Insurance Rates Are Soaring for US Homeowners in Climate Danger Zones
Research shows the soaring costs hint at widespread, unpriced risk as the global climate warms, with states like California, Florida and Louisiana hit hardest.
The Global Danger of Boring Buildings
Unloved buildings turn to ruin, leading to a deluge of construction waste worldwide. Designer Thomas Heatherwick tells WIRED why cities need to prioritize human health and joy in architecture.
https://www.wired.com/story/thomas-heatherwick-q-and-a-wired-health/
A Pill That Kills Ticks Is a Promising New Weapon Against Lyme Disease
Your pets can already eat a chewable tablet for tick prevention. Now, a pill that paralyzes and kills ticks has shown positive results in a small human trial.
https://www.wired.com/story/pill-kills-ticks-lyme-disease-babesiosis-anaplasmosis/
A Startup Will Try to Mine Helium-3 on the Moon
The Earth is in short supply of helium-3. The lunar surface may hold the answer.
The Designer Who’s Trying to Transform Your City Into a Sponge
Kongjian Yu pioneered China’s “sponge city” concept—less concrete and more green spaces to exploit stormwater instead of fighting it. Metropolises all over the world are following suit.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-designer-whos-trying-to-transform-your-city-into-a-sponge/
States Are Lining Up to Outlaw Lab-Grown Meat
Around 46 million Americans live in states that have introduced bills to ban cultivated meat, the latest escalation in a surprising culture war.
You Can Count on Pi
On Pi Day we answer the burning question: Is there any world in which pi does not go on forever?
States Are Lining Up to Outlaw Lab-Grown Meat
Around 46 million Americans live in states that have introduced bills to ban cultivated meat, the latest escalation in a surprising culture war.
You Can Count on Pi
On Pi Day we answer the burning question: Is there any world in which pi does not go on forever?
Climate Change Is Bad for Your Health, Wherever You Are
Rising temperatures are a threat regardless of where you live on the planet—they’re just dangerous in different ways.
The 4 Big Questions the Pentagon's New UFO Report Fails to Answer
The Pentagon says it’s not hiding aliens, but it stops notably short of saying what it is hiding. Here are the key questions that remain unanswered—some answers could be weirder than UFOs.
Your Next Job: Brain-Computer Interface Surgeon
When everyone's hooking their brains up to computers, we'll need BCI surgeons to install the hardware.
Get Ready to Eat Pond Plants
Meet the amazing azolla, a nutritious fern that grows like crazy, capturing carbon in the process. Could it be a food—and fertilizer and biofuel—of the future?
Rampant Wildfires Are Threatening a Collapse of the Amazon Rainforest
Rainforests in South America are burning this year faster than ever before, setting the course for a collapse of the Amazon in the coming decades.
https://www.wired.com/story/rampant-wildfires-collapse-amazon-rainforest/
How Do Heat Pumps Work?
Our in-house physics whiz explains how a heat pump can warm your home without burning fossil fuels.
Selective Forgetting Can Help AI Learn Better
Erasing key information during training allows machine learning models to learn new languages faster and more easily.
https://www.wired.com/story/how-selective-forgetting-can-help-ai-learn-better/
Solar-Powered Farming Is Quickly Depleting the World's Groundwater Supply
Farmers in hot, arid regions are turning to low-cost solar pumps to irrigate their fields, eliminating the need for expensive fossil fuels and boosting crop production. But by allowing them to pump throughout the day, the new technology is drying up aquifers around the globe.
https://www.wired.com/story/solar-energy-farming-depleting-worlds-groundwater-india/
Stop Misunderstanding the Gender Health Gap
Sex differences explain some of the gaping health inequalities between men and women—but a lot of the time, it’s sexism.
https://www.wired.com/story/stop-misunderstanding-the-gender-health-gap/
A 62-Year-Old German Man Got 217 Covid Shots—and Was Totally Fine
Hundreds of boosters over a 29-month period had little effect on the one person who tried it.
https://www.wired.com/story/man-gets-217-covid-vaccine-shots-totally-fine/
Cities Aren’t Prepared for a Crucial Part of Sea-Level Rise: They’re Also Sinking
Coastal land is dropping, known as subsidence. That could expose hundreds of thousands of additional Americans to inundation by 2050.