The Download: AI job panic, and concussion-preventing mouthguards
It was 1938, and the pain of the Great Depression was still very real. Unemployment in the US was around...
World
People are worried that AI will take everyone’s jobs. We’ve been here before.
Even those who agreed that jobs will come back in “the long run” were concerned that “displaced wage-earners must eat...
The Download: testing wastewater for measles, and the cost of nature
Measles is back with a vengeance. In the UK, where only 85% of school-age children have received two doses of...
How wastewater could offer an early warning system for measles
Maybe there’s a solution. The US developed a vast wastewater sampling network to detect covid during the pandemic. Could we...
The Download: US mining tax credits, and Ring’s police data U-turn
On a pine farm north of the tiny town of Tamarack, Minnesota, Talon Metals has uncovered one of America’s densest...
The contentious path to a cleaner future
What does a proposed nickel mine near a small town in Minnesota tell us about conflict over critical minerals? The...
How one mine could unlock billions in EV subsidies
RMI, a nonprofit research group focused on clean energy, projects that all the EV provisions within the IRA, which also...
The Download: how China’s regulating robotaxis
1 San Francisco is fighting back against self-driving cars The city has filed a lawsuit that could force firms to roll...
How China is regulating robotaxis
One difference between the robotaxi rollouts in the two countries has to do with regulation. Chinese regulators are known for...
The Download: disputes over green mining, and what’s next for robotaxis
Talon is striving to distance itself from the mining industry’s dirty past, portraying its plan as a clean, friendly model...
What’s next for robotaxis in 2024
That higher ticket price will inevitably suppress demand. If robotaxis want to keep customers—not just those curious to try it...
This town’s mining battle reveals the contentious path to a cleaner future
It was these rich reserves that drew Talon, which was previously focused on developing gold mines in Brazil, to this...
Why does AI being good at math matter?
This is the second time in recent months that the AI world has got all excited about math. The rumor...
The Download: hope for new long covid treatments, and the future of chiplets
In response, manufacturers are turning to smaller, more modular “chiplets” that are designed for specific functions and can be linked...
Three technology trends shaping 2024’s elections
But researchers I’ve spoken with over the past few months say the 2024 US presidential election will be the first...
Scientists are finding signals of long covid in blood. They could lead to new treatments.
The scientists found that people with long covid exhibit changes in a suite of proteins involved in the complement system,...
The Download: gene-edited pig liver transplants, and AI to fight apartheid
Just a few miles away in Limpopo, white families lived in big, attractive houses, with easy access to all these...
Donated bodies are powering gene-edited organ research
This time the experiment lasted only 72 hours, as that’s about how long a pig liver would be needed to...
How satellite images and AI could help fight spatial apartheid in South Africa
The older Sefala became, the more she peppered her father with questions about the visible racial segregation of their neighborhood:...
A brain-dead man was attached to a gene-edited pig liver for three days
“There is always curiosity. Everyone takes a meeting,” says Curtis. “They do view it as the future, but is it...
