Scientists have uncovered a hidden “stop-scratching” signal in the nervous system that tells your brain when enough scratching is enough. The discovery centers on a molecule called TRPV4, which acts like part of an internal… Read more: Scientists discover the brain’s hidden “stop scratching” switch

Scientists have uncovered a hidden Antarctic threat that could accelerate global sea level rise far faster than expected. Deep beneath floating ice shelves, long channels carved into the ice appear to trap warmer ocean water,… Read more: Antarctica is melting from below and scientists say it’s worse than expected

A major obstacle may be standing in the way of the next generation of ultra-tiny computer chips. Researchers discovered that many promising 2D materials lose their advantages because an invisible atomic-scale gap forms when they… Read more: The hidden atomic gap that could break next-generation computer chips

Scientists have taken a major step toward ultra-secure quantum communication by demonstrating a remarkably stable quantum encryption system that worked across more than 120 kilometers of optical fiber. Using tiny semiconductor quantum dots that emit… Read more: Scientists just sent unhackable quantum keys across 120 kilometers

Rebooting the gut microbiome with bacteria from youth may help stop aging-related liver damage and even prevent liver cancer, according to new research in mice. Older mice that received their own preserved youthful microbiome showed… Read more: Scientists reversed liver aging with young gut bacteria in stunning study

Emissions understated by factor of five in Essex plans for tech giant, while Greystoke’s Lincolnshire plans show similar error Developers working for Google have significantly misstated how much carbon two proposed AI datacentres will contribute… Read more: Google developers significantly misstate carbon emissions of proposed UK datacentres

The jury’s still out on AI’s effectiveness as a learning tool, but research so far paints a grim picture. Using AI chatbots can impair critical thinking, result in lower brain activity during cognitive tasks, and… Read more: A Major Paper Claiming AI Is Good for Students Just Got Retracted, Which Is Very Bad News for Advocates of AI in the Classroom

In November, Amazon leaders sent an internal memo to employees, pushing them to use its in-house code generating tool, Kiro, over third-party alternatives from competitors. “While we continue to support existing tools in use today,… Read more: Amazon Admits Its Flagship AI Coding Tool Isn’t Good Enough for Its Own Workers to Use

As of 2026, Google maintains an iron grip on the web browser market, boasting well over three billion Chrome users worldwide. That means even small changes or interruptions can have a significant impact. As security researcher… Read more: Fury Erupts After Google Chrome Sneakily Installs 4 GB AI Model On Users’ PCs

Scientists in China discovered that ancient humans were making surprisingly advanced stone tools during a harsh ice age 146,000 years ago. The tools, created by Homo juluensis, show careful planning and complex thinking rather than… Read more: Ice age humans in China crafted surprisingly advanced stone tools 146,000 years ago

The main antagonist of Toy Story 5, in theaters this summer, is a green, frog-shaped kids’ tablet named Lilypad, a genius new villain for the beloved Pixar franchise. But if Pixar had its ear to… Read more: The new Wild West of AI kids’ toys

Fur seals may look like they’re simply resting after exhausting hunting trips at sea, but their bodies are secretly working overtime. Scientists discovered that hours after returning to land, the seals’ heart rates suddenly surge… Read more: Deep diving fur seals experience delayed heart surges after returning to land

Scientists may have found a smarter, safer way to wipe out termites hiding inside homes. A chemical called bistrifluron prevents drywood termites from forming new exoskeletons during molting, killing entire colonies from within. In tests,… Read more: New chemical kills 95% of termites without harming humans

A new study shows that listening to your own favorite workout music can dramatically boost endurance. Cyclists exercising with self-selected songs lasted nearly 20% longer than when riding in silence, yet they didn’t feel more… Read more: Scientists say this simple music trick can boost workout endurance by 20%

Welcome back to the Abstract! Here are the studies this week that got ID’d, caught on camera, internally probed, and married off. First, scientists have confirmed the identities of four sailors who died in a… Read more: Scientists Studied 906 Mafia Marriages and Found Something Surprising

Physicists may have just cracked open a hidden side of the quantum world. For decades, every known particle was thought to belong to one of two categories — bosons or fermions — but researchers have… Read more: Physicists discover quantum particles that break the rules of reality

You probably already know that AI is a deeply bizarre technology. Nobody really understands how it works on a deep level, even the people creating it, leading to ongoing behavioral issues that can’t be explained.… Read more: The More Sophisticated AI Models Get, the More They’re Showing Signs of Suffering

Plus: Meta officially kills encrypted Instagram DMs, the Trump administration targets “violent left wing extremists,” leaked documents reveal Russia’s school for elite hackers, and more.

