Sci-Tech news

• 15-Minute Cities Are Technates In Disguise

  06-03-2023 15:59 via technocracy.news
  
  The 15-minute city is a cover for a data collection bonanza for Technocrats who would design and operate them. Cities designed for maximum “efficiency” always reveal Technocrat thinking that efficiency itself is the goal, and that maximum surveillance allows for maximum control to achieve even more efficiency. At its very root. this mechanistic thinking is anti-human. ⁃ TN EditorThe Guardian’s Oliver Wainwright recently discussed a new “international
  
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• ‘Proof by Underpants’ offers a cheeky way to test soil

  26-08-2026 22:03 via popsci.com
  
  You don’t necessarily need advanced sensor technology or fancy tools to assess the health of the soil just beneath your feet. As ecologists and around 1,000 citizen scientists in Switzerland recently demonstrated, sometimes all that’s required is a pair of undies and a shovel.In 2021, a team at the University of Zurich (UZH) partnered with the country’s federal agricultural research center, Agroscope, to launch Beweisstück Unterhose, aka Proof By Underpants. The mission wa
  
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• Indigenous nations in present-day Georgia may have enjoyed cacao

  26-08-2026 20:00 via popsci.com
  
  Various Indigenous peoples across the southwestern United States as well as Central and South America have harvested cacao plants for millennia. The same can’t be said for communities living on the other side of the continent, however. The absence of chocolate’s main ingredient on their menus isn’t due to culinary preferences, but a completely different climate in the southeast that remains largely inhospitable to the tropical plant.That said, new evidence indicates eastern Ind
  
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• Over 2,000 animals spotted off the coast of Cape Cod

  26-08-2026 18:07 via popsci.com
  
  When most people gaze out of an airplane window, they admire the fluffy clouds slowly floating past them. But when New England Aquarium Aerial survey observers look out of a plane, they’re scouring the seas for marine animals swimming far below. And on August 16, the team was  rewarded—big time. While soaring over the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, they spotted over 2,000 animals across 15 different marine species. The Atlantic Ocean marine s
  
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• Butterfly wing crystals inspire new eco-friendly glitter

  26-08-2026 17:10 via popsci.com
  
  In her 80 years on planet Earth, Dolly Parton objectively made the world a better place, and her legacy will only continue to improve lives. It’s difficult to summarize the many causes she championed throughout her career. Women’s and BIPOC equality, LGBTQ rights, and childhood literacy immediately come to mind—and not to be missed, Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza. But Parton was also a noted environmentalist, and even released a song about climate change in 2023.She did it all
  
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• Continental Tire’s newest line takes on the oldest tradeoff in driving

  26-08-2026 16:07 via popsci.com
  
  Car tires can appear deceptively simple at first glance, but a surprising amount of research goes into keeping you safe and comfortable on the road. Tire design is a much more nuanced field than most drivers realize, and the newest advancements in compounds and design are pushing compromise—a tug-of-war between grip, comfort, and wear — further into the rearview than ever before. Continental Tire’s brand-new line of innovation-forward products is built for exactly this shift, l
  
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• Naked mole rats make their own perfume—and it’s excellent birth control

  26-08-2026 15:00 via popsci.com
  
  What’s the weirdest thing you learned this week? Well, whatever it is, we promise you’ll have an even weirder answer if you listen to PopSci’s hit podcast. The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week hits Spotify, YouTube, Apple, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts every-other Wednesday morning. It’s your new favorite source for the strangest science-adjacent facts, figures, and Wikipedia spirals the editors of Popular Science can muster. If you like the stories in this
  
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• Gold, Flights, Cryptocurrency: U.S. Vows to Go After More Than Iran’s Oil

  26-08-2026 14:46 via nytimes.com
  The United States threatened sanctions for any country or entity that engages with Iran’s gold, digital assets, aviation, shipping and tech industries. Here’s why that matters.
  
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• SpaceX wants to turn Louisiana marshland into a Starship hub

  26-08-2026 03:47 via nbcnews.com
  SpaceX's Elon Musk plans to build new Starship launchpads in Louisiana, replacing sections of marshland as part of a major spaceport project. Space journalist Kristin Fisher talks with NBC News' Gadi Schwartz about the plans.
  
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• Flock ‘Safety’? That’s Not What U.S. Patent Papers Say

  26-08-2026 02:05 via technocracy.news
  
  Flock Group is the ultimate disruptor in the surveillance market. A monster company that has grown from zero in 2027 to over $8.4 billion in less than 10 years. The fact is, Flock wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Y Combinator, which gave them their seed/startup money in 2017 and then mentored/coached them on how to run a startup company, Silicon Valley style. And who was the President of Y Combinator at the time? Sam Altman, who soon thereafter co-founded OpenAI with Elon Musk. 
  
