the digest (Page 189)

Latest in the digest

Samsung subsidiary Cheil Worldwide has announced plans to produce 200,000 more of its Firevases, which extinguish fires when hurled at them.

Science & Energy

Samsung Made a Flower Vase That’s a Throwable Fire Extinguisher

By Kristin Houser

A new study found that Mars used to be covered in huge rivers — much wider than on Earth — for billions of years.

New Research: Mars Used To Be Covered In Huge Rivers

By Victor Tangermann

A survey asking U.S. citizens to predict America's future reveals a great deal of pessimism, but not everyone thinks the nation is in a decline.

Poll Reveals Americans’ Grim Predictions for the US in 2050

By Kristin Houser

The House Financial Services Committee voted 45 to 15 Thursday morning to advance the SAFE Banking Act to the House of Representatives for a vote.

Bill Designed to Help Cannabis Industry Use Banks Moves Forward

By Kristin Houser

Designated Driver's teleoperations system allows a human driver to remotely control a self-driving car if it malfunctions or encounters a tricky situation.

Advanced Transport

This Startup Pays Humans to Remotely Operate “Driverless” Cars

By Kristin Houser

UPS Is Now Using Drones to Deliver Blood to a Hospital

UPS Is Now Using Drones to Deliver Blood to a Hospital

By Kristin Houser

For the first time, astronomers have used a technique known as optical interferometry to study an exoplanet — and it could help in our hunt for aliens.

Science & Energy

New Method Could Help Astronomers Find Life-Supporting Exoplanets

By Kristin Houser

Tesla Installed a Massive Powerpack in a Japanese Train Station

Tesla Installed a Massive Powerpack in a Japanese Train Station

By Victor Tangermann

A newly demoed pair of autonomous firefighting robots are designed to battle particularly hazardous fires, such as those at petrochemical plants.

Self-Driving Vehicles

These Autonomous Bots Battle Blazes Too Dangerous for Firefighters

By Kristin Houser

Israel-based startup Seedo has announced plans to create the world's first automated cannabis farm — and it might not be the last.

Artificial Intelligence

Startup Unveils “World’s First Automated Cannabis Farm”

By Kristin Houser

NASA has replaced Anne McClain with male astronaut Nick Hague for what would have been the world's first all-female spacewalk.

NASA Cancels First All-Female Spacewalk

By Kristin Houser

Austin-based startup Briggo has built a fully automated robot barista capable of filling 100 gourmet coffee orders in one hour.

This Robot Can Make as Much Gourmet Coffee as Four Baristas

By Kristin Houser

Instead, according to scientist and philosopher Bernardo Kastrup, some are starting to suspect that matter and reality are complex illusions.

Physicists Are Starting to Suspect Physical Reality Is an Illusion

By Jon Christian

The Estonian Ministry of Justice is officially designing a "robot judge" that could take care of a backlog of small claims court disputes.

Estonia is Building a “Robot Judge” to Help Clear Legal Backlog

By Victor Tangermann

Members of the growing BirthStrike movement are publicly announcing their decision to forgo parenthood in the face of climate catastrophe.

“BirthStrikers” Refuse to Reproduce Because of Climate Change

By Kristin Houser

Tesla Is Now Building Cars With Hardware For “Full Self-Driving”

Self-Driving Vehicles

Tesla Is Now Building Cars With Hardware For “Full Self-Driving”

By Victor Tangermann

First noticed in 2016, the Australian government recently confirmed the first mammalian extinction that was caused by human-induced climate change.

Climate Change Just Wiped out Its First Mammal

By Dan Robitzski

This ultra-high-definition 360 degree visualization comes courtesy of data collected by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and NASA's Ames supercomputer.

360-Degree Video Puts You in the Center of the Milky Way Galaxy

By Victor Tangermann

A startup says it's building a futuristic facility that'll suck as much CO2 out of the atmosphere of every year as 40 million trees.

Renewable Energy

New Facility Aims to Capture 40 Million Trees’ Worth of CO2 Every Year

By Jon Christian

The U.S. Navy says that it's going to outfit a destroyer with a laser system made by military contractor Lockheed Martin.

The U.S. Military is Mounting a Giant Laser Cannon on a Destroyer

By Jon Christian

Scientists at Scripps Research say they've found a way to reverse rats' alcoholism by blasting particular neurons in their brains with lasers.

Scientists Reversed Rats’ Alcoholism by Firing Lasers at Their Brains

By Jon Christian

Facebook admits to storing "hundreds of millions" of account passwords in plain text.

