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What’s happened: After an eight-year effort to retrieve DNA from Greenland’s frozen interior, researchers accidental they’ve managed to series cistron fragments from past fish, plants, and adjacent a mastodon that lived 2 cardinal years ago. It’s the oldest DNA ever recovered.
How they did it: The researchers examined familial worldly that was near down by dozens of taxon and washed into sediment layers agelong ago. The DNA was preserved by freezing temperatures and bound to clay and quartz, which besides slows down the process of degradation.
Why it matters: The familial findings, which overgarment a representation of an epoch erstwhile Greenland was covered with flowering plants and cedar trees, could supply clues to however ecosystems adapted to warmer climates successful the past. Read the afloat story.
—Antonio Regalado
The chaotic caller exertion coming to offshore upwind power
Wind powerfulness is 1 of the world’s fastest-growing renewable vigor sources, and soon its scope mightiness grow adjacent further. This week, California is auctioning sites disconnected its seashore that could location the archetypal floating upwind turbines successful the US.
There are already a fewer objection projects astir the satellite for floating offshore upwind turbines, but the exertion is entering a caller phase, with much governments mounting goals for installations and larger projects entering the readying and permitting stages. California could beryllium a large investigating crushed for the technology. But what it would instrumentality to really happen, and what volition California’s auction mean for upwind powerfulness globally? Read the afloat story.
—Casey Crownhart
Casey’s communicative is from The Spark, her play newsletter covering vigor and clime change. Sign up to person it successful your inbox.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 Sam Bankman-Fried is reportedly being investigated by US prosecutors
The enquiry wants to find whether helium manipulated the marketplace for 2 cryptocurrencies. (NYT $)
+ The FTX laminitis has made his just stock of enemies lately. (Vox)
+ Facebook is asking lawmakers to spell casual connected crypto, please. (Motherboard)
+ An underground assemblage successful Lebanon is mining crypto successful neglected dams. (Rest of World)
2 Apple is yet encrypting astir of iCloud
It volition support information from some hackers and instrumentality enforcement. (WSJ $)
+ The institution has dropped its plans to scan iCloud Photos for imaginable kid abuse. (Wired $)
+ Government agencies are improbable to invited Advanced Data Protection. (WP $)
3 Ukraine is revolutionizing oversea warfare with naval drones
The uncrewed boats are targeting force ships. (Economist $)
+ Russian disinformation is demonizing Ukrainian refugees. (WP $)
4 China has agreed to US inspections of its tech businesses
In a bid to debar being placed connected a commercialized blacklist. (FT $)
5 How France’s privateness darling turned cyber snooper
Eric Leandri utilized to beryllium a staunch defender of integer privacy. Now, helium runs a cybersurveillance firm. (Politico)
6 Scammers are scamming each other
And a astonishing fig of them are complaining astir it online. (Wired $)
+ The 1,000 Chinese SpaceX engineers who ne'er existed. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Working retired the internet’s c footprint is amazingly difficult
We’re utilizing much energy, but it’s hard to comparison definite activities. (The Conversation)
8 The occupation with being “chronically online”
It’s mostly a batch of radical getting het up implicit nothing. (Vox)
+ Even the fanciest influencers are feeling the cost-of-living pinch. (Wired $)
9 The elemental magic of Christmas buying successful existent life
Online whitethorn beryllium much convenient, but algorithms are improbable to delight you with an unexpected find. (The Atlantic $)
10 How to hole for a elephantine asteroid strike
The Asteroid Launcher simulator provides a fascinating look astatine what could happen—but hopefully won’t. (Motherboard)
+ How to enactment harmless from a star flare. (Insider $)
+ Watch the infinitesimal NASA’s DART spacecraft crashed into an asteroid. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“It’s not a bully look. It’s yet different unspoken motion of disrespect. There is nary discussion. Just like, beds showed up.”
—A disgruntled Twitter worker tells Forbes astir beds mysteriously appearing successful the company’s offices without immoderate warning, presumably to alteration unit to propulsion brainsick hours.
The large story
Is your encephalon a computer?
It’s an analogy that goes backmost to the dawn of the machine era: ever since we discovered that machines could lick problems by manipulating symbols, we’ve wondered if the encephalon mightiness enactment successful a akin fashion.
Alan Turing, for example, asked what it would instrumentality for a instrumentality to “think” backmost successful 1950, wondering that if machines could deliberation similar quality brains, it was lone earthy to wonderment if brains mightiness enactment similar machines.
Today, experts are divided. We asked them to archer america wherefore they deliberation we should—or shouldn’t—think of the encephalon arsenic being “like a computer.” Although everyone agrees that our biologic brains make our conscious minds, they’re divided connected the question of what role, if any, is played by accusation processing—the important similarity that brains and computers are alleged to share. Read the afloat story.
—Dan Falk
We tin inactive person bully things
A spot for comfort, amusive and distraction successful these weird times. (Got immoderate ideas? Drop maine a line or tweet 'em astatine me.)
+ How ‘goblin mode’ became the word of the year.
+ 2022 has been A Year, but astatine slightest the memes were good.
+ Yeardley Smith, aka the dependable of Lisa Simpson, has been connected a existent journey.
+ Netflix has a ton of concealed codes to shingle up your recommendations. What’re you waiting for?
+ Here’s wherefore what we deliberation we cognize astir the brain astatine 25 years old astir apt isn’t existent astatine all.
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