The company’s UK and Europe boss has become a lightning rod for the British public’s fear of a US tech takeover The hall was packed with rightwing radicals when Louis Mosley heralded a coming revolution.… Read more: Who is Louis Mosley, the man tasked with defending Palantir against its critics?

Explore the top humanoid robots from Tesla, Unitree, Agility Robotics, UBTech, and more, ranked by momentum, real-world use, and commercial potential. The post The Top 10 Humanoid Robots, Ranked: Tesla, Unitree, and More appeared first… Read more: The Top 10 Humanoid Robots, Ranked: Tesla, Unitree, and More

AWS Rex adds runtime guardrails for agentic AI, but security leaders still need data-layer controls to satisfy compliance and audit demands. The post AWS Rex Is a Big Step for Agentic AI Security, But Not… Read more: AWS Rex Is a Big Step for Agentic AI Security, But Not the Final Layer

Scientists studying axolotls, zebrafish, and mice have uncovered a shared set of genes that may one day help humans regrow lost limbs. By identifying powerful “SP genes” involved in regeneration, researchers discovered that disabling these… Read more: Scientists found the “holy grail” gene that could one day help humans regrow limbs

Machines may soon translate every conversation flawlessly. But language is more than information – it is curiosity, intimacy and cultural discovery One of my earliest assignments as a young interpreter was to provide simultaneous interpretation… Read more: AI will make language barriers disappear – and diminish our understanding of other cultures

To get quantum computing to work, we will ultimately need lots of high-quality qubits, which we can tie together into groups of error-corrected logical qubits. Companies are taking distinct approaches to get there, but you… Read more: Manufacturing qubits that can move

President Trump has signed off on a plan to fire Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, though insiders caution that the plan is not final and could change, according to several media reports. News… Read more: Trump reportedly plans to fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary

An unprecedented outbreak of hantavirus has rocked a luxury cruise ship off the coast of West Africa, triggering a tsunami of news stories and a flood of post-pandemic anxiety. So far, eight cases have been… Read more: The unprecedented and deadly cruise ship hantavirus outbreak, explained

Anyone following the modern game industry knows that easy-to-use game engines and the accelerating shift to digital distribution have helped enable a massive increase in the quantity of commercial games released each year, both on… Read more: Sony says “efficient” AI tools will lead to even more games flooding the market

ABC is fighting back against the Trump administration’s attempt to police broadcast television content, saying in a filing that the Federal Communications Commission is violating the First Amendment. Led by Chairman Brendan Carr, the FCC… Read more: ABC refuses to capitulate to Trump admin, fights FCC probe into The View

Scientists have uncovered a surprising secret hidden inside fat cells that could reshape how we think about obesity and metabolic disease. A protein called HSL, long believed to simply release stored fat when the body… Read more: New obesity discovery rewrites decades of fat science

Chaos erupted at schools and colleges throughout the US on Thursday as a cyberattack disrupted online learning platform Canvas just as students were due to take final exams. Canvas parent company Instructure said that as… Read more: Chaos erupts as cyberattack disrupts learning platform Canvas amid finals

The day after the Supreme Court struck down a set of Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs, the president quickly imposed another, using a never-before-invoked provision of a decades-old trade law to order a global 10 percent… Read more: Court rules Trump’s 10% tariff is just as illegal as the tariff it replaced

The top of a Google search page is prime real estate, but it has primarily been the domain of AI Overviews for the past two years. Websites that spent years optimizing for Google search haven’t… Read more: Course correction: Google to link more sources in AI Overviews

