New Yorker Science & Technology

"What happens when the ice melts?" 

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Russ Roberts (https://hawaiisciencejournal.blogspot.com).

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In today’s newsletter, witnessing the tipping point, and then: • Silicon Valley’s aggressive crypto lobby • Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? • How half a billion in Bitcoin was lost in the dump

When the Arctic Melts

What the fate of Greenland means for the rest of the Earth. By Elizabeth Kolbert Meltwater streaming from the Russell Glacier eventually makes its way into the North Atlantic. Photograph by Ragnar Axelsson for The New Yorker In the middle of the night in the middle of the summer in the middle of the Greenland ice sheet, I woke to find myself with a blinding headache. An anxious person living in anxious times, I’ve had plenty of headaches, but this one felt different, as if someone had taken a mallet to my sinuses. I’d flown up to the ice the previous afternoon, to a research station owned and operated by the National Science Foundation. The station, called Summit, sits ten thousand five hundred and thirty feet above sea level. The first person I’d met upon arriving was the resident doctor, who warned me and a few other newcomers to expect to experience altitude sickness. In most cases, he said, this would produce only passing, hangover-like symptoms; on occasion, though, it could result in brain swelling and death. Belatedly, I realized that I’d neglected to ask how to tell the difference. Keep reading, or listen to the story

In the News

The computer and cognitive scientist Geoffrey Hinton and the biochemist and computational biologist David Baker were among the winners of the Nobel Prizes, announced this week. Revisit our coverage of their groundbreaking work.  Profiles

Why the Godfather of A.I. Fears What He’s Built

Geoffrey Hinton has spent a lifetime teaching computers to learn. Now he worries that artificial brains are better than ours. By Joshua Rothman  Annals of Technology

Scientists Advance on One of Technology’s Holy Grails

Designer proteins could help us build new materials, clean up the environment, and even fight COVID-19. By Matthew Hutson If you know someone who would enjoy Science & Technology, please share it. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up.

Dept. of Cryptocurrency

Annals of Technology

Has Bitcoin’s Elusive Creator Finally Been Unmasked?

The identity of the cryptocurrency’s founder, who went by Satoshi Nakamoto, is one of our era’s great mysteries. A documentarian now claims to have solved it. By Gideon Lewis-Kraus A Reporter at Large

Silicon Valley, the New Lobbying Monster

From crypto to A.I., the tech sector is pouring millions into super PACS that intimidate politicians into supporting its agenda. By Charles Duhigg Annals of Money

Half a Billion in Bitcoin, Lost in the Dump

From 2021: For years, a Welshman who threw away the key to his cybercurrency stash has been fighting to excavate the local landfill. By D. T. Max The New Yorker Festival takes place October 25–27 in New York City. The scientist and musician Jaron Lanier and the sociologist Sherry Turkle join the New Yorker’s ideas editor, Joshua Rothman, for a conversation about what makes humans unique in the age of artificial intelligence. Use the code TECH20 to save 20% »

Infinite Scroll

Illustration by Ariel Davis A reporter known for chronicling the “extremely online” is joining her subjects in the creator economy. The most surprising thing, Kyle Chayka writes, is that she waited this long. Read the column » Cartoon by Lars Kenseth P.S. See stunning images of the effects of climate change in Greenland, taken by Ragnar Axelsson, in 2021, when he joined Indigenous hunters and their sled dogs in the springtime. “The crack of a rifle, the grunt of a polar bear, the spout of an orca, the bone-on-bone clash of narwhal tusks,” Ben Taub writes in a piece accompanying Axelsson’s photographs. “The eyes and ears become tuned to the sounds of survival—creaking sleds, calving glaciers, groaning sea ice, and the pattering footfalls of paws in the snow.” ❄️

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