Sci-Tech news

• Exclusive / Demis Hassabis was shifting away from DeepMind CEO duties for a year - Semafor

  06-08-2026 00:33 via news.google.com
  Exclusive / Demis Hassabis was shifting away from DeepMind CEO duties for a year  SemaforThe next chapter of our AI momentum  blog.googleGoogle's AI reshuffle: Chief scientist Jeff Dean exits and Demis Hassabis steps down as DeepMind CEO  CNBCGoogle DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis is stepping aside  AxiosGoogle Shifts AI Power to California in Race Against Anthropic, OpenAI  Bloomberg.com
  
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• Man builds supersonic trebuchet in his backyard

  14-08-2026 22:00 via popsci.com
  
  Generating a sonic boom is usually only the result of immense cosmic forces or highly advanced aircraft designs, but it is possible to create one in your backyard. Aerospace engineer and YouTuber Tom Stanton recently documented his quest to construct a mechanical trebuchet capable of launching an object so fast that it breaks the sound barrier. That means building a device capable of not only hurling an object at about 767 miles per hour, but withstanding the physics needed to make it happen.&ld
  
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• Save up to 51% on Beats, Sony, and Bose Bluetooth headphones at Amazon before school starts

  14-08-2026 21:15 via popsci.com
  
  Back to school means back to searching for deals. And if it’s wireless noise-canceling headphones or earbuds you’re looking for, we’ve done the searching for you. These sonic study buddies offer a quiet bubble to drown out distractions, whether you’re in the library, the dorm, or walking to class. And if you act now, you can get great picks from Beats, Sony, and Bose at great prices, plus other brands that will let you save money and your sanity. Because anyone who has go
  
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• A suitcase-sized satellite may unlock the secrets of the early universe

  14-08-2026 20:43 via popsci.com
  
  The big bang may have started everything we know and love, but there wasn’t much to show for it at first. After that monumental release of initial energy, it took around 150 million years before the first stars began to coalesce. This “cosmic dark age” was comparatively quiet, but far from silent. A delicate signal from this era—known as the 21-centimeter line due to its wavelength in a vacuum—is technically detectable, although very difficult to observe from Earth.
  
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• Turner: The Technate Builds Its Fab

  14-08-2026 19:35 via technocracy.news
  
  Elon Musk speaks the language of Technocracy: terrawatts, functional sequences, capacity, allocation, etc. Terrafab is not an AI data center. It is a 100,000,000 square foot manufacturing facility to build components for the next generation of Ai data centers. Given his propensity for huge, will he announce plans for 100,000,000 square foot AI data center? Or a series of them? How about 200,000,000 square foot center? ⁃ Patrick Wood, Editor.On Thursday, August 6, SpaceX and Tesla formally
  
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• Handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence discovered in Maine

  14-08-2026 19:06 via popsci.com
  
  While researching town records, staff at the Clerk’s Office in the town of Wells, Maine, recently found a handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence. After the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, printed copies of the document were distributed around the colonies. These copies were made by Philadelphia printer John Dunlap of Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, and only 26 of the Dunlap broadsides survived, according to the National Archives.The Mass
  
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• Illegal mummy trafficking may curse buyers with mold, not magic

  14-08-2026 18:00 via popsci.com
  
  Infamous and grisly tales of ancient Egyptian mummy curses are more rooted in antiquated cultural biases and racism than mystical foul play, but that doesn’t mean these ancient remains are completely free from danger. According to archaeologists, collectors around the world are still routinely interacting with the millennia-old biological material without considering the pathological and microbial consequences.“Our research revealed that mummified remains sold online exhibit signs of
  
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• Man builds jet ski UFO of his (literal) dreams

  14-08-2026 17:03 via popsci.com
  
  An independent Vietnamese boat builder and popular YouTuber took a weird dream involving alien aircraft and used it as inspiration to build his own DIY flying saucer. Except this UFO doesn’t “fly” at all. Instead, his craft propels itself through water. The result is a one-of-a-kind, saucer-adjacent vessel that. And while it might not fly off to the  stars, any fishermen who come across the glowing disc making its way downriver are likely in for some weird dreams of their
  
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• 10,033 tiny clay cats reenact the Civil War at a Gettysburg museum

  14-08-2026 15:00 via popsci.com
  
  A stone’s throw from the hallowed ground of the Gettysburg Battlefield, where over 51,000 soldiers died over three days, visitors can learn about the American Civil War with a medium most associated with elementary school projects. But these aren’t your second grade teacher’s dioramas. At the Civil War Tails at the Homestead Diorama Museum, thousands of handmade clay cats depict some of the war’s hallmark moments–from Fort Sumter to Pickett’s Charge to le
  
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• Zuckerberg’s Anti-Doom Fantasy + Finally an A.I. Detector That Works + A.I. Math

  14-08-2026 13:00 via nytimes.com
  “The first rule of Mark Zuckerberg is never count out Mark Zuckerberg.”
  
