Why aren’t we vaccinating birds against bird flu?It’s not as complicated as it seems, but there’s one key hurdle. The worst bird flu outbreak in US history continues with strange new developments. Bird flu is now infecting cows, the FDA found viral genetic material in milk, and a second human was recently infected.
In Search of the Impossible Machine, the Artificial HeartThe history of the total artificial heart is punctuated with both brilliant innovation and continual clinical failure.
Why Do People Make Music?In a new study, researchers found universal features of songs across many cultures, suggesting that music evolved in our distant ancestors.
The Collapse Is Coming. Will Humanity Adapt?I’ve known Dan Brooks for 40 years now. Somehow we’re still talking to each other. We’ve followed radically different trajectories since first meeting back in the ’80s.
Why mathematics is set to be revolutionized by AIYou have full access to this article via your institution. Giving birth to a conjecture — a proposition that is suspected to be true, but needs definitive proof — can feel to a mathematician like a moment of divine inspiration. Mathematical conjectures are not merely educated guesses.
In the race for space metals, companies hope to cash inIn April 2023, a satellite the size of a microwave launched to space. Its goal: to get ready to mine asteroids. While the mission, courtesy of a company called AstroForge, ran into problems, it’s part of a new wave of would-be asteroid miners hoping to cash in on cosmic resources.
A Rare Nova Explosion Will Soon Bring a ‘New Star’ to the Night Sky—How to Catch a GlimpseAt some point during the next several months, a distant, dead star will rapidly grow brighter in a powerful explosion, making it visible from Earth for a short period of time. To observers on the ground, it will look like a new star.
Leonard Cohen: Hippie Troubadour and Forgotten ReactionaryIn the early ’70s, Leonard Cohen was in crisis. His life felt meaningless, although, in theory, it shouldn’t have. He’d spent the past decade doing all the things people were supposed to do in the ’60s. He’d joined shadowy religious orders and dabbled in Eastern mysticism.
Beyond Neuralink: Meet the other companies developing brain-computer interfacesThis article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.
2023 temperatures were warmest we’ve seen for at least 2,000 yearsStarting in June of last year, global temperatures went from very hot to extreme.
Locks of Beethoven’s Hair Are Unraveling the Mysteries of His Deafness and IllnessesGerman composer Ludwig van Beethoven began losing his hearing in his 20s, a fact that deeply upset and embarrassed him. Over the years, his hearing loss worsened, and by the time he died at age 56 in 1827, the composer was totally deaf.
Treating Prostate Cancer at Any StageDeciding how to diagnose and treat prostate cancer has long been the subject of controversy and uncertainty. A prime example involves prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing, a blood test for a telltale protein that can reveal cancer even when the patient has no symptoms.
The Psychology of Getting High—a LotFamous rapper Snoop Dogg is well known for his love of the herb: He once indicated that he inhales around five to 10 blunts per day—extreme even among chronic cannabis users.
The hunt for rare bitcoin is nearing an endBilly Restey is a digital artist who runs a studio in Seattle. But after hours, he hunts for rare chunks of bitcoin. He does it for the thrill. “It’s like collecting Magic: The Gathering or Pokémon cards,” says Restey. “It’s that excitement of, like, what if I catch something rare?”
Bird flu keeps rewriting the textbooks. It’s why scientists are unsettled by the U.S. dairy cattle outbreakTwenty-seven years ago today, a 3-year-old boy in Hong Kong developed a sore throat, spiked a fever, and started to cough. Six days later, he was hospitalized; six days after that, he died of acute respiratory distress caused by viral pneumonia.