On Thursday, Amazon Web Services said that one of its major data centers in north Virginia was overheating so much that it had to be shut down. According to The Next Web, AWS engineers were… Read more: In Irony-Soaked Incident, Amazon Data Center Shuts Down Due to High Temperatures

All of Google’s products have been getting more AI features, including Chrome, which now offers split-screen Gemini chatbot support, the ability to automate web browsing, and more. Some desktop Chrome users have also noted that… Read more: Chrome’s 4GB AI model isn’t new, but you’re not wrong for being confused

French prosecutors yesterday opened a criminal investigation into Elon Musk and X, escalating a probe into sexual images of minors and other alleged illegal content on Musk’s social network. The action came three months after… Read more: Elon Musk faces criminal probe in France after ignoring summons in X case

Full-day multi-track event brings together researchers, practitioners and security leaders to address emerging threats, vulnerabilities and defense strategies for AI agents Zenity, the leading end-to-end security and governance platform for AI agents, today announced the… Read more: AI Agent Security Summit Returns to San Francisco

The University of Michigan has sent a legal threat over a yearlong pause that would prevent water hookup to a proposed nuclear weapons research and AI data center. Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University… Read more: University Claims Withholding Water From Nuclear Weapons Data Center Is ‘Unlawfully Discriminatory’ to Data Centers

There have been supposed alien sightings for centuries. These observations of “unidentified flying objects,” or UFOs, have periodically surged, such as during the late 1940s and early 1950s as the Cold War began. There have… Read more: The US military just released a bunch of UAP files, but there’s no there there

When we reviewed the Switch 2 just after its launch last year, we warned that interested customers might want to buy in early, as the launch price could go up. That potential price hike became… Read more: The Nintendo Switch 2 is getting more expensive later this year

It’s not in your head. Climate change is contributing to longer and more severe pollen seasons across the Northern Hemisphere. Dr. Neelima Tummala, an ear, nose, and throat doctor at NYU Langone Health, said her… Read more: How climate change makes your allergies worse

The Apple Macintosh is more than 40 years old, but it’s still going strong, and its recent success was significant enough that Apple CEO Tim Cook called it out during the company’s earnings call last… Read more: Which Macs are suffering from shortages—and where are things getting worse?

Archaeologists continue to use DNA analysis to identify the recovered remains of the doomed crew members of Captain Sir John S. Franklin’s 1846 Arctic expedition to cross the Northwest Passage. They can now add four… Read more: DNA identifies four more crew members of doomed Franklin expedition

A little more than three years since NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter ended its pioneering mission at Mars, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California are designing next-generation Martian rotorcraft to carry heavier payloads longer distances through… Read more: Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab make a breakthrough in rotor technology

Thursday afternoon, millions of students at thousands of universities and K-12 schools were locked out of Canvas, a piece of catch-all education technology software that has become the de facto core of many classes. ShinyHunters,… Read more: ‘The Biggest Student Data Privacy Disaster in History’: Canvas Hack Shows the Danger of Centralized EdTech

It’s hard to even imagine now, but immediately after it launched in 2004, there was nothing on the internet cooler than Facebook. It was initially available only to Harvard students, then gradually expanded to students… Read more: Meta Has Entered Its Death Spiral

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss storage, RSS, and a big reporting project.… Read more: Behind the Blog: Storage Woes and RSS

RingCentral has expanded its AI Receptionist product with new links to Shopify, Calendly and WhatsApp, as the communications software company tries to push the product beyond basic call answering and into more routine customer service… Read more: RingCentral adds Shopify, Calendly, and WhatsApp to AI Receptionist

The philosopher thinks humans should pursue advanced AI and the promise of a “solved world.”

California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer is proposing a new jobs guarantee for workers displaced by artificial intelligence.

