the digest (Page 186)

Latest in the digest

This Video Game Detects Alzheimer’s Earlier Than Lab Tests

Neuroscience and Brain

This Video Game Detects Alzheimer’s Earlier Than Lab Tests

By Natalie Coleman

Surgeons just used the first autonomous surgery robot, a self-guiding catheter that could navigate its way through a pig's heart.

Self-Driving Vehicles

Surgeons Just Sent a Tiny, Autonomous Bot Into a Heart Valve

By Dan Robitzski

China is considering a law that would make deepfakes illegal, a move that shows the world power is taking the threat the videos pose very seriously.

Artificial Intelligence

China Wants to Make Deepfakes Illegal

By Kristin Houser

A cat named Pikachu, who died and was cremated in January, will be the first cat to have its ashes launched out into space.

A Dead Cat Named Pikachu Is Getting Launched Into Space

By Dan Robitzski

Plant-based meat startup Beyond Meat plans to launch an IPO next month, at the ambitious total valuation of $1.2 billion.

Fake Meat Startup Beyond Meat Says It’s Worth More Than $1 Billion

By Dan Robitzski

Gianluca Vacchi is suing E*Trade because he believes the company created a "clone" of his persona to use in a 2017 commercial.

Lawsuit Claims Advertiser Created “Clone” of Instagram Influencer

By Kristin Houser

Casinos all across the globe are starting to use facial recognition systems to improve their ability to keep self-identified problem gamblers away.

Facial recognition

Casinos Are Using Facial Recognition to Keep Banned Gamblers Away

By Kristin Houser

A hacker recently took control of over 27,000 drivers' accounts in apps that can monitor — and remotely disable — their car.

Robots and Machines

A Hacker Says He Can Kill Your Car’s Engine While You’re Driving

By Dan Robitzski

During a Reddit AMA, science communicator and theoretical physicist Michio Kaku said he expects we'll discover the theory of everything by the year 2100.

Science & Energy

Michio Kaku Thinks We’ll Prove The “Theory of Everything” by 2100

By Kristin Houser

Several Lime scooters had to be pulled off the streets of Brisbane after hackers made them play sexually explicit audio recordings.

Advanced Transport

Hackers Are Reprogramming Lime Scooters to Make Sexual Comments

By Dan Robitzski

On Wednesday, the head of China's National Space Administration announced that China plans to construct a research station on the Moon within ten years.

China Says It’ll Have a Moon Base in Ten Years

By Dan Robitzski

Tech entrepreneur John McAfee has decided to push pause on his plan to reveal Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto's true identify.

Shocker: John McAfee Suspends Plan to Unmask Bitcoin’s Creator

By Kristin Houser

Young People Are Choosing to Live in “Pods” Instead of Apartments

Young People Are Choosing to Live in “Pods” Instead of Apartments

By Victor Tangermann

Russia's new counter-drone technology is a low-cost drone that acts like a battering ram, knocking hostile quadcopters out of the sky.

Russia Built a Battering Ram Drone to Knock Drones out of the Sky

By Dan Robitzski

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has released a video of the asteroid bombing mission recently undertaken by its Hayabusa2 spacecraft.

Science & Energy

Japan Releases Video of Its Spacecraft Bombing an Asteroid

By Kristin Houser

Using a powerful supercomputer, scientists simulated every single one of the billion atoms found in a human gene. It may help them crack genetic disease.

Scientists Simulated Every Single Atom of a Single Gene

By Dan Robitzski

A crypto thief that security experts are calling the "blockchain bandit" made off with millions of dollars' worth of Ethereum by guessing weak passwords.

Science & Energy

Crypto Thief Stole $54 Million by Guessing Weak Passwords

By Dan Robitzski

A group of engineers figured out a way to fool AI surveillance systems with the help of a little colorful patch you can hang around your neck.

Artificial Intelligence

This Colorful Picture is Like an Invisibility Cloak for AI

By Victor Tangermann

Researchers have figured out how a slime mold without a brain is still seemingly able to learn and transmit knowledge to other molds.

Science & Energy

Researchers Discover How a Brainless Slime Can Remember Things

By Kristin Houser

Watch a Tesla Model S Burst Into Flames in a Parking Garage

Watch a Tesla Model S Burst Into Flames in a Parking Garage

By Victor Tangermann

Within four years, 97% of passengers leaving the U.S. will be subjected to airport face scans, according to a new Homeland Security report.

Artificial Intelligence

US Airports Will Scan 97% of Outbound Flyers’ Faces Within 4 Years

By Kristin Houser

Wall Street is not buying Elon Musk's assertion that Tesla will have a million autonomous robotaxis on the road by the end of 2020.

