the digest (Page 188)

Latest in the digest

Researchers have used Type 1 CRISPR-Cas3, which "shreds" DNA, in human cells for the first time, giving scientists a powerful new gene-editing tool.

Researchers Use CRISPR “Shredder” on Human DNA for First Time

By Kristin Houser

Facebook just announced changes to how it handles dead peoples' memorialized accounts. It'll no longer suggest that you invite dead people to events.

Facebook Will Stop Suggesting You Invite Dead People to Events

By Dan Robitzski

Experts tell CNN they envision a future in which scammers use voice-mimicking technology to make robocalls sound like someone a target knows personally.

Artificial Intelligence

Prepare for Robocall Hell, Where Scam Bots Pretend to Be Your Mom

By Kristin Houser

The U.S. military recently invited some members of the press to test a prototype of IVAS, its advanced night-vision goggles with augmented reality features.

The Military is Developing Augmented Reality Night Vision Goggles

By Dan Robitzski

A facial recognition trial focused on New York's Robert F. Kennedy Bridge didn't correctly identify a single person's face.

Facial recognition

New York’s Facial Recognition Trial Was a Complete Failure

By Kristin Houser

A new survey figured out how many bacteria and fungi are on the International Space Station. In some places, there are a billion cells per square meter.

International Space Station

The International Space Station is Teeming With Germs

By Dan Robitzski

In eight states, high schools are now offering esports as a varsity level sport for students, according to CNN — a glimpse of the future of sports.

Schools in Eight States Now Have Varsity Video Game Teams

By Natalie Coleman

The YouTube account using Google's AI research to make synthesize videos of Trump singing is back, this time with "Sweet Dreams."

Watch Google’s AI Make Trump Sing Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams”

By Dan Robitzski

A number of American prisons have done away with in-person visitation, replacing it with sub-par video conferencing that generates revenue for the prison.

Prisons Are Replacing Visits With Expensive, Grainy Video Calls

By Dan Robitzski

A new study on cancer detection shows that dogs can sniff out the disease in blood with an extremely high degree of accuracy.

Dogs Can Sniff out Cancer With Nearly 97% Accuracy, Says Study

By Kristin Houser

Meet the People Fighting Back Against Militarized Killer Robots

By Dan Robitzski

A "super fungus" called Candida auris is cropping up in hospitals all across the globe, killing half the people who contract it within 90 days.

Health & Medicine

Deadly “Super Fungus” Could Be the Beginning of a Global Epidemic

By Kristin Houser

Several Chinese schools have started making students wear brain-scanning headbands that can detect when they start to lose focus or slack off.

In Chinese Schools, Brain-Reading Headbands Measure Student Focus

By Dan Robitzski

More and more Chinese citizens are opting for eco burials as a way to cope with the increasing price of grave plots due to a lack of land.

In China, Overpriced Graves Force People to Bury Dead in Jars

By Kristin Houser

Scientists say they've devised antibodies that block a specific gene related to brain aging — causing old mice to regain lost cognitive abilities.

“The Mice Became Smarter”: New Treatment Restores Aging Brains

By Jon Christian

For the first time, scientists used CRISPR to gene-edit lizards, uncovering techniques that could lead to new medical treatments for humans.

Scientists Gene-Hacked Lizards to Make Them Albino

By Dan Robitzski

The proposal to build the Tulip tower has secured the approval of the City of London Planning and Transportation Committee.

See the Bizarre Glass “Tulip” Set to Transform London’s Skyline

By Kristin Houser

A new drug, currently in development, could eventually give rise to safe and effective birth control for both men and women.

Health & Medicine

New Birth Control Drug Would Work for Men and Women

By Dan Robitzski

Participants in Finland's basic income experiment reported more trust in other people, politicians, political parties, courts, and the police.

Universal Basic Income

Basic Income Made Finland’s Citizens Trust Police More

By Kristin Houser

Prince Harry recently spoke to a panel about the dangers of social media and Fortnite, the former of which he says is more addictive than drugs.

British Royalty Wants to Ban “Fortnite”

By Dan Robitzski

A new HIV immunotherapy developed by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh not only kicks latent HIV cells out of hiding, but also kills them.

First-of-Its-Kind HIV Therapy Draws out the Virus, Then Kills It

By Kristin Houser

Following a week of protests over the company's controversial nominations, Google decided to cancel its new ethics board.