Hey kids! Want to tell your mom you love her, but without expending a single iota of emotional effort? If so, you’re in luck: a new service called Cards for Agents fulfils that exact grim… Read more: Cursed New AI Service Writes a Mother’s Day Card and Mails It to Your Mom, Without Any Human Involvement Except Inputting Your Credit Card Details

The gentle French garment is now as cursed as the infamous megacorp, which has accumulated $80m in government contracts in Australia alone It’s taken me years to find a chore coat with a cut that… Read more: AI-powered surveillance company Palantir created a chore coat. Great, now I have no choice but to burn mine | Van Badham

Before I get into it, I want you to wear one of two hats while reading this: If you’re a builder, an individual contributor who ships things every day, think about how you can influence… Read more: Becoming AI ready: Building a company with 12 AI agents as my first hires

Claims of nimbyism are a misunderstanding: the movement is about whether regular people have a say in fundamental decisions Since the surreal scene at the 2024 presidential inauguration, when a row of big tech titans… Read more: The fight against AI data centers isn’t just about tech – it’s about democracy | Astra Taylor and Saul Levin

Star Wars actor later deleted post and apologized, saying president should live ‘long enough to be held accountable’ US politics live – latest updates The White House has branded Star Wars actor Mark Hamill “a… Read more: White House calls Mark Hamill ‘sick’ after his post with AI image of Trump in a grave

The AI sloppification of the internet comes for us all, even the petty scammers and fraudsters doing business in the darker corners of the web. As a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study found, old-world internet scammers are getting… Read more: Scammers Furious That Their Fellow Criminals Are Using AI, Saying It’s Unethical

Welcome to Edition 8.40 of the Rocket Report! One of the remarkable things about SpaceX is that, after a quarter of a century and becoming the most important launch company of this era, it remains… Read more: Rocket Report: Alpha Block 2 coming this summer; Falcon sets booster landing mark

It’s no fun living through the global energy shock and growing economic crisis that has ensued since the conflict choked off shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. But it can be enlightening to play through… Read more: Everyone’s a loser in Strait of Hormuz game that simulates global crisis

The system’s power is comparable to others – but it still has frightening implications for the future of hacking Last month, Anthropic made a remarkable announcement about its new model, Claude Mythos Preview: it was… Read more: How dangerous is Anthropic’s Mythos AI? | Bruce Schneier

A common constipation drug may have unexpectedly unlocked a new way to slow chronic kidney disease — a condition that affects millions and often leads to dialysis. In a clinical trial involving 150 patients, researchers… Read more: A common constipation drug shows surprising power to protect kidneys

These cuddly, connected companions could disrupt everything from make-believe to bedtime stories. No wonder some lawmakers want them banned.

Scientists have uncovered a surprising way to influence the bacteria living in our mouths — not by killing them, but by interrupting how they “talk” to each other. Researchers found that dental plaque bacteria use… Read more: Scientists discover a new way to prevent gum disease without killing good bacteria

Most AI agent systems are built once and then repeat the same patterns indefinitely, like an employee who insists every problem can be solved with the same spreadsheet. New research from Peking University proposes a… Read more: 7 signs your AI agent system needs to start building its own tools

Patented Kyndryl Bridge feature identifies IT issues which AI agents can then resolve, driving savings by avoiding incidents and eliminating costly planned maintenance Kyndryl (NYSE: KD), a leading provider of mission-critical enterprise technology services, today unveiled a… Read more: Kyndryl Launches Agentic AI to Prevent Enterprise IT Outages

Scientists may have uncovered a surprising secret behind why life exists at all. A new study suggests that the Universe’s fundamental constants — the deep physical rules that govern everything from atoms to stars —… Read more: Scientists make stunning discovery that could change our understanding of the Universe

AI Service Squads Build Custom Agentic Solutions That Support Healthcare Organizations As Their Needs Evolve Artera.io, combining human and AI agent intelligence to fix the patient experience, today unveiled its AI Services Model for Specialty… Read more: Artera Announces AI Services Model for Specialty Care, FQHCs and More

Beneath the beauty of coral reefs lies a hidden universe of microbes unlike anything scientists expected. Each coral species supports its own specialized microbial partners, many of which have never been studied before. These microbes… Read more: What scientists found inside coral reefs could change the future of medicine

The Universe’s biggest black holes may not be born giants after all. Scientists analyzing gravitational-wave signals from dozens of black hole collisions found evidence that the heaviest black holes are likely “cosmic recyclers” — formed… Read more: The Universe’s biggest black holes may be forged in violent mergers

A mysterious comet from beyond our solar system is giving astronomers a rare glimpse into alien worlds — and it may have formed in a place far colder and stranger than anything around our Sun.… Read more: Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS contains strange water never seen in our solar system

A booming tech sector has disrupted translation jobs in publishing – but they could be needed for a while longer yet In February 2022, while he was plugging away at rendering the US writer Dana… Read more: ‘Being human helps’: despite rise of AI is there still hope for Europe’s translators?

