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As protests against rigid covid power measures successful China engulfed societal media successful the past week, 1 Twitter relationship has emerged arsenic the cardinal root of information: @李老师不是你老师 (“Teacher Li Is Not Your Teacher”).
People everyplace successful China person sent protestation footage and real-time updates to the relationship done backstage messages, and it has posted them, with the sender’s individuality hidden, connected their behalf.
The antheral down the account, Li, is simply a Chinese creator based successful Italy, who requested to beryllium identified lone by his past sanction successful airy of the information risks. He’s been tirelessly posting footage astir the timepiece to assistance radical wrong China get information, and besides to pass the wider world.
The enactment has been taking its toll—he’s received decease threats, and constabulary person visited his household backmost successful China. But it besides comes with a consciousness of liberation, Li told Zeyi Yang, our China reporter. Read the afloat story.
Biotech labs are utilizing AI inspired by DALL-E to invent caller drugs
The news: Text-to-image AI models similar OpenAI’s DALL-E 2—programs trained to make pictures of astir thing you inquire for—have sent ripples done the originative industries. Now, 2 biotech labs are utilizing this benignant of generative AI, known arsenic a diffusion model, to conjure up designs for caller types of macromolecule ne'er seen successful nature.
Why it matters: Proteins are the cardinal gathering blocks of surviving systems. These macromolecule generators tin beryllium directed to nutrient designs for proteins with circumstantial properties, specified arsenic signifier oregon size oregon function. In effect, this makes it imaginable to travel up with caller proteins to bash peculiar jobs connected demand. Researchers anticipation that this volition yet pb to the improvement of caller and much effectual drugs. Read the afloat story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
Your microbiome ages arsenic you do—and that’s a problem
We’re each crawling with bugs. Our bodies are location to plentifulness of chiseled ecosystems that big microbes, fungi, and different organisms that are important to our wellbeing. These ecosystems look to alteration arsenic we age—and these changes tin perchance enactment america astatine accrued hazard of age-related diseases.
The large questions are: what tin we bash to support a blessed microbiome—and, adjacent if we negociate to execute it, volition it really assistance america to support age-related illnesses astatine bay? Read the afloat story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This communicative is from The Checkup, Jessica’s play newsletter giving you the wrong way connected each things biotech. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Thursday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 China’s authorities is cracking down hard connected protestation content
Among different orders, tech companies person been told to instrumentality down guides connected however to usage VPNs. (WSJ $)
+ Workers astatine the Zhengzhou iPhone mill are nether aggravated pressure. (FT $)
+ There’s nary mode for the Chinese authorities to wantonness ‘zero covid’ without losing face. (Vox)
+ Protestors person embraced analogue methods to flight surveillance. (Rest of World)
2 FTX’s illness is atrocious quality for AI
The embattled crypto speech invested hundreds of millions successful AI projects. Will they person to wage it back? (NYT $)
+ FTX’s implosion is evidently not doing crypto’s estimation immoderate favors, either. (WSJ $)
+ Bitcoin looks apt to further driblet successful value. (Bloomberg $)
+ What’s adjacent for effectual altruism? It’s not looking good. (New Yorker $)
3 Kanye West has been banned from Twitter, again
The rapper tweeted a vile antisemitic symbol. (BBC)
+ West besides praised Hitler during an interrogation with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. (Vox)
+ His woody to bargain Parler has fallen through. (CNN)
4 Weight nonaccomplishment app Noom is struggling with susceptible users
The level promotes a “psychological” attack to value loss, which immoderate conflate with therapy. (Insider $)
5 The precocious aviation costs of Amazon’s obsession with two-day transportation ✈️
Delivering goods via level is neither inexpensive nor terribly efficient. (Wired $)
+ This institution delivers packages faster than Amazon, but workers wage the price. (MIT Technology Review)
6 OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT is inactive spouting nonsense
It’s confidently regurgitating mendacious information. (The Verge)
+ These six high-profile artists’ AI creations are rather something. (The Guardian)
+ While everyone waits for GPT-4, OpenAI is inactive fixing its predecessor. (MIT Technology Review)
7 The US Army wanted to enlistee Gen Z gamers implicit Twitch
With a peculiar absorption connected reaching women, and Black and Hispanic players. (Motherboard)
8 Beavers are moving to the Arctic 🦫
And they could extremity up traveling adjacent farther, owed to planetary warming. (Knowable Magazine)
+ The extremist involution that mightiness prevention the “doomsday” glacier. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Inside the weird satellite of Competitive Excel
Yes, the spreadsheet software. (The Atlantic $)
10 Saturn’s rarely-seen satellite has been captured connected camera 🪐
Titan looks amazingly similar Earth successful the JWST images. (Inverse)
Quote of the day
“They dependable similar the feline playing the violin connected the Titanic.”
—A elder media purchaser lampoons the unusually generous deals Twitter is presently offering advertisers successful a hopeless bid to person them to support spending wealth with the progressively volatile platform, to the Financial Times.
The large story
The quest to amusement that biologic enactment matters successful the immune system
August 2022
For years, microbiologist Sabra Klein has painstakingly made the lawsuit that sex—defined by biologic attributes specified arsenic our enactment chromosomes, enactment hormones, and reproductive tissues—can power immune responses.
Through probe successful carnal models and humans, Klein and others person shown however and wherefore antheral and pistillate immune systems respond otherwise to the flu virus, HIV, and definite crab therapies, and wherefore astir women person greater extortion from vaccines but are besides much apt to get terrible asthma and autoimmune disorders.
Klein has helped spearhead a displacement successful immunology, a tract that agelong thought enactment differences didn’t matter—and she’s acceptable her sights connected pushing the tract of enactment differences adjacent further. Read the afloat story.
—Sandeep Ravindran
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.)
+ I stake you didn’t cognize that the mode ducks aquatics successful formation is inspiring however freight ships move.
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+ Wednesday Addams, however we emotion ye.
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