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• U.S. ‘Economic D-Day’ Targets More Than Just Iranian Oil

  26-08-2026 00:58 via nytimes.com
  The United States threatened sanctions for any country or entity that engages with Iran’s gold, digital assets, aviation, shipping and tech industries. Here’s why that matters.
  
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• Dolly Parton through the years, in photos: From ‘9 to 5’ secretary to ‘Hannah Montana’ godmother

  25-08-2026 23:05 via nbcnews.com
  
  Until she died Tuesday at age 80, Dolly Parton was the beloved Queen of Country music.
  
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• Kaydee the bald eagle visits Shadow’s nest with a feather in her nostril

  25-08-2026 22:45 via popsci.com
  
  As the sun rose over Southern California’s Big Bear Valley on Monday morning, Shadow the bald eagle and his new companion Kaydee were spotted perched on the top of a roost tree near Shadow’s nest. Kaydee then visited the nest, with a feather in one of her nostrils. However, the accessory did not appear to bother her, as she got to work rearranging sticks like she and Shadow did over the weekend. Eagles frequently move around sticks to maintain their nests. Afterwards, Kaydee joi
  
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• Fans and fellow artists post tributes to Dolly Parton

  25-08-2026 22:26 via nbcnews.com
  NBC News' Chloe Melas and Brian Balthazar discuss the range of messages pouring in for country music legend Dolly Parton, who passed away today at 80.
  
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• 400-year-old ‘vampire’ grave discovered in Poland

  25-08-2026 22:02 via popsci.com
  
  The excavation of an over 400-year-old grave in Poland revealed a burial scene that, although macabre, was likely orchestrated in the hopes of protecting local villagers. In the town of Pień about 60 miles east of Kraków, archaeologists discovered the 17th century remains of a young woman interred with booby-traps to prevent her from returning as a vampire.Researchers from Poland’s Nicolaus Copernicus University described their findings in a study recently published in the Jour
  
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• Hidden Brain Wiring May Help Preserve Thinking As Gray Matter Shrinks

  25-08-2026 21:28 via scitechdaily.com
  Research involving older adults in India suggests that healthier short-range brain connections may help preserve thinking abilities as gray matter declines. Two older adults can have a similar amount of gray matter loss yet experience different effects on thinking and memory. Research from the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at [...]
  
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• Dual Stem Cell Treatment Restores Vision in First Human Trial

  25-08-2026 20:53 via scitechdaily.com
  A dual stem cell scaffold improved vision and eye surface scores in a small first-in-human trial for aniridia-related keratopathy. For people with ARK (aniridia-related keratopathy), progressive damage to the eye’s surface can gradually cloud the cornea and severely reduce vision. In a first-in-human clinical trial at Moorfields Eye Hospital and University College London (UCL), a [...]
  
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• Police seize massive Burmese python near Coney Island boardwalk

  25-08-2026 20:50 via popsci.com
  
  In the United States, the Burmese python (Python bivittatus) is most often associated with zoos or the invasive chaos it’s brought to Florida over the last 50 years. That doesn’t mean the giant snake can’t potentially threaten local ecosystems in other parts of the country, too. At least 10 states including New York currently ban or heavily restrict the importation, trade, and selling of pythons.It’s still unclear if the owner of a Burmese python understood the local laws
  
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• Looking back on Dolly Parton's groundbreaking career and music legacy

  25-08-2026 20:26 via nbcnews.com
  Country music legend Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80. Her family announced the news in a video posted to social media. NBC News' Chloe Melas reports on the icon's life and legacy.
  
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• Your Waist Size May Reveal More About Your Health Than You Think

  25-08-2026 20:18 via scitechdaily.com
  A study found that the measurement performed nearly as well as an obesity definition based on multiple body measurements. A tape measure around the waist may provide surprisingly useful information about obesity-related health risks. Rutgers Health researchers found that waist circumference can identify potentially unhealthy levels of body fat with accuracy comparable to more complicated [...]
  