A little-known tree from Brazil’s Atlantic Forest may hold a surprising weapon against COVID-19. Researchers discovered that compounds called galloylquinic acids, extracted from its leaves, can attack SARS-CoV-2 on multiple fronts—blocking the virus from entering… Read more: Scientists find natural compounds that hit COVID-19 from every angle

Leaders at the tech giant were skeptical of OpenAI—but wary of pushing it into the arms of Amazon, according to emails dating back to 2018.

Journalist Jamie Bartlett on the people trying to get AI to say things it shouldn’t … for the safety of us all All the major AI chatbots – from ChatGPT to Gemini to Grok to… Read more: The AI jailbreakers – podcast

Four protesters are suing to stop the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from seizing DNA samples from Americans arrested while peacefully protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity.… Read more: DHS can’t create vast DNA database to track ICE critics, lawsuit says

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have spotted something that shouldn’t exist—at least not so early in the universe. A massive galaxy, formed less than 2 billion years after the Big Bang, appears to… Read more: Webb space telescope finds a giant galaxy that doesn’t spin

Eating eggs might do more than just start your day—it could help protect your brain. Researchers found that people 65 and older who eat eggs regularly have a significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease,… Read more: Eating eggs could cut Alzheimer’s risk by 27%

Today on Uncanny Valley, we’re diving into recent reports that the Trump administration is considering an executive order that would establish some sort of federal oversight over new AI models.

The disbelief was palpable when Mozilla’s CTO last month declared that AI-assisted vulnerability detection meant “zero-days are numbered” and “defenders finally have a chance to win, decisively.” After all, it looked like part of an… Read more: Mozilla says 271 vulnerabilities found by Mythos have “almost no false positives”

Chrome users were caught off guard by a 4-GB Google AI model baked into Chrome, sparking privacy concerns. The good news: You can easily uninstall it. The bad? You might not want to.

A bizarre planetary pairing 190 light-years away is challenging everything astronomers thought they knew about how worlds form. A “lonely” hot Jupiter — typically found without nearby companions — is sharing its system with a… Read more: This strange planet pair shouldn’t exist, but it does

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is exploring developing a pair of smart glasses that would “supplement” the agency’s facial recognition Mobile Fortify application, which lets officers scan someone’s face to verify their citizenship, according to… Read more: ICE Plans to Develop Own Smart Glasses to ‘Supplement’ Its Facial Recognition App

New Texas filings suggest Elon Musk’s proposed Terafab chip plant could cost up to $119 billion, raising stakes for AI and semiconductor supply chains. The post Elon Musk’s Texas Chip Plant Could Cost $119B, Filings… Read more: Elon Musk’s Texas Chip Plant Could Cost $119B, Filings Show

Alphabet is closing in on Nvidia’s market value as Google Cloud growth, AI investments, and custom chips fuel Wall Street optimism. The post Alphabet Poised to Overtake Nvidia as the World’s Most Valuable Public Company… Read more: Alphabet Poised to Overtake Nvidia as the World’s Most Valuable Public Company

Apple reportedly removed several high-memory Mac Studio and Mac mini options as AI demand and memory shortages strain desktop Mac supply. The post Mac Studio, Mac mini Buyers Are Losing Options Amid AI Demand appeared… Read more: Mac Studio, Mac mini Buyers Are Losing Options Amid AI Demand

The bizarre and messy court battle between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and former OpenAI investor Elon Musk trudges on. And this week, as revealed in court, OpenAI’s former Chief Technology Office had some extremely interesting… Read more: Under Threat of Perjury, OpenAI’s Former CTO Is Admitting Some Very Interesting Stuff About Sam Altman

