The Government's Role in the Rise of Lab-Grown Meat
Last month, the US Department of Agriculture and FDA convened to debate meat: what it is and isn't, and if plant-based or lab-grown products like those made by Impossible Burger and Memphis Meats should be called meat. Lab-grown meat is still months from market, but vegetarian meats already have the poultry and cattle industries in…
The Creepy-Cute Robot that Picks Peppers With its Face
Rejoice! The machines won’t be taking over the world anytime soon, because doing the most basic of tasks still confounds them. I mean, have you thought lately about how hard it is to pick a ripe bell pepper? Fine, me neither. But researchers in Israel and Europe certainly have. They're developing a robot called Sweeper…
These Wind Patterns Explain Why California's Wildfires Are So Bad
In California three major fires—the Camp Fire in the north and Hill Fire and Woolsey Fire in the south—have raged on a scale the state has never seen before. The Camp Fire in particular was the most destructive and deadly wildfire in California history by far: It has virtually obliterated the 27,000-person town of Paradise,…
Big Data and the End of Painful, Invasive Medical Procedures
You heard it here first, folks; Stephen Quake is coming for the colonoscopy. The scientist has made a career of replacing invasive, painful, and dangerous procedures with simple, cheap tests that can be performed almost anywhere. Just this year, a blood panel he developed to detect genetic birth defects has been taken by more than…
Watch Boston Dynamics' Humanoid Robot Do Parkour
Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid robot can do a lot of things I can’t, including backflips and running through snow without falling on its face. Now add parkour to that list of feats. Yes, that parkour. In a new video, you can see Atlas bounding up a multi-layered platform, shifting its weight from its right foot…
Bioengineers Are Closer Than Ever To Lab-Grown Lungs
The lungs in Joan Nichols' lab have been keeping her up at night. Like children, they're delicate, developing, and in constant need of attention, which is why she and her team at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston's Lung Lab have spent the last several years taking turns driving to the lab at…
It's Not a Myth: Quantum Messages Really Can Travel Faster
Quantum computers are still a dream, but the era of quantum communication is here. A new experiment out of Paris has demonstrated, for the first time, that quantum communication is superior to classical ways of transmitting information. “We are the first to show a quantum advantage for transmitted information that two parties have to share…
SpaceX Will Send Yusaku Maezawa (and Artists!) to the Moon
Click:Press Release Capable Worldwide “I choose to go to the moon.” Those were among the first words uttered on stage Monday night by Yusaku Maezawa, the mysterious passenger whose existence SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had teased on Twitter last week. Maezawa, a Japanese retail entrepreneur and art collector, stood before a small crowd at SpaceX…
The Arctic's ‘Carbon Bomb’ Could Screw the Climate Even More
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Even in a dream-come-true scenario where we manage to stop all the world’s carbon emissions overnight, the Arctic would inevitably get hotter and hotter. That’s according to a new report by UN Environment, which says the region…
Next-Gen Nuclear Is Coming—If Society Wants It
This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Back in 2009, Simon Irish, an investment manager in New York, found the kind of opportunity that he thought could transform the world while — in the process — transforming dollars into riches. Irish saw that countries around the globe needed…