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• Over 200 million migratory birds are hitting the sky this week

  25-08-2026 19:42 via popsci.com
  
  Signs of the waning summer are everywhere. The sun is setting earlier, yellow school buses are emerging from hibernation, and birds are showing up on weather radar once again. The fall migration is in full swing and we humans can follow along with BirdCast. Over the next two nights (August 25 and 26), BirdCast predicts that over 200 million birds will begin their long journey towards their head for their wintering grounds. Over 300North American bird species are long-distance migrants, mean
  
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• How NASA is prepping for lunar traffic jams

  25-08-2026 18:01 via popsci.com
  
  Managing air traffic on a global scale requires juggling a dizzying combination of logistics, international regulations, and environmental variables. But in the not-too-distant future, commercial plane travel could feel quaint when compared to the organizational efforts needed to run humanity’s first lunar spaceport.If all goes as planned, NASA hopes to have the Gateway installation up and running on the moon within the next 20 years. Once operational, the revolutionary orbital transportat
  
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• Apple’s new M6 Mac mini and M5 Ultra Mac Studio: 10 details you might have missed

  25-08-2026 17:13 via popsci.com
  
  Apple refreshed the Mac mini and the Mac Studio today with four different chips between them. The Mac mini gets the all-new M6 and the M5 Pro. The Mac Studio gets the M5 Max and the brand-new M5 Ultra. If the middle two sound familiar, they should, because those are the same parts that showed up in March’s MacBook Pro refresh. The M6 and the M5 Ultra are where the actual engineering news lives, and both of them are aimed squarely at running AI models on your desk instead of a massive data
  
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• Elon Musk: No One Gets Free Bread Until I Have Replaced Every Worker With a Robot

  25-08-2026 17:05 via technocracy.news
  
  Elon Musk, the world’s most logical Technocrat, has a fatal flaw in his logic: he says he will sell or lease an Optimus robot to every human on Earth and then, magically, the cost of everything will fall to zero and there will be no need for money (except to buy the new and improved Optimus?) Somehow, he expects the same magic to cause you to give a hearty AMEN as you head toward your own destruction. For all his purported wisdom, Musk is patently insane to say this with a straight face. &
  
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• AI Decodes a Hidden DNA Signal Linked to Disease-Causing Mutations

  25-08-2026 17:04 via scitechdaily.com
  Machine learning identifies the likely “initiator” and enables new predictions about DNA mutations that can cause disease. Every human cell depends on tens of thousands of genes being switched on at the right time and in the right amount. Specialized stretches of DNA coordinate this activity, ultimately directing the production of enzymes, hormones, proteins, and [...]
  
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• How do you find Eastern box turtle nests? You’ll need a spool of thread.

  25-08-2026 17:03 via popsci.com
  
  Earlier this year, a team of researchers in Virginia spent more than eight weeks tracking down Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) nests, employing a technique that seems straight out of ancient Greece’s Minotaur myth. The Turtle Conservation Ecology Lab has been collecting data on Eastern box turtle habits since 2022. The team started studying their nest survival rates in the spring, hoping that their research will better inform conservation leaders on how to safeguard V
  
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• Billions of Invasive Fish Have Taken Over the Great Lakes. Scientists Say We Can Still Stop Their Next Invasion

  25-08-2026 16:29 via scitechdaily.com
  The slow inland spread of round goby may give conservation managers a valuable window to protect rivers and streams before the fish become firmly established. Round goby are now so deeply established in the Great Lakes that scientists estimate their population in the billions, making complete eradication unrealistic. For decades, the small invasive fish has [...]
  
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• Scientists Turn Red Strawberries White With a Single Gene Edit

  25-08-2026 15:54 via scitechdaily.com
  Precisely editing the dominant MYB10-1B gene copy converted red strawberries into stable white fruit and demonstrated a targeted strategy for modifying polyploid crops. A strawberry’s familiar red color depends on a complicated genetic system. Cultivated strawberries carry eight sets of chromosomes, so many genes occur in several closely related copies, making it difficult to change [...]
  
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• In 1973, Icelanders fought a volcano—and won

  25-08-2026 14:53 via popsci.com
  
  On January 23, 1973, the 5,000 residents of the tiny Icelandic island of Heimaey—located in the Westman archipelago just four miles off Iceland’s southern coast—woke up to the Earth splitting open. In the dead of night, a mile-long volcanic fissure ripped through the ground just a half-mile from the town of Vestmannaeyjar, marking the birth of a new volcano named Eldfell.Fountains of molten basaltic lava shot hundreds of feet into the sky, raining ash and glowing, golf-ball-siz
  
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• This 4-pack of Apple AirTags just hit its all-time low price of $80 at Amazon

  25-08-2026 14:42 via popsci.com
  
  I recently almost left my camera bag in a hotel room after checkout, which is the stuff of nightmares. Luckily, it had an AirTag in it, which reminded me of my mistake. Currently, Apple’s four-pack of second-generation AirTags is available for $79.99 at Amazon, or $20 per tag, marking the lowest price Amazon has ever offered for the set. It has averaged about $91 since January, so this is a real cut rather than a dollar or two shaved off an inflated list price. A four-pack covers a car, a
  
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