10 months ago
146 This is today's variation of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a regular dose of what's going connected successful the satellite of technology.
This improbable substance could powerfulness cleaner trucks and ships
Transportation is simply a immense portion of the clime puzzle, accounting for implicit 15% of worldwide planetary greenhouse state emissions. And portion we’re making dependable progress, determination are parts of the puzzle that are harder to solve, similar vehicles that request to screen agelong distances oregon tally for agelong durations without stopping to charge.
New York–based startup Amogy thinks the cardinal to solving this occupation lies successful harnessing ammonia—one of the world’s astir wide shipped chemicals—to powerfulness electrical tractors, trucks, and adjacent ships.
Casey Crownhart, our clime reporter, visited its office to perceive much astir the team’s large ideas. Read the afloat story.
This communicative is from The Spark, Casey’s play clime and vigor newsletter. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Wednesday.
Learn however exertion is changing the satellite of work
Are you funny successful exploring the emerging technologies similar AI reshaping the satellite of concern today? Attend EmTech Next, our three-day online league from June 13-15. Speakers from starring organizations specified arsenic Google, NASA, Johnson & Johnson, NVIDIA, and the USPS volition beryllium down with MIT Technology Review's editorial squad to sermon innovations and impact. Get your summons today!
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 Our phones are failing to seizure the world of wildfires
Their blase colour correction algorithms mean it’s harder to instrumentality close photos. (Vice)
+ It’s been a terrifying week for New Yorkers. (New Yorker $)
+ But the concern is dilatory improving. (NYT $)
+ These apps fto you cheque the aerial prime wherever you live. (WSJ $)
2 DeSantis’s run shared deepfake images of Trump and Fauci
The enactment betwixt world and fabrication is getting harder to discern. (NPR)
3 The dam illness successful Ukraine is an ecological disaster
Worst of all, immoderate of the harm it’s caused whitethorn beryllium permanent. (Wired $)
+ Satellite images laic bare the standard of the destruction. (NBC)
4 We request much information connected AI’s c footprint
We could wage a precocious biology terms for the technology’s accelerated growth. (The Guardian)
+ Why we request to bash a amended occupation of measuring AI’s c footprint. (MIT Technology Review)
+ Labor unions person a caller enemy: AI. (WP $)
+ A detector tin spot AI-written world text. (The Register)
5 Louisiana volition necessitate parental consent for kids’ online accounts
But it’s hard to spot however this’ll beryllium backed up with action. (NYT $)
+ Why kid information bills are popping up each implicit the US. (MIT Technology Review)
6 What Meta’s readying next
The aforesaid arsenic each its competitors, it seems: AI everywhere. (NYT $)
+ Here’s what Zuckerberg had to accidental astir Apple’s caller headset. (The Verge)
7 The streaming concern exemplary is broken
We’re surviving successful a clip of ‘peak TV’, yet nary 1 seems to beryllium capable to marque the numbers adhd up. (Vulture)
8 How online advertisers statement you
The categories radical are placed successful are truly based connected guesswork, but occasionally it tin beryllium spookily accurate. (The Markup)
9A tiny past hominin whitethorn person been cleverer than we thought
We mightiness request to rethink our existing narratives astir quality evolution. (The Economist $)
10 Please, bash not usage ‘double click’ arsenic a verb
I beg of you. (FT $)
Quote of the day
“We’ve been proceeding from creators and nationalist figures who are funny successful having a level that is sanely run.”
—A apical Meta exec tells employees wherefore the institution is readying to motorboat a Twitter clone, The Verge reports.
The large story
The Atlantic’s captious currents could collapse. Scientists are racing to recognize the dangers.
NOAA
December 2021
Scientists are searching for clues astir 1 of the astir important forces successful the planet’s clime system: a web of water currents known arsenic the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). They privation to amended recognize however planetary warming is changing it, and however overmuch much it could shift, oregon adjacent collapse.
The occupation is the Atlantic circulation seems to beryllium weakening, transporting little h2o and heat. Because of clime change, melting crystal sheets are pouring caller h2o into the water astatine the higher latitudes, and the aboveground waters are retaining much of their heat. Warmer and fresher waters are little dense and frankincense not arsenic prone to sink, which whitethorn beryllium undermining 1 of the currents’ halfway driving forces. Read the afloat story.
—James Temple
We tin inactive person bully things
A spot for comfort, amusive and distraction successful these weird times. (Got immoderate ideas? Drop maine a line oregon tweet 'em astatine me.)
+ No 1 is definite wherefore the Dana octopus squid has the world’s biggest light-producing organs.
+ How to go a really, truly bully listener? Drop the cliches.
+ Weird sanction owners of the world, unite!
+ Some of the tat you travel crossed connected Chinese buying tract Temu is… earnestly retired there.
+ What bash sommeliers portion erstwhile they’re not working? Costco wine, apparently. 🍷
