WIRED’s Top Stories in August: Biohacking and Eclipses, Oh My!

March 20, 2019 Off By HotelSalesCareers

August was full of news about hacks, leaks, and even hacks that led to leaks. But it was nature that arrested our attention and dominated the news cycle.

On August 21, a total solar eclipse cast a shadow over a large part of the US. For two and a half minutes, much of the nation turned its attention skyward to witness a cosmic marvel. Not a week later, on August 25, Harvey made landfall along the Texas coast, morphing from a category 4 hurricane to a tropical storm that lingered over Houston for days. The city is starting its recovery, rebuilding homes and systems.

WIRED reported on this and much more over the past 31 days. Below, a selection of the most-read stories on WIRED.com.

How to Watch the Total Solar Eclipse Without Glasses

The best way to observe this astronomical event is to be somewhere in the path of totality that will experience total darkness in the middle of the day. If you can't do this, you have two other options: Buy a pair of solar glasses or make a pinhole.

As for me, I will use a pinhole because it's fun to make stuff. —Rhett Allain

Hyperloop One Successfully Tests Its Pod for the First Time

The Los Angeles company leading the race to fulfill Elon Musk’s dream of tubular transit tested its pod for the first time last weekend. That pod is 28 feet long and made of aluminum and carbon fiber. It looks a bit like a bus with a beak.
A fast bus with a beak. Once loaded into a 1,600-foot-long concrete tube in the Nevada desert, the pod hit 192 mph in about 5 seconds, using an electric propulsion system producing more than 3,000 horsepower. —Alex Davies

The Day I Found Out My Life Was Hanging by a Thread

“What is ‘many’ tumors?” I asked. He looked defeated, saying they stopped counting after 10. —Matt Bencke

'Game of Thrones' Recap, Season 7 Episode 7: The Show That Just Ghosted Everyone

If the finale of the seventh season of Game of Thrones says anything, it is that this show has failed its fans, and has been doing so slowly for a long time. It did not want to admit it, nor did they. But alas, it's happened and all that hope and emotional investment has been reduced to a series of bullet points and cartoons, an empty dragon breathing blue fire with all the CGI fury of a broken promise with too much momentum behind it to do anything else. —Laura Hudson

James Damore’s Google Memo Gets Science All Wrong

The science in James Damore’s memo is still very much in play, and his analysis of its implications is at best politically naive and at worst dangerous. The memo is a species of discourse peculiar to politically polarized times: cherry-picking scientific evidence to support a preexisting point of view. It’s an exercise not in rational argument but in rhetorical point scoring. And a careful walk through the science proves it. —Megan Molteni, Adam Rogers

Inside an Epic Hotel Room Hacking Spree

Aaron Cashatt pushed open the unlocked door, walked into the hotel room, and closed the door behind him. Even in his meth-addled state, he was so taken aback by his success in hacking his way in that he laid down on the room’s king-size bed for perhaps a full minute, his heart racing.

Then he sat upright and started thinking about what he could steal. —Andy Greenberg

Biohackers Encoded Malware in a Strand of DNA

A group of researchers from the University of Washington has shown for the first time that it’s possible to encode malicious software into physical strands of DNA, so that when a gene sequencer analyzes it, the resulting data becomes a program that corrupts gene-sequencing software and takes control of the underlying computer. —Andy Greenberg

Meet Alex, the Russian Casino Hacker Who Makes Millions Targeting Slot Machines

“We, in fact, do not meddle with the machines—there is no actual hacking taking place,” Alex says. “My agents are just gamers, like the rest of them. Only they are capable of making better predictions in their betting." —Brendan Koerner

Why Men Don’t Believe the Data on Gender Bias in Science

Scientists are people, subject to the same cultural norms and beliefs as the rest of society. The systemic sexism and racism on display every day in this country also exist within the confines of science. Scientists are not as objective as they think they are. It is an extremely destabilizing realization for someone whose entire career has been rooted in the belief in human objectivity. —Alison Coil

Jared Kushner Comments on Middle East Peace in Leaked Q&A: "What Do We Offer That's Unique? I Don't Know."

Prior to Kushner's talk, Katie Patru, the deputy staff director for member services, outreach, and communications, told the assembled interns, "To record today’s session would be such a breach of trust, from my opinion. This town is full of leakers, and everyone knows who they are, and no one trusts them."

WIRED has obtained a recording of Kushner's talk, which lasted for just under an hour in total. —Ashley Feinberg