the digest (Page 187)

Latest in the digest

This Attack Helicopter Can Launch Drones From Midair

This Attack Helicopter Can Launch Drones From Midair

By Victor Tangermann

The first human CRISPR trial in the U.S. has officially begun, with a UPenn team using the technology to treat two cancer patients.

Prosthetics and Devices

The US Has Officially Started Using CRISPR on Humans

By Kristin Houser

Incredibly Tough NASA Sensor May Have Survived Moon Lander Crash

Incredibly Tough NASA Sensor May Have Survived Moon Lander Crash

By Dan Robitzski

SpaceX successfully landed three Falcon Heavy boosters last week. But stormy weather had a different plan for them, and one fell into the water.

SpaceX Landed a Falcon Heavy Booster. Then It Fell Into the Sea.

By Dan Robitzski

By extending astronaut Christina Koch's space mission to 328 days, NASA hopes to glean new insights into the impact of longterm spaceflight on humans.

NASA Announces Plan to Keep Astronaut in Space for 328 Days

By Kristin Houser

A 1.5-meter device called a Z-pinch generated nuclear fusion, but not for long enough to be useful. Still, it shows that small-scale fusion is possible.

Scientists Generated Nuclear Fusion With a Tabletop Device

By Dan Robitzski

Harvard astronomers found evidence that 'Oumuamua isn't the only interstellar visitor we've had in recent years. Others may have crashed into the Earth.

An Interstellar Rock Like ‘Oumuamua May Have Hit Earth In 2014

By Dan Robitzski

Cornell scientists developed a new type of gene-hacking technology that acts like a DNA "shredder." It could be used to cure diseases like herpes.

Health & Medicine

New CRISPR Tech Could Cure Herpes

By Dan Robitzski

Siberian scientists conducted an autopsy of a 42,000-year-old foal of an extinct horse, and found that it's so well-preserved they may be able to clone it.

Scientists Plan to Clone Extinct Horse Using 42,000-Year-Old Blood

By Dan Robitzski

A mysterious group of individuals hid the keys to $1 million worth of bitcoin in a twisted game with no rules, CoinDesk reports.

Someone Hid $1 Million In Bitcoin and Left Clues to Find It

By Victor Tangermann

Recently, venture capital firms have invested heavily in astrology apps and companies that are benefitting from cultural popularity.

Venture Capital Firms Are Pouring Money Into Astrology

By Dan Robitzski

NASA is paying a team of scientists to build an inflatable robot that can move and grasp things by selectively inflating chambers that act like muscles.

NASA is Building Inflatable Robot Astronauts

By Dan Robitzski

An AI Invented a Weird Sport Called “Speedgate”

Artificial Intelligence

An AI Invented a Weird Sport Called “Speedgate”

By Victor Tangermann

The fast-food chain Del Taco just announced a new partnership with Beyond Meats to start selling plant-based meat alternatives starting April 25.

Taco Bell Competitor Embraces Plant-Based “Meat” in its Tacos

By Dan Robitzski

A new study took the first steps toward figuring out which part of the brain is responsible for giving people nightmares and negative emotions during sleep.

Neuroscience and Brain

Scientists Might Have Just Figured Out Where Nightmares Come From

By Dan Robitzski

The collective attention span of humanity is getting shorter as the internet and technology bring us a near-constant supply of new information.

Scientists: Tech Is Giving Humanity a Shorter Attention Span

By Kristin Houser

By analyzing data from Cassini spacecraft's last flyby in 2017, scientists found that Saturn's largest moon Titan has an entire lake district.

Saturn’s Moon Titan is Covered in Earth-Like Lakes

By Victor Tangermann

In a rare find, scientists found what they think are fragments of a comet sealed away deep inside of a meteorite that struck Antarctica.

Scientists Found a Chunk of a Comet Inside a Meteorite

By Dan Robitzski

SpaceIL has announced plans to build Beresheet 2, a sequel to the spacecraft behind the company's first failed Moon landing.

After Failed Moon Landing, Israel Vows to Try Again

By Kristin Houser

Chinese scientists want to achieve fusion power generation by the year 2040, according to Reuters.

Chinese Scientists Aim to Generate Fusion Power by 2040

By Victor Tangermann

A dairy farm has outfitted 50 cows with 5G-connected smart collars that allow the animals to be milked whenever they want.

5G Collars Let Cows Choose When They Want to Be Milked

By Kristin Houser

New NASA research shows that meteoroid strikes are digging up and vaporizing the Moon's already-scarce stores of surface water.

