+ The worst expertise failures of 2023. The Titan submersible, lab-grown hen, and GM’s wayward Cruise robotaxis all made our annual run-down of the worst in tech. Read the complete checklist.
+ How 2023 marked the dying of anonymity on-line in China. As Chinese social media platforms transfer towards requiring customers to reveal extra details about their actual identities, will we lose what made us need to be on-line within the first place? Read the complete story.
+ Why final 12 months marked the primary time gene enhancing lastly began dwelling as much as its potential.
+ Four traits that modified AI in 2023. Endless product launches, boardroom coups, intense coverage debates, and a race to seek out the subsequent large factor. Read the complete story.
+ Take a glance again over all of the local weather data that have been damaged in 2023, from greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil fuels to highest-ever temperatures.
+ But it wasn’t all dangerous information. There was some good local weather information in 2023. Really! Read in regards to the causes for optimism.
The race is on to save lots of coral reefs—by freezing them
As sweltering ocean temperatures make graveyards of coral reefs throughout the Caribbean and past, a staff of scientists is scrambling to chill corals down. Way down. To -200 °C.
Coral reefs, as an ecosystem, are anticipated to go functionally extinct by 2035. Now, scientists hope to freeze sufficient coral sperm, larvae, and grownup polyps not simply to help present conservation efforts, however to reboot reefs within the more and more possible occasion of a marine mass extinction. Yet main engineering hurdles nonetheless stand in the way in which of this plan. Read the complete story.
—Allison Guy