filed an application with the Federal Communications Comission (FCC) to launch some 3,236 broadband satellites.

Amazon Wants to Join SpaceX and Launch 3,200 Internet Satellites

By Victor Tangermann

Scientists who were melting permafrost ice to look for ancient microbes were surprised to see a pile of 41,000 year-old worms wake up and wiggle around.

Scientists Melted Ancient Ice and a Long-Dead Worm Wriggled Out

By Dan Robitzski

Solar Foods is using renewable energy and the carbon dioxide polluting our air to create an environmentally friendly alternative protein.

A Finnish Startup Is Making Food out of Carbon Dioxide

By Kristin Houser

Researchers in Japan developed a tiny microchip valve that can be powered by a living cells and a naturally occuring chemical.

Robots and Machines

“Cyborg-Like” Earthworm Controls Microchip With Its Muscles

By Victor Tangermann

As NASA scrambles to get ready for Artemis, its upcoming crewed mission to the Moon slated for 2024, China may take the lead.

Bad News, Astronauts: NASA Probably Won’t Reach Moon by 2024

By Dan Robitzski

NASA just awarded SpaceX with a launch services contract to launch NASA's Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission in 2021.

Science & Energy

SpaceX Scores NASA Contract to Launch Black Hole Spacecraft

By Victor Tangermann

Someone used machine learning to superimpose the face of Jim Carrey onto Jack Nicholson's character in Stanley Kubrick's iconic 1980 film "The Shining."

Artificial Intelligence

Oh No: Someone Deepfaked Jim Carrey Into “The Shining”

By Jon Christian

Watch as a glider-style drone composed of five mini-drones inspired by tiny seed pods bursts apart in mid-air to deliver its payloads.

This Bizarre Drone Splits Into Five Mini-Drones Mid-Air

By Kristin Houser

IBM recently patented a new kind of smartwatch that unfolds eight times to form a full-sized touchscreen wearable tablet.

IBM Patented a Goofy-Looking Watch That Folds Into a Tablet

By Dan Robitzski

NASA just turned off a heater on the Voyager 2 space probe in order to conserve dwindling energy supplies as the spacecraft explores interstellar space.

The Voyager Probes Are Running Low on Power

By Dan Robitzski

When the ESA launches LISA, a constellation of gravitational wave-detecting satellites, it will likely be able to spot new exoplanets across the galaxy.

Science & Energy

Gravitational Wave Detector May Find Exoplanets in Nearby Galaxies

By Dan Robitzski

We need to create a World Carbon Bank to incentivize developing nations to go green, according to Harvard University economist Kenneth Rogoff.

Economist Calls for World Carbon Bank to Fight Climate Change

By Kristin Houser

Next year, astronauts on the International Space Station will attempt to bake cookies in space. It's part PR stunt, part lesson in zero-g manufacturing.

Science & Energy

Astronauts Are Planning to Bake Cookies on the Space Station

By Dan Robitzski

Officials from the FBI, ICE, and other government agencies are using facial recognition tech to scan databases of DMV photos.

Artificial Intelligence

The FBI Is Scanning DMV Photos of Law-Abiding Americans

By Kristin Houser

A small fire broke out today at SpaceX's facility in Florida that's focused on bringing the Starship rocket to life, as TechCrunch reports.

Fire Breaks Out at SpaceX Starship Facility in Florida

By Victor Tangermann

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet that it'll take a "massive effort" to create the Autopilot software needed to facilitate safe autonomous driving.

Elon Musk: It’ll Take “Massive Effort” to Create Safe Autopilot

By Kristin Houser

A robot arm called the Jaco can attach to the wheelchairs of people with limited upper mobility and help them better manage everyday tasks.

This Robot Arm Can Help Wheelchair Users Drink Coffee, Open Doors

By Dan Robitzski

Last week, a Russian nuclear sub caught fire, killing 14. Now, a Russian Navy official says that the deceased crew averted a "planetary catastrophe."

Russia: Dead Nuclear Sub Somehow Avoided “Planetary Catastrophe”

By Dan Robitzski

It sounds like a joke, but members of Congress and their staff are getting together Wednesday to play the video game "Rocket League."

Members of Congress Are Gonna Play “Rocket League” on Twitch

By Jon Christian

As LightSail 2 orbits Earth and explores the cosmos, people back home can track the progress of the solar sail and monitor its status through a new website.

A New Website Tracks the Just-Launched Solar Sail Spaceship

By Dan Robitzski

A Dutch astronomer and satellite tracker Ralf Vanderberg just spotted something extraordinary and rare: the U.S. Air Force's top-secret X-37B space plane.

Amateur Astronomer Spots US Air Force Space Plane Lurking in Orbit

By Victor Tangermann

A third CRISPR baby was expected to be due in late June or early July, but the Chinese government is keeping quiet about the gene-hacking controversy.