EvoluteIQ, the AI-native enterprise automation platform company, announced the appointment of Paul Maguire as Chief Growth Officer and Abhinaya S R as Chief Human Resources Officer. These appointments signify a deliberate shift in the company’s… Read more: EvoluteIQ Expands C-Suite Leadership Following $53M Baird Investment

Once again, digital tools are running ahead of regulators. Civil liberties must not be sacrificed to policing It is a familiar story. Extravagant claims are made on behalf of novel computerised tools. The public are… Read more: The Guardian view on facial recognition technology: mistaken identities are a political issue | Editorial

In an age of AI, our hardworking CEOs are being tortured with a tough decision, according to new Wall Street Journal reporting: they can embrace AI and lay off scores of employees — or keep… Read more: CEOs Say AI Gives Them Only Two Options, and Both Are Bad News for Employees

Wearables have really come full circle. The early Fitbits didn’t have screens, but the move to smartwatches put a screen on everyone’s wrist. Now, devices like Whoop and Hume are designed as data trackers first… Read more: Google unveils screenless Fitbit Air and Google Health app to replace Fitbit

whiteMocca/Shutterstock Until recently, AI’s role in research felt like having a useful assistant. It could summarise a paper, clean up a dataset or draft an abstract. Researchers were still in charge of the thinking. That… Read more: The AI scientist: now academic papers can be fully automated, what does this mean for the future of research?

OpenAI’s chatbot has some weird linguistic tics in Chinese that are driving users crazy.

An Indigenous actress is suing director James Cameron and The Walt Disney Co, accusing Cameron of stealing her likeness when she was a teen to create the main character of Disney’s hit “Avatar” franchise — an… Read more: James Cameron Accused of Stealing 14-Year-Old Girl’s Face for Main Character of Billion-Dollar “Avatar” Films

Trade unions have a centuries-long history of squaring up against the might of industrial capitalists to fight for rights that workers now often take for granted, from the eight-hour work day to the federal minimum… Read more: You’ll Never Guess Trade Unions’ Position on AI Data Centers

Android 17 rumors point to Motion Assist, App Bubbles, native app locking, Gemini updates, and Android XR news ahead of Google I/O 2026. The post Android 17: Everything We Know About Google’s Biggest Year Yet… Read more: Android 17: Everything We Know About Google’s Biggest Year Yet

Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock.com Artificial intelligence can now outperform doctors at diagnosing patients in the emergency department, according to a new study in Science. The AI was given written notes from real emergency department records from a hospital… Read more: AI in the emergency department: promising, powerful but still unproven

“Oh my god. Oh my god,” I yelled as I looked at my own face on someone else’s body. It was all there: my five o’clock shadow, my goofy grin, even the bags under my… Read more: ‘HELLO BOSS’: Inside the Chinese Realtime Deepfake Software Powering Scams Around the World

Elon Musk tried to hire OpenAI’s founding team, including Sam Altman, to lead a new AI lab within Tesla in 2018, as the AI start-up’s leaders grappled over who should control the company and its… Read more: Elon Musk tried to hire OpenAI founders to start AI unit inside Tesla

Last fall, we featured an extensive interview with Petter Törnberg of the University of Amsterdam, who studies the underlying mechanisms of social media that give rise to its worst aspects: the partisan echo chambers, the… Read more: RIP social media. What comes next is messy.

Whatever you may think of the man, Richard Dawkins is clearly suffering a tragic case of having your mind melted in real time by a bewitching AI model. Over the weekend, the famed evolutionary biologist… Read more: The Situation With Richard Dawkins’ AI Girlfriend Just Got Way Weirder

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news Climate campaigners attack Shell over ‘windfall’ profits from Iran war The Danish shipping giant Maersk has maintained its profit guidance for the year, even as it… Read more: Financial stability risks are rising as AI fuels cyberattacks, IMF warns; oil below $100 on Iran peace hopes – business live

Before he became NASA administrator in 2018, Jim Bridenstine was a naval aviator who then served as a US representative from Oklahoma for three terms, sitting on the Committee on Armed Services. Now, five years… Read more: Former NASA chief takes helm of national security space firm