Experts: Tesla’s Plans to Launch a Robotaxi Network Are Nonsense

By Kristin Houser

New Research: The Moon Is Covered With Miles-Deep Cracks

New Research: The Moon Is Covered With Miles-Deep Cracks

By Victor Tangermann

Amazon recently unveiled a new requirement for contractors who deliver its packages: taking selfies now and then to verify their identity.

Artificial Intelligence

Amazon Is Forcing Its Delivery Drivers to Take Selfies

By Dan Robitzski

A bill that would legalize human composting after death is just a governor's signature away from becoming law in Washington state.

Washington Is One Signature Away From Legalizing Human Composting

By Kristin Houser

A social media entrepreneur could spend the next 20 years in prison because he paid someone to try to steal a domain name at gunpoint.

Someone Used a Gun to Try to Steal a Domain Name

By Kristin Houser

NASA recently tested a new drone swarm, where "Hives" release "Cicadas" to monitor the weather and atmospheric conditions.

NASA’s “Hive” Drones Can Deploy Swarms of Tiny Robot Cicadas

By Dan Robitzski

It's finally official: Samsung is delaying the sale of its folding smartphone, the $2,000 Galaxy Fold.

Robots and Machines

Samsung Admits Its Folding Smartphone “Needs Further Improvements”

By Victor Tangermann

Three scientists in Texas have been fired over allegations they'd been stealing research for China, a move some are calling racially motivated.

Science & Energy

Research Institute Fires Scientists for Selling Secrets to China

By Kristin Houser

A recent report shows that amateur Russian hackers infiltrated the finance offices of several U.S. embassies around the world.

Science & Energy

Rogue Russian Hackers Are Attacking US Embassies

By Dan Robitzski

According to consumer tech website Sam Mobile, the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Fold has been delayed in China — the world's largest market for smartphones.

Robots and Machines

Samsung is Delaying the Galaxy Fold’s Launch After Broken Screens

By Victor Tangermann

NASA approved the preliminary designs of a spacecraft expected to visit the asteroid Psyche in 2022. When it gets there, NASA won't know what to expect.

NASA Is Gearing up to Visit a Shattered, Volcanic Asteroid

By Dan Robitzski

Update: Vid Appears to Show SpaceX Capsule Exploding During Test

Update: Vid Appears to Show SpaceX Capsule Exploding During Test

By Victor Tangermann

A new biomaterial exhibits metabolism-like behaviors. It appears in some ways to act like a living thing, blurring the line between biology and machinery.

Scientists Create Material With “Artificial Metabolism”

By Dan Robitzski

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have discovered genetic variants that protect people from obesity and its symptoms.

Health & Medicine

Scientists Find Genetic Variants That Prevent Obesity, Diabetes

By Kristin Houser

IBM is halting development and sales of its Watson AI designed to find promising new medications, according to a new STAT story.

Artificial Intelligence

IBM Pulls the Plug on Drug-Discovering Watson AI

By Kristin Houser

The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly considering holding Mark Zuckerberg directly responsible for Facebook's privacy scandals.

The Government Wants to Make an Example out of Mark Zuckerberg

By Dan Robitzski

China has announced what local media is calling the "world's first armed amphibious drone boat."

China’s Military Built an Autonomous Amphibious Landing Vehicle

By Victor Tangermann

Boston Dynamics has debuted the version of its SpotMini robot dog that it plans to actually sell to consumers — but it has yet to announce a price tag.

Boston Dynamics

Boston Dynamics Unveils SpotMini You’ll Actually Be Able to Buy

By Kristin Houser

The governor of Puerto Rico just signed a bill that will quickly move the island away from non-renewable energy sources within the next few decades.

Puerto Rico Will Stop Burning Coal Next Year

By Dan Robitzski

A neural network is grinding out the blast beats, super-distorted guitars and bellowing vocals of death metal — and livestreaming it.

Artificial Intelligence

Listen to Brutal Death Metal Made by a Neural Network

By Jon Christian

The European Space Agency just greenlit a UK aerospace manufacturer's tests of a novel air-breathing rocket engine that sucks up atmospheric oxygen.

Amazing New Rocket Engine Sucks up Atmospheric Oxygen for Fuel

By Victor Tangermann

Almost every active nuclear reactor in the U.S. is unprepared for flooding and storm surge caused by climate change; industry groups chose not to act.

Climate Change Could Cause Fukushima-Style Meltdowns in the US

By Dan Robitzski

Denver, Colorado, may soon decriminalize the personal use of psilocybin-containing mushrooms, making it the first place in the U.S. to consider doing so.