We May Never Know When That Third CRISPR Baby Is Born

By Dan Robitzski

Once the cost of testing an embryo for genetic conditions drops, most parents will forgo traditional reproduction, according to author Henry T. Greely.

Health & Medicine

The Era of Sex for Reproduction Is Coming to an End, Says Author

By Kristin Houser

Physicist Sterling Backus is 3D printing a full-scale Lamborghini Aventador-inspired supercar in his own backyard with the help of his son.

A Physicist and His Son Are 3D-Printing a Full-Scale Lamborghini

By Victor Tangermann

AI tools like GROVER are very good at flooding the internet with fake news and spam. The solution may come in the form of smarter Google filters.

Artificial Intelligence

AI Poised to Ruin Internet Using “Massive Tsunami” of Fake News

By Dan Robitzski

Using a combination of CRISPR and antiretroviral therapy, researcher eliminated the HIV virus from the genomes of mice engineered to produce human T cells.

Health & Medicine

CRISPR Helps Scientists Cure HIV In Living Animals For First Time

By Kristin Houser

Astronomers have detected over ten radio bursts from distant galaxies in the last week. The sudden frequency could help us figure out what's causing them.

Science & Energy

Possible Alien Radio Signals Way More Common Than Believed

By Dan Robitzski

The Pentagon wants its own dedicated space station in orbit around the Earth for both scientific research and military operations.

The Pentagon Wants Its Own Orbital Space Station, Like a Death Star, But Not, Okay?

By Dan Robitzski

Researchers built a device small room-sized device that spins willing participants on a giant platform to mimic the effect of Earth-like gravity in space.

This Room-Sized Device Could Create Artificial Gravity in Space

By Victor Tangermann

Research scientist Janelle Shane trained a naming AI to conjure up new monikers for self-aware spaceships like those in author Iain M. Banks' Culture books.

Artificial Intelligence

This AI Gives Other AIs Names Like “Ass Federation” And “Hot Pie” Because Robots Can Be Weird Too

By Kristin Houser

Researchers have created a version of an MRI machine that's so scaled down, it can capture detailed images of individual atoms.

Quantum Physics

World’s Smallest MRI Machine Means We Can Now Scan Individual Atoms

By Kristin Houser

NASA tested its Orion spacecraft's Launch Abort System (LAS) on Tuesday — and it seems the astronaut escape plan worked exactly as hoped.

NASA’s Orion Crew Capsule Aced Its Abort System Test

By Kristin Houser

An in-depth study of 'Oumuamua, the first interstellar visitor to our solar system, seems to finally put to bed the theory that it's an alien spacecraft.

Science & Energy

Sorry, but ’Oumuamua the Asteroid Wasn’t Sent by Aliens, Say Scientists, For Some Reason Dignifying This Yet Again

By Kristin Houser

The most extravagant Fourth of July fireworks can't hold a candle to the stunning cosmic fireworks display the Hubble telescope has captured.

Stunning Cosmic Fireworks Display Captured by Hubble, Right on Time

By Kristin Houser

Soldiers in Afghanistan will be the first in the United States military to use its pocket-sized Black Hornet recon drones.

US Army Announces First Deployment of Its Pocket-Sized Drones

By Kristin Houser

A month after launch, SpaceX confirmed that three of the 60 Starlink satellites it sent into space have failed — and it won't elaborate as to why.

SpaceX Being Sketch(X) About the 3 Starlink Satellites That Failed

By Kristin Houser

A massive new survey is designed to determine how the general public feels about aliens and what humans should do if ET ever reaches out.

Scientists Want Your Input on Our Alien Response Plan

By Kristin Houser

Buzz Aldrin: Stephen Hawking Said We Shouldn’t Colonize Mars Yet

Buzz Aldrin: Stephen Hawking Said We Shouldn’t Colonize Mars Yet

By Kristin Houser

NASA announced a new contest in which contestants are asked to come up with a design for a space garden capable of growing crops.

New NASA Contest Seeks Way to Grow a Space Garden

By Dan Robitzski

Federal agents used postage bought online to track down two dark web drug dealers selling methamphetamine they marketed as Adderall.

Feds Bust Dark Web Drug Dealers After They Buy Postage Online

By Kristin Houser

Astrobiologists believe that the answer to what alien life could look like on icy moons like Saturn's moon Enceladus could lie deep on the ocean floor.

Science & Energy

Aliens on Icy Moons Could Look Like Organisms Near Seafloor Volcanoes

By Victor Tangermann

To prevent farm animals from contribute to methane emissions, scientists suggest feeding them foods less likely to produce the greenhouse gas.

Gut Microbe Manipulation Could End Climate-Destroying Sheep Farts

By Kristin Houser

Casinos in China are using artifiical intelligence and facial recognition tools to track and cater to gamblers who are more likely to make riskier bets.