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• This lightweight e-bike lets you decide what kind of rider you are today

  14-08-2026 00:00 via popsci.com
  
  Some bikes are built for commuting. Others are built for fitness. Most e-bikes ask you to pick a lane. The 39-pound Velotric Tempo doesn’t. With configurable ride modes, switchable sensors, and heart rate-based riding, it can be a workout partner one day, and an easy errand bike the next. And all without losing the simple joy of getting outside and riding a lightweight e-bike.Heather Kuldell-WareSee It Pros Lightweight 39-pound design that’s easy to carry and maneuver 8-speed drivetr
  
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• How one of the American Museum of Natural History’s most terrifying dioramas get clean

  13-08-2026 22:15 via popsci.com
  
  An unusual black box near the American Museum of Natural History’s (AMNH) iconic blue whale lures unsuspecting visitors to one of the museum’s most dramatic displays. A light that only shines every few seconds reveals a row of sharp teeth and reddish tentacles, as a sperm whale chomps down on a giant squid in an otherwise inky black exhibit. The morbidly curious Sperm Whale and Giant Squid Diorama is a startling depiction of one of nature’s most mysterious predator-prey relatio
  
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• Free Blockbusters are popping up to bring back physical media

  13-08-2026 20:00 via popsci.com
  
  Blockbuster is a hollow VHS clamshell of its former glory. A cultural mainstay throughout the 90s, the home video rental empire reached its peak with over 9,000 locations in 2004. But thanks to the streaming revolution, the once-ubiquitous franchise has since shrunk to a single pilgrimage outpost in Bend, Oregon. However, Blockbuster’s legacy has lingered across the generations in the form of aesthetic odes to physical media, nostalgic callbacks, and even indie video games.The rental chain
  
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• Who is KD1, the bald eagle spotted in Jackie and Shadow’s nest?

  13-08-2026 19:16 via popsci.com
  
  As millions continue to mourn the death of Jackie the bald eagle, attention has turned towards another eagle spotted near Jackie’s former partner Shadow and in their nest. The female eagle is a banded bird biologists call KD1. She was born in 2022, about 70 miles away from Big Bear Lake in the Prado Basin between Anaheim and Riverside, California . Coincidentally, her parents are also named Lucky and Ricky like Jackie’s parents, but they are a different eagle pair. Accordin
  
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• WWII motorcycle and soldiers emerge from river muck in Hungary

  13-08-2026 18:01 via popsci.com
  
  History continues to resurface as unprecedented heatwaves and droughts in Europe push the Danube River to its lowest levels on record. In addition to the dozens of World War II Nazi naval vessels near the Serbian town of Prahavo, archaeologists in Hungary have located an extremely rare Wehrmacht military motorcycle, along with the bodies of its two potential crewmembers. Due to the area’s unique conditions, both the vehicle and the soldiers’ remains are remarkably well-preserved even
  
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• The Posse Comitatus Presidency: Trump’s Standing Army On American Streets

  13-08-2026 17:43 via technocracy.news
  The US military is supposed to be under the Constitutional authority of Congress to declare war and provide funding, with the President being the commander-in-chief. The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the deployment of military forces on U.S. soil, but Trump is increasingly using the military to condition citizens to accept martial law. In short, the military is not to be the enforcer of the President’s will.The military was used in Operation Warp Speed to deliver vaccines to every corner o
  
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• Putting tiny backpacks on butterflies—for science

  13-08-2026 17:09 via popsci.com
  
  How do you track the movements of the majestic monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)? By giving each bug a solar-powered radio backpack, of course. The orange, black, and white polka-dotted pollinators are native to North America, and can be found in more than 90 countries, islands, and island groups. They exist everywhere there is milkweed, which is the only thing that their caterpillars feed on. There are both migratory and non-migratory populations, and the migratory monarch butterfly (Da
  
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• We smell different as we age. Here’s why.

  13-08-2026 15:03 via popsci.com
  
  We’ve all heard the saying: As we age, supposedly, we begin to develop a certain…telltale odor. Some describe it as evocative of a cozy grandparents’ house, old furniture, or closets full of vintage clothing. Others swear they can detect it on a person directly—picking up a musty, grassy, and unmistakable aroma. So, does aging really come with a smell of its own?According to Dr. Sonal Choudhary, a dermatologist and assistant professor of dermatology at the Universit
  
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• 20 magnificent finalists from the 2026 Ocean Photographer of the Year awards

  13-08-2026 09:00 via popsci.com
  
  Oceans cover 71 percent of Earth with 321,003,271 cubic miles of water. The the world’s largest mountain range and deepest canyon occupy these might waters, but warming waters and habitat destruction have left the ocean‘s creatures struggling. The 2026 Ocean Photographer of the Year competition celebrates Big Blue’s incredible beauty while also highlighting the urgent need to protect it in a rapidly changing world.A bottlenose dolphin bites a small fish beside a tradi
  
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• Read an WWII Army private’s letters back home for the first time

