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The Digital Frontier

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The Digital Frontier

Advancements in 20th century medicine reshaped society and made good health an expectation, not an exception. Now, 21st century breakthroughs may end disease, reverse aging, and restore sight and hearing — perhaps sooner than we think.
Featured
Two people trek across a dry, open desert landscape marked by sparse vegetation under a partly cloudy sky, illustrating the challenges of water scarcity. In the distance, mountains stand as silent observers to this arid expanse.
AI
The West needs more water. This Nobel winner may have the answer.
Paul Migrom has an Emmy, a Nobel, and a successful company. There’s one more big problem on the to-do list.
A police cap is covered with binary code on a bright yellow background.
Police spend 40% of their time on paperwork. Can AI help?
Axon’s AI innovations promise to free officers from desks, but not without questions of ethics. CEO Rick Smith addresses concerns and community trust:
An e-reader displaying text is propped up against a stack of hardcover books.
Books
How the Internet Archive’s “Free Digital Library” fell to the “fair use” test
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A man in a hard hat is standing next to an excavator.
These robot excavators are making workers more money
With the rise of AI, more people are afraid of robots taking their jobs than ever before. But in this industry, AI is actually creating jobs — and helping workers make more money.
An abstract image of a blue circle with blue dots representing particles
Physics
Discovery of “demon” particle could aid superconductor hunt
The elusive “demon” particle has been discovered in a superconductor-like metal nearly 70 years after it was first predicted to exist.
A woman on a laptop.
AI
With “thanabots,” ChatGPT is making it possible to talk to the dead
ChatGPT is making it possible to digitally resurrect the dead in the form of thanabots: chatbots trained on data of the deceased.
Two men in lab coats studying a drawing of coronaviruses, specifically focusing on the possible connection between EBV infection and the development of an EBV vaccine.
Vaccines
Vaccine for common virus could prevent MS
An experimental vaccine designed to prevent an EBV infection might also prevent cancer and multiple sclerosis.
A picture of a metal container with the word levitation on it.
Engineering
We’re in a “fog of war” as experts and amateurs rush to replicate superconductor LK-99
A group of Korean scientists are claiming the first superconductor that works in our everyday environment. Is it real?
A model rover driving over a rock
Aerospace
NASA is sending a team of autonomous robots to the moon
NASA is sending three autonomous mobile robots to the moon where they’ll have to work as a team under challenging conditions.
An image of a human brain with a red spot representing speech-related neural processing.
Brain
This unique human brain structure may have given us speech
Speech is unique to humans, yet most brain structures involved in speech are also present in Old World monkeys and other primates — except this one.
An image of blue tumor cells and green immune cells
Cancer
Existing heart drug may boost treatment for skin cancer
The FDA-approved heart medication ranolazine boosted the efficacy of a BRAF inhibitor in mouse models of melanoma, the deadliest skin cancer.
An artist's rendering of the Psyche mission spacecraft near 16 Psyche, an asteroid.
Asteroids
NASA mission to a $10,000-quadrillion asteroid is two months from launch
NASA hopes to get a glimpse at Earth’s core by sending a spacecraft to 16 Psyche, an metal-rich asteroid 280 million miles away.
A bottle of pain relievers next to a tree.
Medicine
Scientists make pain relievers like Tylenol from pine trees rather than fossil fuels
Chemists have shown how to manufacture ibuprofen and acetaminophen using a waste product from the forestry and paper industries.
Two people examining mutant tomatoes in a greenhouse.
Agriculture
Mutant tomato could save crops around the world
A mutant tomato breed, known to botanists for decades, is highly resilient against blossom-end rot, a notorious plant disease.
Two pictures of a woman using a modified VR headset.
VR
Scientists tweak Meta VR headset to measure brain activity
A modified VR headset that records brain activity reveals how being immersed in VR impacts people on a neurological level.
A man is working on a muon g-2 machine in a blue room.
Physics
“Muon g-2” experiment hints that a mystery is bubbling inside the quantum foam
Scientists have observed discrepancies between theoretical predictions and measurements of the muon’s magnetic properties. What’s hiding?
An image of a potentially hazardous purple rock.
Asteroids
Algorithm finds a potentially hazardous asteroid missed by NASA
HelioLinc3D, an algorithm designed to spot potentially hazardous asteroids in telescope images, just found its first threatening space rock.
A piece of lab-grown fried chicken on a black background.
Series| Hard Reset Podcast
Hard Reset Podcast: Chicken | Episode #4
This lab-grown chicken is made without any slaughter. But would you eat it? In an age of skepticism about GMOs, the Hard Reset hosts discuss.
A satellite image of a cloudy sky with ocean warming.
Climate Crisis
Reduction in air pollution may be accelerating ocean warming
Recent ocean warming may be the result of IMO 2020, a rule that dramatically reduced air pollution from the shipping industry.
A chatGPT-enabled productivity clock illustration.
AI
Study finds ChatGPT boosts worker productivity for some writing tasks
A new report by MIT researchers highlights the potential of generative AI to help workers with certain writing assignments.
Three tubes of wypy, a weight-loss drug, on a black background.
Medicine
Weight-loss drug cut the risk of heart attack and stroke by 20% in large trial
The weight-loss drug semaglutide reduced patients’ risk of heart attacks, strokes, or death from heart disease by 20% in a large trial.
A picture of a burning iron flame in a metal frame.
Clean Energy
Can we burn metal for heat, instead of fossil fuels?
Researchers are looking at ways of boosting the efficiency of burning iron so that the metal can be used as an alternative energy source.
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg's faces with the words The New York Times and Vox, alongside Twitter and Meta's logos.
Series| Challengers
Substack vs. The Giants
Did algorithms, ads, and over-moderation ruin the internet? One company thinks they know the answer.
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