Google Started an Ethics Board and Then Killed It After Protests

By Dan Robitzski

The bombing isn't an act of space vandalism. The goal is to blow a 10-meter crater in asteroid in order to see what it looks like on the inside.

Science & Energy

Japan Lobs Bomb to Blow Hole in Asteroid… For Science

By Jon Christian

Thanks to a Google-developed neural network, we now live in the same universe as an audio deepfake of Trump singing Eminem.

Artificial Intelligence

Watch a Neural Network Make Trump Sing Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”

By Dan Robitzski

Linus Torvalds, the angry rant-prone creator of Linux, argues that modern social media incentivize terrible behavior online.

Linux Creator: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter Are “A Disease”

By Dan Robitzski

NASA is sending a pair of "robotic bees" to the ISS — a project the space agency is positioning as one of the most advanced experiments in space robotics.

NASA Is Sending Cute “Robotic Bees” to the Space Station

By Jon Christian

The United Nations plans to help build a prototype of a floating city concept designed to withstand the impact of climate change.

See the United Nations’ Floating, Hurricane-Ready City Concept

By Kristin Houser

Scientists at the University of Central Florida say they've figured out how to make pulses of light travel 30 times as fast as usual — or even backward.

Science & Energy

Scientists Say They Can Make Light Travel 30x Faster Than Normal

By Jon Christian

SpaceX's Starship Hopper successfully completed a tethered hop, putting the company's in-development Starship one step closer to liftoff.

SpaceX’s Starship Hopper Completes First Tethered “Hop”

By Kristin Houser

Scientists found the a single dose of MDMA can help adult mice re-learn social behavior. They hope it can help people with PTSD.

MDMA Can “Reopen” a Part of the Brain That Closes After Puberty

By Dan Robitzski

Russia's military says that its "super soldiers" are able to use "parapsychology" techniques to crash computers with telepathy they learned from dolphins.

Russia Says “Super Soldiers” Can Crash Computers With Telepathy

By Jon Christian

Don't get us wrong: there's nothing wrong with being a furry. But here are five things Musk could be working on instead of tweeting.

6 Things Elon Musk Could Be Doing Instead of Denying He’s a Furry

By Jon Christian

Senator Warren just introduced a bill that would jail executives of billion-dollar tech companies from which users' personal info gets stolen.

Elizabeth Warren: If Data Gets Stolen, Throw Tech CEOs in Prison

By Dan Robitzski

The FDA, the United States' consumer health watchdog, is now raising the alarm that they could be associated with dangerous seizures.

Health & Medicine

The FDA Is Investigating Whether Vaping Causes Seizures

By Jon Christian

North Korea's hacking division, APT 38, stole $1 billion from online banks and crypto exchanges in 2018. All that money is helping fund nuclear weapons.

North Korea Is Using Hackers to Steal Money for Nuclear Bombs

By Dan Robitzski

Researchers have implanted transparent skulls into mice to get an unimpeded look at their brain activity on a wider scale over a longer period.

Scientists Add Windows to Mice Skulls to Watch Their Brains

By Kristin Houser

A video of a gigantic Amazon drone mothership blimp is making the rounds online. It's creepy and fun, but it's also completely fake.

Advanced Transport

Good News, People: That Amazon Mothership Blimp is Fake

By Dan Robitzski

At a test flight for UK startup Gravity's "jet suit," UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson enthused about using similar suits for combat missions.

UK Military Could Deploy Iron Man-Style Jet Suit in Combat

By Jon Christian

As Google's new advisory council for artificial intelligence development prepares to convene for the first time, one member has a dire warning.

Google Ethics Adviser: Controlling Future AI is “Wishful Thinking”

By Dan Robitzski

Researchers have given transparent wood the ability to store and release heat, making it a promising building material of the future.

Science & Energy

This “Transparent Wood” Could Cut the Cost of Heating Your Home

By Kristin Houser

By getting them to absorb metallic nanomaterials, scientists figured out how to make cyborg plants that may be able to survive out in space.

Scientists Say New Cyborg Plants Could Someday Grow on Mars

By Dan Robitzski

Tesla will hold an "Investor Day" on April 19 during which it will demonstrate the capabilities of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) computer.

Self-Driving Vehicles

Tesla Will Demonstrate Full Self-Driving Capabilities This Month

By Kristin Houser

Singapore's newly proposed fake news bill would force Facebook and other platforms to issue corrections alongside posts containing false statements.