Facial recognition

Chinese Casinos Use AI, Facial Recognition to Spot Suckers

By Dan Robitzski

Researchers achieved quantum teleportation within a diamond, an achievement that could shape how we share and store sensitive information in the future.

Quantum Physics

Physicists Just Teleported Quantum Information Inside a Diamond

By Kristin Houser

Google just announced plans to build its third private undersea internet cable, expected to begin connecting Europe and Africa in 2021.

Science & Energy

Google’s Next Subsea Internet Cable to Connect Africa and Europe

By Dan Robitzski

New lab-grown mini brains are the most advanced yet, spontaneously forming into neural circuits resembling the cerebral cortex and mirroring brain activity.

New Lab-Grown Mini Brains Are the Most Advanced Yet

By Dan Robitzski

A giant asteroid the size of a car just showed up on the University of Hawaii's survey telescopes mere hours before it entered the Earth's atmosphere.

Science & Energy

Massive Asteroid Explodes Above Puerto Rico Mere Hours After Detection

By Victor Tangermann

SpinLaunch, a company that specializes in a space katapult launch system, just signed a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense's Innovation Unit (DIU).

Hypersonic Space Catapult Startup Signs Military Contract

By Victor Tangermann

A new molecule latches onto uranium isotopes, making them easier for the kidneys to guide out of the bodies of people suffering from uranium poisoning.

Health & Medicine

This Molecular “Claw” Pulls Uranium From Irradiated Mice

By Kristin Houser

A scientist argued that more dogs should be sent to space, both to serve as companions but also to improve microbiome diversity in orbit.

Scientists Are Calling for More Dogs in Space

By Dan Robitzski

As part of project Dragonfly, NASA is planning to send a small spacecraft to Saturn's moon Titan, a moon with an extremely dense atmosphere.

Breaking: NASA Announces Mission to Saturn’s Largest Moon Titan

By Victor Tangermann

Contrails given off by airplanes contribute more to global warming than we thought. By 2050, they'll warm the planet twice as much as the plane's emissions.

Airplane Contrails Might Actually be a Problem for the Environment

By Dan Robitzski

The White House plans to host a social media summit on July 11, but so far, none of the expected invitees have commented on the event.

Trump Slams Tech Titans, White House Announces Social Media Summit

By Kristin Houser

Elon Musk just revealed that the base model Roadster will accelerate from 0-60 mph in just over two seconds "before adding rocket thruster option."

Advanced Transport

Musk: Roadster to Go 0-60 in 2.1 Seconds “Before Thruster Option”

By Victor Tangermann

A new set of equations can make sense of the physics behind turbulence, letting scientists better understand weather and the ways galaxies form.

New Turbulence Models Could Predict Galaxy Formation

By Dan Robitzski

Amazon's re:MARS conference for emerging artificial intelligence technology was more of a thinly-veiled advertisement for Amazon's own goals.

Artificial Intelligence

Amazon’s Re:Mars AI Conference Was Like a “Cloud Computing Cult”

By Dan Robitzski

Elon Musk took to Twitter to compare an Earth-to-Earth trip aboard SpaceX's powerful Starship rocket to a ride on Disney's Space Mountain roller coaster.

Elon Musk Compares Rocket Rides to Disney Roller Coaster

By Kristin Houser

By embedding engineered bacteria into the fingers of a robot arm, researchers have created a biohybrid bot that can "taste" for certain chemicals.

Robot Arm Uses Bacteria in Its Fingers to “Taste” Its Environment

By Kristin Houser

The U.S. Special Forces are developing a device that can detect a person's unique cardiac signature using an IR laser from a distance.

Science & Energy

New Laser Can Identify People From a Distance By Their Heartbeat

By Victor Tangermann

Researchers from the University of Michigan found widespread traces of naturally-occurring dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in the mammalian brain.

Naturally-Occurring “Mystical” Psychedelic Found in Mammal Brains

By Victor Tangermann

Six weeks after Indian authorities promised all of the debris created by their missile test was burned up in the atmosphere, 41 out of 400 pieces remain.

Dangerous Debris From India’s Exploded Satellite Still Orbiting Earth

By Victor Tangermann

JD Composites used more than 600,000 recycled plastic bottles to construct this beachfront home in Meteghan River, Nova Scotia.

You Won’t Be Able to Tell This House Is Made From Plastic Bottles

By Kristin Houser

For the first time, scientists generated entangled radiation using a mechanical object. They're describing it as the first step toward a quantum internet.

Scientists: Entangled Radiation May Help Build “Quantum Internet”

By Dan Robitzski

Google scientists trained a neural net to better navigate spaces with an archive of thousands of "Mannequin Challenge" videos.

Artificial Intelligence

A Neural Net Used a Viral Meme to Learn to Navigate

By Dan Robitzski