Facebook Stored “Hundreds of Millions” of Passwords as Plain Text

By Victor Tangermann

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is officially considering the use of the first-ever medical device to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

Health & Medicine

The FDA Is Considering First-Ever Machine to Treat Alzheimer’s

By Victor Tangermann

China just closed the bidding period for contractors looking to build the country's first nuclear-powered icebreaker, set to be the largest in the world.

China Is Building a 33,000 Ton Nuclear Icebreaker

By Dan Robitzski

NASA collaborators admitted that they're not sure what's wrong with the InSight lander's instrument that was supposed to dig into the surface of Mars.

NASA Isn’t Sure What’s Wrong With Its InSight Mars Lander

By Jon Christian

Ford is officially building a new self-driving car plant in Michigan aimed at its line-up of next-generation all-electric or hybrid vehicles.

Self-Driving Vehicles

Breaking: Ford is Building a Self-Driving Car Factory in Michigan

By Victor Tangermann

Chinese officials have cloned a top-performing police dog, state media announced, with the goal of stamping out genetically identical dog cops.

Science & Energy

China Clones Top Police Dog, With Goal of “Mass Production”

By Jon Christian

According to a new report the U.S. added 64,389 full-time legal cannabis jobs last year — a 44 percent gain in the workforce in 2018.

Report: Marijuana Is the Fastest Growing Job Sector in the U.S.

By Victor Tangermann

A city in South Korea installed flickering lights and laser beams at its crosswalks to grab the attention of "smartphone zombies."

South Korean App Warns Smartphone Addicts Not to Step Into Traffic

By Victor Tangermann

Scientists at Cambridge University say they've grown a miniature brain in a petri dish that seizes control of nearby spinal cords around it.

Lab-Grown Brain Uses “Tendrils” to Grab, Control Spinal Cords

By Jon Christian

A 2018 patent suggests a Russian arms maker has invented a flying drone that features a rifle that's very reminiscent of Kalashnikov's iconic AK-47.

Russian Arms Maker Invents Drone With Built-In Rifle

By Victor Tangermann

In a video, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk showed off the space company's Starship's "heat shield hex tiles" which could keep its spacecraft cool during re-entry.

Elon Musk Shows Off Glowing Hot “Hex Tile” Starship Heatshield

By Victor Tangermann

Tesla is rolling out a firmware updatet tha increases the power output of all Model 3 vehicles by "approximately five percent."

Tesla Says New Firmware Update Will Make Its Cars Faster

By Victor Tangermann

The Japanese Space Agency just announced that Hayabusa2, the same robotic probe that landed on an asteroid, will drop a bomb on it and mine the fragments.

Japan Announces Plan to Bomb Asteroid

By Dan Robitzski

Researchers at Harvard University say they've identified a "DNA switch" that allows animals to regrow entire portions of their bodies — a finding that, with a few important caveats, could pave the way to helping human patients' bodies regenerate lost limbs like lizards.

Health & Medicine

New Harvard Research Could Be a Step to Human Limb Regeneration

By Jon Christian

Russian media confirmed yesterday that the Russian Navy is developing a "new non-lethal light-based optical interference system" that could blind enemies.

Russian Military Confirms New Weapon Causes “Hallucinatory Symptoms”

By Victor Tangermann

NASA: Meteor Exploded Over Russia With 10x Energy of Atomic Bomb

NASA: Meteor Exploded Over Russia With 10x Energy of Atomic Bomb

By Victor Tangermann

During a public appearance at Stanford University, WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton spoke of Facebook's failings and told students to delete Facebook.

WhatsApp Cofounder Tells Students to Delete Facebook

By Victor Tangermann

Human Surgeons Are “Barely Trained” on Operating Room Robots

Health & Medicine

Human Surgeons Are “Barely Trained” on Operating Room Robots

By Victor Tangermann

The FCC has unanimously voted to clear "terahertz wave" frequencies for experimentation that could one day represent 6G connectivity.

The FCC Clears Experimental Frequencies to Pave Way for 6G

By Victor Tangermann

The Pentagon Wants an Orbital Space Weapon to Blast Enemy Missiles

The Pentagon Wants an Orbital Space Weapon to Blast Enemy Missiles

By Jon Christian

The makers of a new hypersonic rocket engine say it could whip flights from London to Sydney in just four hours, traveling at five times the speed of sound.

