The New Yorker: Science & Technology

"A revolution in how robots learn.  The antitrust ruling that could change the Internet power balance."

Views expressed in this science and technology update are those of the reporters and correspondents.  Accessed on 30 November 2024, 1512 UTC.

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

 

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In today’s newsletter, new neural machinery, and then: • Lake Tahoe’s bear boom • The antitrust ruling that could change the Internet’s power balance • How to make booze from thin air  Brave New World Dept. A Revolution in How Robots Learn A future generation of robots will not be programmed to complete specific tasks. Instead, they will use A.I. to teach themselves. By James Somers More in Science & Technology  U.S. Journal Lake Tahoe’s Bear Boom The vacation hot spot has been overrun by people—whose habits are drawing fast-moving animals with sharp claws and insatiable appetites. By Paige Williams  Dept. of Fractionating How to Make Fuel (or Booze) from Thin Air Air Company, a startup that has used water and carbon dioxide to make vodka and to power automobiles, taste-tests its product and discusses getting Elon Musk’s business. By Adam Iscoe Our Columnists  Infinite Scroll What Google Off-loading Chrome Would Mean for Users A landmark antitrust ruling could change the Internet’s power balance, but the industry is shifting regardless. By Kyle Chayka  Open Questions Why Is Gratitude So Difficult? When we feel grateful, we’re doing something that’s more complex than it seems. By Joshua Rothman From the Archive  Taste Technologies The Ketchup Conundrum The history of condiments, the science and psychology of food testing, and how the best food products have “amplitude.” By Malcolm Gladwell Cartoon by Jon Adams More from The New Yorker  Letter from the Rio Grande Valley The Texas Ob-Gyn Exodus Amid increasingly stringent abortion laws, doctors who provide maternal care have been fleeing the state. By Stephania Taladrid  The Lede Did the Opioid Epidemic Fuel Donald Trump’s Return to the White House? New research suggests that the Democrats’ struggles in communities battling fentanyl addiction had little to do with economic theory or messaging—it was, more simply, a failure of political attention. By Benjamin Wallace-Wells If you know someone who would enjoy Science & Technology, please share it. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up. P.S. Galileo Galilei turned his telescope toward the moon near this day in 1609, observing for the first time that the lunar landscape is cratered. “Part of Galileo’s genius,” Adam Gopnik writes, “was to transfer the spirit of the Italian Renaissance in the plastic arts to the mathematical and observational ones.” In Gopnik’s survey of the scientist’s life, we learn that Galileo was “afflicted with a cold and crazy mother” who tried to bribe a servant into betraying the secrets of his first telescope so that she could sell it on the market. 🔭

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