Why Fake Caviar Could Be the Solution to Plastic Pollution
An alternative to environmentally harmful plastic is already within reach: seaweed.
https://www.wired.com/story/plastic-pollution-packaging-notpla/
Cows and Cars Are Agriculture’s Priority—Not People
Farmers and scientists are getting better at growing more crops on less land, but they’re not focusing on plants people eat.
The City of Tomorrow Will Run on Your Toilet Water
Researchers are finding better ways to extract drinking water, compost, and even energy from wastewater. It’s not gross. It’s science.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-city-of-tomorrow-will-run-on-your-toilet-water/
Who Tests If Heat-Proof Clothing Actually Works? These Poor Sweating Mannequins
These mannequins undergo daily torture at the hands of textile scientists, but their suffering means we humans can have future-proofed clothing capable of handling our warming world.
https://www.wired.com/story/heat-proof-clothing-testing-sweating-mannequins-thermetrics/
A Celebrated Cryptography-Breaking Algorithm Just Got an Upgrade
Two researchers have improved a well-known technique for lattice basis reduction, opening up new avenues for practical experiments in cryptography and mathematics.
https://www.wired.com/story/cryptography-algorithm-upgrade-security/
Did Climate Change Help This Skier Achieve the Impossible?
A slalom skier just achieved a remarkable result in the Alpine Ski World Cup—coming from last place to win. As mountains get warmer and conditions less predictable, expect more freak occurrences like this.
https://www.wired.com/story/daniel-yule-skiing-world-cup-chamonix-climate-change-slalom/
NASA’s New PACE Observatory Searches for Clues to Humanity’s Future
They may be tiny, but phytoplankton and aerosols power pivotal Earth systems. Scientists are about to learn a whole lot more about them at a critical time.
https://www.wired.com/story/nasas-pace-observatory-launch-spacex-aerosols-plankton/
NASA Engineers Are Racing to Fix Voyager 1
A computer glitch has put the future of humanity’s farthest-flung space probe in doubt.
https://www.wired.com/story/nasa-voyager-one-space-probe-lost-contact/
This Small Wearable Device Reduces Parkinson’s Symptoms
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People with Parkinson’s have fewer tremors when they receive rhythmic physical stimulation—so a UK startup has created a coin-sized vibrating device to help patients move more easily.
https://www.wired.com/story/wearable-device-parkinsons-symptoms-charco-neurotech-startup/
These States Are Basically Begging You to Get a Heat Pump
You need a heat pump, ASAP. Now nine states are teaming up to accelerate the adoption of this climate superhero.
https://www.wired.com/story/these-states-are-basically-begging-you-to-get-a-heat-pump/
A Study at the Center of the Abortion Pill Battle Was Just Retracted
A scientific publisher found serious flaws in a paper that links the medication mifepristone to more emergency room visits.
How to Guarantee the Safety of Autonomous Vehicles
As computer-driven cars and planes become more common, the key to preventing accidents, researchers show, is to know what you don’t know.
The US Has Big Plans for Wind Energy—but an Obscure 1920s Law Is Getting in the Way
The Biden administration aims to deploy offshore wind turbines capable of generating 30 gigawatts of power by 2030. With less than a decade to go, the country remains woefully behind target.
https://www.wired.com/story/us-energy-offshore-wind-jones-act-biden-law/
You Can’t Buy Lab-Grown Meat Even If You Wanted To
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The only two restaurants in the US to sell cultivated meat have paused sales for now, leaving the industry in a strange limbo.
Why Is Our Solar System Flat?
It started as a big old ball of dust, so how did it end up like a giant pancake? Our resident physicist tells the true story using fake forces.
A Startup Has Unlocked a Way to Make Cheap Insulin
Houston-based rBIO has invented a new process to churn out insulin at higher yields using custom-made bacteria.
Inside the Beef Industry’s Campaign to Influence Schoolchildren
Big Beef is wooing science teachers with webinars and lesson plans in an attempt to change students’ perceptions of the industry.
Fiber Optics Bring You Internet. Now They’re Also Listening to Trains
“Distributed acoustic sensing” looks for disturbances in fiber to detect earthquakes and even insects. Can it also improve rail safety?
https://www.wired.com/story/fiber-optics-bring-you-internet-now-theyre-also-listening-to-trains/
Fiber Optics Bring You Internet. Now They’re Also Listening to Trains
“Distributed acoustic sensing” looks for disturbances in fiber to detect earthquakes and even insects. Can it also improve rail safety?
https://www.wired.com/story/fiber-optics-bring-you-internet-now-theyre-also-listening-to-trains/
Elon Musk Says a Human Patient Has Received Neuralink’s Brain Implant
Details are scarce, but Neuralink cofounder Elon Musk says initial results are “promising.”
https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-neuralink-human-patient-brain-implant/