TechPulse

On August 20, Russia will launch an unusual cargo into orbit: 75 mice, more than 1,000 fruit flies, microorganisms, plant seeds, and lunar soil simulants. The mission, carried out aboard the Bion-M No. 2 biosatellite, represents one of the most ambitious biological space experiments in recent years. For 30 days, this miniature ecosystem will circle Earth in a near-polar orbit, exposing its passengers to heightened levels of cosmic radiation and the stress of microgravity. Once complete, the capsule will parachute back to Earth, where scientists will examine every detail of how these organisms endured spaceflight. The mission is more than a scientific curiosity. It is a calculated effort by Russia’s space program to expand knowledge of how long-term space travel affects biology—knowledge that will be critical as nations plan for lunar bases, Mars expeditions, and long-duration space station habitation. The Legacy of the Bion Program Russia’s Bion program dates back to the 1970s, wit...

For nearly two decades after a brainstem stroke, Ann Johnson could not speak. She was 30 years old when a sudden bleed locked her inside her body, leaving her fully conscious but unable to move or talk. For years she relied on eye-tracking technology to spell out messages at a rate that made conversation feel like typing through molasses. Today, thanks to an experimental brain-computer interface that pairs a thin electrode grid with modern speech-recognition AI, Johnson can once again express herself in near real time. The system turns her brain’s speech signals into synthetic voice and a talking digital avatar on a screen, closing the gap between thought and sound in a way that earlier tools could not. How the system works The device uses electrocorticography. Surgeons placed a paper-thin, high-density electrode array over the area of Johnson’s cortex that plans and controls the movements of the lips, tongue, vocal cords and jaw. When she tries to speak, even without moving, ensembl...

If you have seen aerial photos of endless rows of Volkswagen Group cars baking in the California sun, it is easy to assume that “thousands of Audis were abandoned in the Mojave Desert after cheating emissions tests.” The images are real. The conclusion is not. Those cars were stored under court-supervised settlements after the 2015 diesel emissions scandal. Many were maintained, repaired, and resold once regulators approved fixes. Others were dismantled or scrapped. Calling them “abandoned” mixes up a striking visual with the facts. This article explains what the scandal involved, which Audi models were affected, why so many cars ended up at desert airfields, what happened to them afterward, and where things stand today. The scandal and who it touched at Audi In September 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of violation to Volkswagen AG, Audi AG, and Volkswagen Group of America for using software that let certain diesel cars pass emissions tests they could...

You might be surprised to learn that, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin , AI language models actually perform better when you threaten them. Yes—threaten them. Brin made the remark recently during an “All-In” podcast session, and while it may sound absurd, there's nuance—and some science—behind the claim. What Did Sergey Brin Actually Say? Here’s what Brin said (paraphrased for clarity): “This is a weird thing—it’s not often talked about in the AI community—but all (AI) models, not just ours, tend to do better if you threaten them… with physical violence. People feel awkward about it, so we don’t talk about it. Historically, you might joke ‘I’ll kidnap you if you don’t do X.’ And, surprisingly, it works.” It’s jarring, to say the least. Messaging tools like ChatGPT are designed to respond to polite prompts—‘please’ and ‘thank you’—not implicit threats. But Brin’s anecdote suggests there's something deeper at play. Researchers Put It to the Test Curious researc...

When NASA launched Voyager 1 in 1977, its mission was bold yet simple: explore Jupiter and Saturn, then head out into the unknown. Decades later, the spacecraft—not just surviving but still operating—has become an enduring symbol of both human ambition and engineering resilience. What’s even more astonishing: it does all this with just under 70 kilobytes of memory . What’s Under Its Hood? Voyager 1 carries three onboard computers , each duplicated for redundancy: Computer Command System (CCS) : 18-bit processors with two 4,096-word plated-wire memory banks. Flight Data Subsystem (FDS) : 16-bit processors, each with 8,192 words. Attitude and Articulation Control System (AACS) : Similar to CCS—18-bit, 4,096-word memory units. Taken together, these systems total approximately 69 kilobytes of memory —about the size of a simple smartphone photo. Why So Little Memory? Today’s devices hold thousands to millions of times that. Voyager’s limited memory reflected trade-offs of ...

Water scarcity is one of the defining challenges of the 21st century. With climate change driving rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, and shrinking freshwater supplies, billions of people are increasingly at risk. According to the United Nations, more than 2.3 billion people already live under water stress, and that number is expected to rise sharply in the coming decades. Communities in arid and semi-arid regions are among the most vulnerable, where entire populations depend on limited groundwater reserves and costly water deliveries. But researchers in Chile may have found an unconventional solution to this growing crisis: harvesting fog. In a recent study carried out in the Atacama Desert, often considered the driest nonpolar desert on Earth, scientists successfully turned fog into usable freshwater with promising results. Their work highlights the potential of fog-collecting technology as a sustainable supplement to traditional water sources, particularly in regions most thre...

When people imagine Antarctica, the first images that usually come to mind are endless sheets of ice, penguins marching in groups, and brutal winds sweeping across a frozen landscape. Few, however, would picture the southernmost continent as a thriving ecosystem teeming with life millions of years ago. Yet, that is exactly what recent research has confirmed. A team of Brazilian scientists has announced the identification of a new species of prehistoric fish that once swam in the waters of Antarctica during the Cretaceous period, offering a fascinating glimpse into an era when the continent looked strikingly different from today. The fossil, named Antarctichthys longipectoralis , dates back between 145 and 66 million years ago. This discovery is not just another entry in the catalog of extinct species; it is an important piece of the puzzle that helps researchers understand the evolution of life in the Southern Hemisphere and the geological history that shaped the biodiversity we see t...

 Elon Musk’s custom-built AI assistant, Grok, has once again publicly contradicted its creator, this time labeling him a hypocrite during a heated online dispute with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The latest exchange adds to a growing list of instances where Grok has undermined Musk, who owns the platform X (formerly Twitter) and positions the AI as a flagship product of his xAI company. The public fallout between Musk and Altman began earlier this week after Musk accused Apple of committing an “unequivocal antitrust violation” by allegedly excluding him from certain lists on the App Store. Musk argued that this exclusion gave an unfair advantage to OpenAI and other companies in the generative AI space. Altman responded sharply. In a post quoting Musk’s claim, he wrote, “This is a remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn’t like.” The comment implied that Musk was ...