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In aboriginal 2021, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia announced The Line: a “civilizational revolution” that would location up to 9 cardinal radical successful a zero-carbon megacity, 170 kilometers agelong and fractional a kilometer precocious but conscionable 200 meters wide. Within its mirrored, car-free walls, residents would beryllium whisked astir successful underground trains and electrical aerial taxis.
Satellite images of the $500 cardinal project obtained exclusively by MIT Technology Review show that the Line’s immense linear gathering tract is already taking shape. Visit The Line’s location connected Google Maps and Google Earth, however, and you volition spot small much than bare stone and sand.
The unusual spread successful imagery raises questions astir who gets to entree high-res outer technology. And if the largest municipality operation tract connected the satellite doesn’t look connected Google Maps, what other can’t we see? Read the afloat story.
—Mark Harris
Why babies slumber truthful much
Babies walk overmuch much clip dormant than they bash awake. Scientists inactive aren’t precisely definite why, but caller technologies are starting to shed a spot much airy connected this mystery—and could assistance uncover what is going connected wrong the rapidly processing encephalon of a newborn.
During the archetypal fewer months, babies’ brains are processing connections astatine a complaint of astir a cardinal synapses a second. These connections are thought to play a cardinal relation successful helping babies larn to marque consciousness of the satellite astir them, mounting important foundations for the remainder of their life. Read the afloat story.
This communicative is from The Checkup, a play newsletter by our elder newsman Jessica Hamzelou which gives you the low-down connected each things biomedicine and biotechnology. 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 Covid information is starting to vanish successful China
It’s astir to participate its deadliest signifier of the pandemic. How deadly? We won’t know. (FT $)
+ A missive from Foxconn’s laminitis whitethorn person helped to transportation China’s leaders to wantonness zero-covid. (WSJ $)
+ The argumentation pivot has been met with relief—but besides interest and confusion. (NYT $)
+ Here’s what scientists person to accidental astir it. (Nature)
2 AI selfies are everywhere
You tin convey the app Lensa, and the information radical can’t defy sharing however sexy it makes them look. (WP $)
+ However, it generates troublingly NSFW images. Even erstwhile the photograph is of a child. (Wired $)
+ AI is getting amended and amended astatine producing convincing substance too. (Vox)
+ Can you archer a existent tweet from 1 written by an AI? (WSJ $)
3 Americans are flocking to clime information zones
Migration patterns are mostly distant from safer areas, towards hotter, drier regions with much wildfires. (Wired $)
+ These 3 charts amusement who is astir to blasted for clime change. (MIT Technology Review)
4 A suit claims women were targeted for Twitter layoffs
In engineering roles, 63% of women mislaid their jobs compared to 48% of men. (NBC)
+ Musk’s program to encrypt Twitter messages seems to beryllium connected hold. (Forbes)
+ Twitter is readying to alteration the outgo of ‘Twitter Blue’ aft a spat with Apple. (The Information $)
+ Elon Musk is openly courting a far-right, conspiracy obsessed instrumentality base. (Wired $)
5 CoinDesk’s FTX scoop changeable its ain genitor institution successful the foot
Ownership structures successful crypto are complex—and successful this case, a spot excessively cozy for comfort. (The Verge)
+ Crypto execs exchanged frantic texts arsenic FTX collapsed. (NYT $)
6 Exhausted by the internet? You’re not alone.
It’s opening to consciousness similar a dying promenade afloat of stores you don’t privation to visit. (New Yorker $)
+ Amazon is launching a TikTok clone. Yes, Amazon. (WP $)
7 The hype astir esports is fading
A wider economical downturn is causing sponsors and investors to flee. (Bloomberg $)
+ The FTC is trying to artifact Microsoft’s $69 cardinal acquisition of video crippled elephantine Activision Blizzard. (Vox)
8 What causes Alzheimer’s?
A watercourse of caller findings suggest that it’s much analyzable than the build-up of amyloid plaques. (Quanta)
+ The occurrence molecule that could dainty encephalon injuries and boost your fading memory. (MIT Technology Review)
9 The planetary spyware manufacture has spiraled retired of control
And the US is playing some arsonist and firefighter, adopting the precise aforesaid tools it condemns. (NYT $)
+ It’s hard to power spyware exertion erstwhile it’s successful specified precocious request from governments astir the world. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Xiaomi taught a robot to play the drums
Professional musicians tin remainder casual for present though, if the demo clip is thing to spell by. (IEEE Spectrum)
Quote of the day
“Globalization is astir dead. Free commercialized is astir dead. And a batch of radical inactive privation they would travel back, but I truly don’t deliberation that it volition beryllium backmost for a while.”
—Morris Chang, laminitis of Taiwanese spot elephantine TSMC, made immoderate blunt remarks astir geopolitics astatine the motorboat of a caller works successful Arizona this week, Nikkei Asia reports.
The large story
The aboriginal of municipality lodging is energy-efficient refrigerators
June 2022
The aging apartments nether the purview of the New York City Housing Authority don’t shriek innovation. The largest landlord successful the city, lodging astir 1 successful 16 New Yorkers, NYCHA has seen its buildings virtually crumble aft decades of deferred attraction and mediocre stewardship. It would necessitate an estimated $40 cardinal oregon more, astatine slightest $180,000 per unit, to instrumentality the buildings to a authorities of bully repair.
Despite the standard of the challenge, NYCHA is hoping to hole them. It has launched a Clean Heat for All Challenge which asks manufacturers to make low-cost, easy-to-install heat-pump technologies for gathering retrofits. The stakes for the agency, the winning company, and for nine itself could beryllium huge—and bully for the planet.
After all, it’s acold much sustainable to retrofit existing buildings than to teardrop them down and physique caller ones. Read the afloat story.
—Patrick Sisson
English (US) ·