Advanced Transport

New Rocket Engine Could Whip You From London to Sydney in 4 Hours

By Jon Christian

A team from MIT and Harvard has created a robot hand that's not only strong, but also soft — and it could usher in a new era in robotics.

New Robot Hand Works Like a Venus Flytrap to Grip Objects

By Kristin Houser

Many of today's medical implants communicate via Bluetooth, which makes them vulnerable to hacking, but a new system could change that.

This Tech Could Secure Medical Implants Against Hackers

By Kristin Houser

Workplace messaging app Slack just announced that it banned 28 accounts that were known to be affiliated with hate groups.

Slack Just Removed a Bunch of Hate Groups

By Dan Robitzski

During the unveiling of Tesla's highly anticipated Model Y, CEO Elon Musk announced that the company would focus on its Solar Roof and Powerwall in 2019.

Elon Musk: 2019 Will Be “the Year of the Solar Roof”

By Kristin Houser

A Samsung exec has shared new details on the company's efforts to create a full-screen phone, one with the camera embedded beneath the display.

Robots and Machines

Samsung Is Working on Phone With “Invisible” Camera Behind Screen

By Kristin Houser

A food service company in the Midwestern region of the United States is now serving a gene-edited food in its restaurants.

The First Gene-Edited Food Has Reached US Restaurants

By Kristin Houser

China will need to build eight new nuclear reactors annually to reach the global average for nuclear energy generation by 2030, according to an official.

China Needs to Build Eight Nuclear Plants Annually to Meet Goals

By Kristin Houser

A futuristic "robotic" pill that punctures the inside of the intestinal wall on its way through the digestive system just passed its first human trial.

Health & Medicine

Robot Pill Pierces Intestine Walls to Deliver Drugs

By Victor Tangermann

A new "acoustic metamaterial" that blocks sound by reflecting waves back to their source could make the future a far quieter place.

Science & Energy

Scientists Create Material That Blocks Sound, but Not Air or Light

By Kristin Houser

Facebook and Instagram users across the globe experienced outages for most of Wednesday starting around 1 pm EST and ending late Wednesday night. But why?

Facebook Had a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

By Victor Tangermann

Google has released a new app called Lookout that describes objects and reads text or currency for people with visual impairments.

New Google App Describes Objects to Blind People

By Kristin Houser

A University of Cambridge spin-out company claims it has found a way to produce graphene at commercial scale and will release a device soon.

First Graphene-Based Device Is A “Few Months” Away, Says Startup

By Kristin Houser

More interactive Netflix programming is on the way following the success of Bandersnatch, a choose-your-own-adventure style episode of "Black Mirror."

Get Ready For More Interactive Netflix Programming

By Kristin Houser

Amazon has removed two popular books advocating "autism cures" known to be both ineffective and dangerous from its marketplace.

Health & Medicine

Amazon Removes Books About Dangerous “Autism Cures”

By Kristin Houser

An AI-powered robot head named Tengai could make the applicant screening process less biased while still providing a "human" touch.

Artificial Intelligence

See the Robot Head That Might Interview You for Your Next Job

By Kristin Houser

Researchers have coaxed biological reactions from the cells of a preserved wooly mammoth, putting us one step closer to cloning the extinct species.

Science & Energy

Scientists Just Came Closer Than Ever to Cloning a Woolly Mammoth

By Kristin Houser

“Halo Drive” Would Use Black Holes to Power Spaceships

“Halo Drive” Would Use Black Holes to Power Spaceships

By Jon Christian

Elon Musk took to Twitter Tuesday to announce that the Boring Company plans to complete a tunnel in Las Vegas by the end of 2019.

Elon Musk: Las Vegas Tunnel Will Be “Operational by End of Year”

By Jon Christian

Nissan Wants to Beam 3D Anime Versions of People Into Its Cars

Nissan Wants to Beam 3D Anime Versions of People Into Its Cars

By Victor Tangermann

NASA could put humans on Mars in just five years if given the money to do so, according to Ellen Stofan, the agency's former chief scientist.

Former NASA Chief Scientist: Humans Could Be on Mars in Five Years

By Kristin Houser

In a statement, Boeing promised a software "enhancement" for its all of its Boeing 737 Max planes, two of which were involved in deadly crashes.

Advanced Transport

Boeing Promises Software Update for Plane That Crashed

By Victor Tangermann

NASA has big plans for its female astronauts — according to administrator Jim Bridenstine, the first person to reach Mars will "likely" be a woman.

NASA Leader: First Human on Mars “Likely to Be” a Woman

By Kristin Houser