Afrigather That is in the present day’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a day by day dose of what is going on on on the planet of know-how.
These corporations are creating meals out of skinny air
A brand new crop of biotech startups, armed with carbon-guzzling micro organism and loads of capital, are promising one thing that appears too good to be true. They are saying they’ll make meals out of skinny air.
However that’s precisely how sure soil-dwelling micro organism work. In nature, they survive on a meager eating regimen of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor drawn instantly from the environment.
Within the lab, they do the identical, consuming up waste carbon and reproducing so enthusiastically that their populations swell to fill large fermentation tanks. Siphoned off and dehydrated, that bacterial biomass turns into a protein-rich powder that’s chock-full of vitamins and basically infinitely renewable.
The final word objective of those corporations is to engineer a meals supply far decrease in emissions than standard farming. However so as to do this, they’ll want to beat some very actual challenges. Learn the complete story.
—Claire L. Evans
This story is from the subsequent print subject of MIT Know-how Assessment, which comes out on Wednesday and delves into the bizarre world of meals. In case you don’t already, subscribe to obtain a replica as soon as it lands.
The race to search out new supplies with AI wants extra information. Meta is giving large quantities away without spending a dime.
What’s new: Meta is releasing a large information set and fashions, referred to as Open Supplies 2024, that might assist scientists use AI to find new supplies a lot sooner. OMat24 tackles one of many greatest bottlenecks within the discovery course of: information.
Why it issues: To search out new supplies, scientists require large information units which can be arduous to come back by. Creating them requires a whole lot of computing energy and could be very costly. Lots of the prime information units and fashions accessible now are additionally proprietary, and researchers don’t have entry to them. That’s the place Meta is hoping to assist: The corporate is releasing its new information set and fashions in the present day without spending a dime and is making them open supply. Learn the complete story.
—Melissa Heikkilä
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you in the present day’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Elon Musk has big sway over the US federal authorities
And a Trump victory may hand him much more. (NYT $)
+ Musk is freely giving $1 million checks to individuals who register to vote…however it could be unlawful. (CNN)
+ However the billionaire’s help for Trump runs past merely doing enterprise. (The Guardian)
+ The prediction-betting business is flourishing as we close to election day. (WP $)
2 America’s producers are struggling
Simply take a look at the fates of Intel and Boeing. (WSJ $)
3 Microsoft will enable its prospects to construct their very own AI brokers
Alongside the launch of 10 pre-made, ready-to-use brokers. (Reuters)+ What are AI brokers? (MIT Know-how Assessment)
4 X needs to coach its AI fashions in your information
And customers aren’t comfortable about it. (CNN)
+ The brand new phrases will come into impact from November 15. (TechCrunch)
5 What occurs to the scholars wrongly accused of dishonest with AI
AI textual content detectors aren’t 100% correct, but are nonetheless being deployed like they’re. (Bloomberg $)
+ AI-text detection instruments are very easy to idiot. (MIT Know-how Assessment)
6 Need to earn cash? Get into information facilities
Traders are interested in their excessive returns. However it’s nonetheless a vastly dangerous enterprise. (FT $)
+ Power-hungry information facilities are quietly transferring into cities. (MIT Know-how Assessment)
7 A tiny hurricane fashioned close to Cuba over the weekend
It could be the smallest hurricane when it comes to the extent of its winds. (Ars Technica)
+ How the airborne water cycle could be supercharging superstorms. (Hakai Journal)
8 A brand new wave of psychedelics bypass the tripping half
No hallucinations vital. (The Atlantic $)
+ Thoughts-altering substances are being overhyped as surprise medication. (MIT Know-how Assessment)
9 The Tasmanian tiger might be introduced again from extinction
If Colossal Biosciences will get its method, that’s. (Vice)
+ A de-extinction firm is making an attempt to resurrect the dodo. (MIT Know-how Assessment)
10 This sensible rest room takes footage of your poo 💩
Your excrement incorporates an entire lot of essential well being information. (TechCrunch)
+ How bugs and chemical substances in your poo may give away precisely what you’ve eaten. (MIT Know-how Assessment)
Quote of the day
“If very highly effective persons are complaining loudly, it most likely means antitrust enforcers are doing their job.”
—Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO of evaluation firm Yelp, tells the Washington Submit why he co-hosted a fundraiser for Kamala Harris earlier this month.
The massive story
Inside the hunt to map the universe with mysterious bursts of radio vitality
Might 2024
When our universe was lower than half as outdated as it’s in the present day, a burst of vitality that might prepare dinner a solar’s price of popcorn shot out from someplace amid a compact group of galaxies. Some 8 billion years later, radio waves from that burst reached Earth and have been captured by a classy low-frequency radio telescope within the Australian outback.
The sign, which arrived in June 2022, and lasted for underneath half a millisecond, is considered one of a rising class of mysterious radio alerts referred to as quick radio bursts. Within the final 10 years, astronomers have picked up practically 5,000 of them. This one was significantly particular: practically double the age of something beforehand noticed, and three and a half instances extra energetic.
Nobody is aware of what causes quick radio bursts. They flash in a seemingly random and unpredictable sample from everywhere in the sky. However regardless of the thriller, these radio waves are beginning to show terribly helpful. Learn the complete story.
—Anna Kramer
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Bought any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ Oh, to be as comfortable as these wild boars on their slide.
+ Again to the Future 2 can’t be overwhelmed.
+ Right here’s find out how to get your focus again on observe.
+ In heartwarming information, this group of buddies has been assembly each week for a drink and a catch up for 56 years. ❤️