Meteoroid Strikes Smash Water out of the Moon’s Surface

By Dan Robitzski

The Stratolaunch, the world's biggest airplane, just completed its first test flight, putting us one step closer to cheaper launches into space.

Advanced Transport

See the World’s Biggest Airplane Nail Its First Test Flight

By Kristin Houser

A Harvard physicist has proven that wormhole travel is possible, but rather than being a shortcut, it'd be a longer path between two points in space.

Quantum Physics

Harvard Physicist: Wormhole Travel Is Possible, but It’s Not Fast

By Kristin Houser

Musk tweeted that he was "thinking about adding giant stainless steel dragon wings to Starship" that could allow it to keep cool during re-entry.

Elon Musk Suggests Adding “Dragon Wings” to Starship

By Victor Tangermann

China is building new highways with dedicated self-driving car lanes to help usher in widespread autonomous technology. The first will be done next year.

Self-Driving Vehicles

China’s Rolling Out Dedicated Highway Lanes for Self-Driving Cars

By Dan Robitzski

A language professor created the black hole's name, Pōwehi, by combining two words from an 18th-century Hawaiian chant called the Kumulipo.

Science & Energy

The M87 Black Hole Now Has an Epic Name

By Kristin Houser

Facebook-owned virtual reality company Oculus just shipped tens of thousands of Touch controllers bearing hidden messages.

Hidden Messages Suggest That Facebook Sees User Privacy as a Joke

By Kristin Houser

SpaceX will provide launch services for NASA's DART mission, which is designed to test a plan for preventing an asteroid from hitting Earth.

NASA Asks SpaceX to Help It Save Earth From Incoming Asteroids

By Kristin Houser

qr-code-tattoo-broke-link

Prosthetics and Devices

A Guy Got a QR Code Tattoo and Then Someone Broke the Link

By Dan Robitzski

One of the scientists behind an experiment that gave monkeys human DNA, thereby making them smarter, has defended the controversial study to CNN.

Science & Energy

Chinese Scientist Defends Splicing Human Brain Gene Into Monkeys

By Kristin Houser

A self-driving car company's operations lead shared what it's like to be the safety driver keeping an eye on an autonomous vehicle.

Self-Driving Vehicles

A Self-Driving Car’s Human Operator Says He Takes Over When Passengers Get Impatient

By Dan Robitzski

A group of scientists associated with Elon Musk say they've invented a new way to wire a brain implant into the brains of rats.

Scientists Invent “Sewing Machine” to Implant Brain Electrodes

By Jon Christian

A new study shows that fecal transplants of healthy gut flora can help reduce the more severe symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Health & Medicine

Fecal Transplants Reduce Symptoms of Autism Long Term

By Dan Robitzski

A team from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has shared an image that puts the first black hole photo into stunning context.

Science & Energy

The First Black Hole Photo Is Even More Amazing When You Zoom Out

By Kristin Houser

A father and son team was just charged with fraud and concealing a crime for their six-year black market operation where they sold human body parts.

Family Caught Selling Diseased Body Parts to Medical Centers

By Dan Robitzski

SpaceX successfully landed all three of its Falcon Heavy boosters during the rocket's second launch ever, marking a new milestone in reusable rocketry.

SpaceX Milestone: Company Lands Three Falcon Heavy Boosters

By Kristin Houser

A video of mice in microgravity reveals that the animals quickly adapted to their off-world conditions, running, eating, and cleaning themselves.

Space Station Mice Learned to Propel Themselves in Zero Gravity

By Kristin Houser

The Beresheet lunar lander crashed into the surface of the moon after experiencing engine failure during its final descent.

Israel’s Lunar Lander Just Crashed Into the Moon

By Dan Robitzski

Katie Bouman, a 29-year-old computer scientist, led the development of the algorithm that made the first black hole image possible.

Science & Energy

We Wouldn’t Have the First Black Hole Image Without Katie Bouman

By Kristin Houser

Through the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, NASA funds projects that go "to the edge of science fiction, but not over."

NASA Is Funding the Development of 18 Bizarre New Projects

By Kristin Houser

A Greek couple just gave birth to a three-parent baby, the first conceived as part of a clinical trial to treat infertility.

Health & Medicine

Infertile Couple Gives Birth to “Three-Parent Baby”

By Kristin Houser

An MIT scientist asks whether we're protagonists in a simulated reality or so-called NPCs who exist to round out a player character's experience.