Denver Is Voting on Whether to Decriminalize Psychedelic Mushrooms

By Dan Robitzski

GermFalcon, a company specializing in airplane sanitizing tech, developed a kind of space Roomba that can blast sterilising UV rays at the walls of the ISS.

This Space Roomba Could Clean the ISS While Astronauts Sleep

By Victor Tangermann

Scientists finally detect helium hydride, a combination of helium and hydrogen, thought to be the first molecule to form in the universe.

Science & Energy

Astronomers Finally Found the Universe’s First Type of Molecule

By Kristin Houser

When India blew up a satellite, it introduced a lot of debris into orbit. Lockheed Martin's experimental Space Fence is keeping an eye on it.

India Blew up a Satellite. Now A “Space Fence” Is Tracking Its Debris

By Dan Robitzski

The Mueller Report, heavily redacted, describes a number of high-tech Russian operations designed to undermine and sway the 2016 Presidential election.

The Mueller Report Confirms We’re Living in a Cyberpunk Dystopia

By Dan Robitzski

Scientists have a new plan to try and spot dark matter by searching for particular particles once the Large Hadron Collider's upgrades are complete.

When the Large Hadron Collider Turns on, It May Trap Dark Matter

By Dan Robitzski

When the Notre Dame blaze got too dangerous for humans to continue battling, the Paris Fire Brigade called in a firefighting robot named Colossus.

See the “Colossus” Firefighting Robot That Helped Save Notre Dame

By Kristin Houser

The Boring Company's Loop project connecting Washington, D.C., and Baltimore has moved one step closer to breaking ground.

Elon Musk’s “Loop Project” Is One Step Closer to Breaking Ground

By Kristin Houser

It sounds like the premise to a young adult novel: a totalitarian government sends its kids to a special facility to train them for life at a Mars colony.

China Is Sending Teens to a Simulated Mars Colony

By Jon Christian

In 2013, scientists were in the middle of studying the black hole at the center of the galaxy when a neutron star flared up and blocked their view.

A City-Sized Star Is Blocking the View of Our Galaxy’s Black Hole

By Dan Robitzski

Samsung will investigate emerging reports that the Galaxy Fold smartphone's screen is breaking. It's officially still going on sale on April 26.

Robots and Machines

Samsung: Please Don’t Peel Protective Layer Off Our Folding Phone

By Victor Tangermann

Researchers say they've cured 10 infants born with SCID-X1, also known as "bubble boy" disease, using an HIV-assisted gene therapy.

Health & Medicine

Scientists Gene-Edited HIV to Cure “Bubble Boy” Disease

By Kristin Houser

The new trailer for the upcoming Child's Play movie shows creepy doll Chucky commandeering a smart lawnmower, a thermostat, and a drone.

In New “Chucky” Trailer, Killer Doll Terrorizes With IoT Gadgets

By Victor Tangermann

North Korea just announced a new missile test and made demands for ongoing disarmament negotiations with the U.S., calling for the removal of Pompeo.

North Korea Says It Tested a New Weapon But Won’t Say What It Was

By Dan Robitzski

Facebook admitted yesterday that it "unintentionally uploaded" email contacts of some 1.5 million new users since May 2016.

Facebook “Unintentionally” Uploaded 1.5 Million Email Contacts

By Victor Tangermann

A humanoid robot TV news anchor dubbed Alex just read the news on Russia 24, a state-owned television channel, yesterday.

Russia Built a Grotesque Robot Newscaster and Put It on TV

By Victor Tangermann

Using CRISPR gene editing tools, MIT scientists turned a human cell into a tiny computer that could be used to detect diseases and churn out treatments.

Health & Medicine

Scientists Used CRISPR to Turn a Cell Into a Biological Computer

By Dan Robitzski

Worrying reports of Samsung Galaxy Fold review units showing small bulges and broken displays are coming in.

Review Units of Samsung’s Folding Phone Are Breaking Almost Immediately

By Victor Tangermann

A team from Yale created a system that let them breathe new life into pig brains that had been removed from the animals' skulls.

Science & Energy

Yale Scientists Kept Decapitated Pigs’ Brains Alive for 36 Hours

By Kristin Houser

After conducting an internal investigation into three professors who knew about He Jiankui's CRISPR baby research, Stanford let its faculty off the hook.

Prosthetics and Devices

Stanford Declines to Punish Faculty For CRISPR Babies

By Dan Robitzski

Astronomers have discovered that one subregion of the Milky Way is far more efficient at star formation than the others — and they don't know why.

Science & Energy

Scientists Find Mysterious Star-Forming Factory In Milky Way

By Kristin Houser