  12-08-2026 23:02 via popsci.com
  
  The United Service Organizations (USO) has thousands of pieces of military memorabilia in its collections, but some of these archival items offer particularly intimate looks into the lives of former service members. Earlier this summer, the charitable organization released a collection of letters for the first time written by a U.S. soldier during World War II. Authored between 1942 and 1945 by U.S. Army Private Louis “Speedy” Weber to his wife, Frances, the messages detail his entir
  
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• Read a WWII Army private’s letters back home for the first time

  12-08-2026 23:02 via popsci.com
  
  The United Service Organizations (USO) has thousands of pieces of military memorabilia in its collections, but some of these archival items offer particularly intimate looks into the lives of former service members. Earlier this summer, the charitable organization released a collection of letters for the first time written by a U.S. soldier during World War II. Authored between 1942 and 1945 by U.S. Army Private Louis “Speedy” Weber to his wife, Frances, the messages detail his entir
  
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• Driver Who Broke Sound Barrier Sets Another Land-Speed Record

  12-08-2026 21:40 via nytimes.com
  Andy Green, the only person to break the sound barrier on land, set a new world land-speed record for a hydrogen-powered vehicle, averaging 406.320 miles per hour in two runs at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
  
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• I Love the 90s! captures the first digital decade in rad detail

  12-08-2026 21:24 via popsci.com
  
  The current digital landscape is changing by the day, and arguably not for the better. An ongoing inundation of AI slop, gamified search engines, and toxic social media ecosystems has understandably left many users yearning for the internet’s “good ol’ days,” even if some of those memories are tinted by rose-colored glasses. DIY-minded programmers recently introduced a web archive that ends on November 30, 2022—the day OpenAI debuted ChatGPT. Now, creators have take
  
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• Katmai bear cub spotted with a paw full of porcupine quills

  12-08-2026 19:26 via popsci.com
  
  The rugged brown bears (Ursus arctos) of Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska may be well-positioned at the top of the food chain, but that doesn’t mean the smaller animals don’t pose any risks. Size doesn’t really mean much in the face of a porcupine’s 30,000 sharp quills.Bear cub 901jr learned this first hand. The baby was spotted on explore.org’s livestream with a paw covered in spiky quills. As they learn about their surroundings, curious cubs will invest
  
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• Insta360 wants its latest 360-degree action cam to be your “cameraman of the future”

  12-08-2026 18:00 via popsci.com
  
  At a 10th anniversary event held in Midtown Manhattan on July 28, imaging company Insta360 reflected on its past and shared its vision for the future.Max Richter, co-founder and vice president of marketing, and Adam Stringer, director of partnerships, gave a presentation to one side of a long table showcasing over a dozen prototypes and production cameras, 1,300 worldwide patents, and a decade of panoramic progression. This deep well of code and capture culminated in the new $699.99 Insta360 X6
  
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• Insta360 wants its latest 360 action camera to be your “cameraman of the future”

  12-08-2026 18:00 via popsci.com
  
  At a 10th anniversary event held in Midtown Manhattan on July 28, imaging company Insta360 reflected on its past and shared its vision for the future.Max Richter, co-founder and vice president of marketing, and Adam Stringer, director of partnerships, gave a presentation to one side of a long table showcasing over a dozen cameras, 1,300 worldwide patents, and a decade of panoramic progression. It all culminated in the new $699.99 Insta360 X6 flagship. [Disclosure: Insta360 provided travel accomm
  
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• No Fourth Amendment In American airports?

  12-08-2026 17:01 via technocracy.news
  
  It isn’t just about airports, but about all ports of entry at the border and any checkpoints set by CBP within 100 miles of a border. If you refuse to hand over your phone, you could be charged on the spot. Your digital life isn’t in your suitcase, but in your phone. It’s the holy grail of snooping. This story starts here: the privacy-first Graphene OS, which can be installed on Google phones, has an auto-destruct feature that is triggered by entering a secret password. This ci
  
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• ‘Less desirable’ males confuse female treefrogs looking for a mate

  12-08-2026 17:00 via popsci.com
  
  Too many choices is not always a good thing. Even if you are a female Cope’s gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) searching for a mate. When too many desirable mates croak and screech their availability, the female frogs struggle to make the right choice. This phenomenon called “choice overload” is detailed in a study published today in the journal Cell Press, and may impact how species evolve. Cope’s gray treefrogs have a wide range. They are found in Virginia west tow
  
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• Astronomers discover the existence of a ‘black hole star’

  12-08-2026 17:00 via popsci.com
  
  The strange bright red dots are visible in nearly every image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). However, the frequency of their cosmic cameos didn’t make them any more explicable to astronomers. But after four years of analysis, researchers now believe they know why it was so difficult to identify these mystery subjects: they’re an entirely new astrophysical source.“Our picture of this object is evolving very rapidly,” Rohan Naidu, an astrophysicist at MIT,
  
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• King Tut was buried with more than a hundred pairs of underwear—all tailored to fit his massive butt 

  12-08-2026 14:49 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 Popular Science’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 storie
  
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