MIT Prof: If We Live in a Simulation, Are We Players or NPCs?

By Jon Christian

The black hole that scientists imaged is a stellar giant. It would take millions of Earths lined up side-by-side to span its length.

Science & Energy

Here’s How Big the M87 Black Hole Is Compared to the Earth

By Dan Robitzski

A new Bloomberg piece shared the experiences of Amazon workers tasked with listening to Alexa recordings, and what they hear isn't always mundane.

Amazon Workers Listen to Your Alexa Conversations, Then Mock Them

By Kristin Houser

A new type of quantum material can directly measure neural activity and translate it into electrical signals for a computer.

Scientists Say New Quantum Material Could “‘Download’ Your Brain”

By Dan Robitzski

A new technique for nuclear fusion can generate plasma without requiring as much space-consuming equipment within a reactor.

Scientists Find a New Way to Kickstart Stable Fusion Reactions

By Dan Robitzski

SpaceIL's Moon lander, Beresheet, is expected to touch down on the lunar surface on Thursday, landing Israeli a place in the history books.

The Israeli Moon Lander Is About to Touch Down

By Kristin Houser

Some people are adept at forecasting, predicting the likelihood of future events, and a new contest aims to suss them out.

Some People Are Exceptionally Good at Predicting the Future

By Kristin Houser

Amazon and a coalition of nations in South America are duking it out over who gets the coveted ".amazon" domain. The deadline passed with no detente.

Amazon Is Fighting South American Govs to Control “.Amazon” Domains

By Dan Robitzski

Australian scientists are preparing to deliver millions of coral larvae to the Great Barrier Reef using an autonomous drone called "Larvalbot"

Undersea Robots Are Helping Save the Great Barrier Reef

By Dan Robitzski

Walmart is sending autonomous custodial robots to 1,500 stores in a play to cut down on the tasks human employees have to face.

Walmart Is Rolling Out Floor-Cleaning Robots in 1,500 Stores

By Dan Robitzski

Electrically stimulating the brains of people in their 60s and 70s allowed them to perform as well on working memory tasks as 20-somethings.

Zapping Elderly People’s Brains Supercharges Their Working Memory

By Kristin Houser

A new Tesla safety report reveals an increase in Tesla crashes, but engaging Autopilot cuts the likelihood of a fender bender.

Tesla Says Autopilot Is Statistically Safer Than a Human Driver

By Kristin Houser

Chinese scientists figured out that they could enhance a monkey's intelligence by introducing a single human gene linked to brain development.

Neuroscience and Brain

Chinese Scientists Gene-Hacked Super Smart Human-Monkey Hybrids

By Dan Robitzski

The first-ever black hole image is a blurry orange ring. During the announcement, scientists described how they're working to improve the resolution.

Scientists: Next Black Hole Image Will Be Way Clearer

By Dan Robitzski

Scientists have released the first image of a black hole, and it looks like they expected based on Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Science & Energy

The World’s First Black Hole Image Vindicates Einstein’s Theory

By Kristin Houser

The academic publisher Springer Nature just released a book summarizing lithium-ion battery research that was written by an AI algorithm.

Machine Learning

A Prominent Publisher Used Machine Learning to Write a Textbook

By Dan Robitzski

The emissions produced by streaming music far exceed the environmental cost of listening to music via physical mediums, according to a new study.

Science & Energy

Here’s How Streaming Music Is Killing the Planet

By Kristin Houser

In a new interview, "The Simulation Hypothesis" author and MIT professor Rizwan Virk asserts it's more likely we're living in a simulation than not.

MIT Prof: It’s More Likely We’re Living in a Simulation Than Not

By Jon Christian

Scientists from Georgia developed a way to convert Martian dirt into fertile soil, and also learned which wine grapes are most likely to survive up there.

Scientists Are Trying to Figure Out How to Grow Grapes on Mars

By Dan Robitzski

A new therapy that involves injecting tumors with two immune stimulants essentially transforms the growths into "cancer vaccine factories."

New Therapy Transforms Tumors Into “Cancer Vaccine Factories”

By Kristin Houser

The agency tasked with guiding China's economic development has suggested the nation ban crypto mining — and the move could have global implications.

Chinese Authorities Want to Ban Crypto Mining

By Kristin Houser

A new quantum computer can hold a superposition of 16 separate possible futures, a feat that scientists think could lead to faster-learning AI

New Quantum Device Can “Generate All Possible Futures”

By Dan Robitzski