New Singapore Law Would Force Facebook to Issue “Corrections”

By Kristin Houser

A futuristic restaurant plans to collect samples of diners' bodily fluids so it can create meals hyper-personalized to meet their nutritional needs.

Restaurant Analyzes Your Bodily Fluids to Make Ultra-Nutritious Sushi

By Kristin Houser

Right now there are 45 experimental projects in Europe working to generate hydrogen fuel using renewable sources of electricity.

Europe Is Stockpiling Wind Energy by Converting It to Hydrogen

By Dan Robitzski

A fascinating new story looks at the growing market for mice that have been gene-edited to mimic human disease ranging from prostate cancer to diabetes.

Health & Medicine

These $17,000 Mice Are Gene-Edited to Mimic Human Diseases

By Jon Christian

Australia wants to mine water from the surface of the moon and use it to supply crewed missions to Mars or even deeper into space.

Australia Has a Plan to Mine Moon Water

By Dan Robitzski

The Animal-AI Olympics will see AI agents completing in tasks mimicking ones often used to test the intelligence of animals.

Artificial Intelligence

AI’s New Challenge: To Be as Smart as an Animal

By Kristin Houser

A Nobel Prize winning scientist says that high-intensity lasers could one day render nuclear waste harmless in just a few minutes.

Nobel Prize Winner: Lasers Could Permanently Destroy Nuclear Waste

By Jon Christian

Tencent researchers figured out that Tesla's Autopilot mode can be fooled into steering into oncoming traffic just by placing three stickers on the road.

A Sticker Can Trick Teslas Into Steering Toward Oncoming Traffic

By Dan Robitzski

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has told the agency's employees that India's satellite destruction test has put the ISS in danger.

NASA: When India Blew up a Satellite, It Endangered Astronauts

By Kristin Houser

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg penned an op-ed for The Washington Post asking governments to create new rules for the internet.

Mark Zuckerberg Asks Governments for “New Rules” for the Internet

By Kristin Houser

The goal is to look past the space debris to see its event horizon.

Science & Energy

Astronomers Are Teasing the First-Ever Photo of a Black Hole

By Jon Christian

An airplane wing created from hundreds of identical cube-like structures has the ability to change shape automatically depended on the phase of flight.

Advanced Transport

NASA and MIT Debut Shape-Shifting Airplane Wing

By Kristin Houser

It sounds like an April Fools prank, but scientists say that music by dubstep star Skrillex can keep mosquitoes from biting.

Health & Medicine

Scientists Say Skrillex Stops Mosquitoes From Biting

By Jon Christian

Burger King has added a meatless Whopper to the menu in 59 restaurants with plans to expand the offering nationwide if all goes according to plan.

Burger King Debuts Meatless Whopper

By Kristin Houser

On Friday, NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch completed a nearly seven-hour-long ISS spacewalk, the 215th in space station history.

International Space Station

NASA Announces Successful Completion of ISS Spacewalk

By Kristin Houser

Four Canadians have filed a class-action lawsuit against Ontario for cancelling what was supposed to be a three-year-long basic income project early.

Universal Basic Income

Canadians Sue Ontario for Canceling Its Basic Income Trial

By Kristin Houser

USC researchers claim evidence of a deep Martian groundwater system that spills out through surface cracks to form visible above-ground streams.

Researchers Detect “Deep Groundwater” on Mars

By Jon Christian

Researchers have 3D-printed tissues to replicate the bone and cartilage most often injured through sports — and their creation could save athletes' careers.

These Scientists Are 3D-Printing New Body Parts for Athletes

By Kristin Houser

Climate change is affecting when the spring season starts, and as a result, more people are suffering from seasonal allergies, says study.

Climate Change May Be Giving You Seasonal Allergies

By Kristin Houser

After two days of testing, NASA is confident its four-pound Mars Helicopter is ready to begin its journey to the Red Planet.

Mini Helicopter Destined for Mars Aces Flight Tests

By Kristin Houser

The EU voted on Wednesday to support plans for the elimination of most uses of single-use plastic, including cutlery, straws, and plastic plates.

The EU Approved a Ban on Single-Use Plastics

By Victor Tangermann

Using cells they harvested from cadavers, researchers grew scaffolds that became blood vessels when transplanted into patients.

Health & Medicine

Scientists Grew Artificial Blood Vessels from Cadaver Cells

By Kristin Houser