Summary

Auto Added by WPeMatico

 A device that revives eyeballs from dead donors could make eye transplants possible

It’s not easy to transplant a whole human eye. The surgery is difficult. And the eyes themselves start to degenerate as soon as they’ve left the body. When surgeons attempted it a few years ago, the newly-transplanted eye wasn’t able to see. But researchers believe they might have a solution: a device that maintains and […]

 A device that revives eyeballs from dead donors could make eye transplants possible Read More »

The UK’s generational tobacco ban might not work. I’m supporting it anyway.

As the parent of two little girls, I often think about how their childhood is different from mine. The seven-year-old is learning about AI at school. The five-year-old is given internet-based homework every week. And they are both absolutely repulsed by the idea of smoking. That was not the prevailing sentiment when I was young.

The UK’s generational tobacco ban might not work. I’m supporting it anyway. Read More »

Heat waves mess with your brain. Scientists are trying to figure out why.

It’s been hot in London this week. Really hot. A dangerous heat wave has hit Western Europe. Yesterday, the UK recorded its highest ever June temperature at 36.1 °C (about 97 °F). But as the weather app on my phone confirmed, it felt like 39 °C. It’s frightening that we are seeing such temperatures in

Heat waves mess with your brain. Scientists are trying to figure out why. Read More »

What Europe’s heat wave means for the power grid

It’s been hard to look away from headlines about the European heat wave this week. Temperatures are breaking records across the continent, and the weather is threatening lives, shutting down schools, and in one particularly ironic case, forcing the cancellation of a London Climate Action Week event about extreme heat.  As the summer ramps up

What Europe’s heat wave means for the power grid Read More »

Europe’s extreme heat is shutting down power plants

Europe is in the middle of a record-breaking heat wave, and the grid is being pushed to its limits as people turn to fans and air-conditioning to try to stay cool. Some power plants won’t be online to help handle the load. On June 23, France saw its hottest day since record-keeping began in 1947.

Europe’s extreme heat is shutting down power plants Read More »

Stripe, Anthropic and OpenAI are backing an effort to stop respiratory infections

The common cold comes for us all—often more than once a year. And there is no way to prevent it. The best you can do is take vitamin C and stay away from people with the sniffles. Now, the payment company Stripe, founded by brothers Patrick and John Collison, says it will fund a new

Stripe, Anthropic and OpenAI are backing an effort to stop respiratory infections Read More »

Brain-computer interface trials are taking off

This week, I covered the story of Casey Harrell—a man with ALS who is “the first power user” of a brain implant, according to the researchers who worked with him. Harrell is paralyzed and unable to speak coherently without the device. He has now spent almost three years using a brain-computer interface (BCI) that enables

Brain-computer interface trials are taking off Read More »

Geoengineering still faces major practical challenges

Solar geoengineering is often portrayed as a sort of emergency brake. Something along the lines of Pull in case of climate emergency to scatter light-reflecting particles to bounce sunlight out of the atmosphere and cool the planet. But it might be less like a simple brake and more like a complicated, entirely unsolved puzzle. Some

Geoengineering still faces major practical challenges Read More »

This man with ALS is “the first power user” of a brain implant that lets him speak

Casey Harrell has had a set of electrodes embedded in his brain for almost three years. Harrell, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and is paralyzed, first used his brain-computer interface (BCI) to “speak” sentences with the help of a research team in 2023. Since then, Harrell has clocked thousands of hours of use. He

This man with ALS is “the first power user” of a brain implant that lets him speak Read More »

✨

Why “reprogramming” is the buzziest approach to reversing aging right now

Earlier this week, Life Biosciences, a biotech company focused on reversing age-related diseases, announced that it had dosed its first volunteer. A person with glaucoma has had an experimental treatment injected straight into their eyeball. The idea is to try to treat the disease—which can cause vision loss—by regenerating healthy nerves in the eye. But

Why “reprogramming” is the buzziest approach to reversing aging right now Read More »