The Download: three-parent baby points, and a solar balloon test

The Download: three-parent baby issues, and a solar balloon test

This is at present’s version of The Download, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what is going on on on the earth of expertise.

Three-parent baby method might create infants vulnerable to extreme illness

When the primary baby born utilizing a controversial process that meant he had three genetic dad and mom was born again in 2016, it made headlines. The baby boy inherited most of his DNA from his mom and father, however he additionally had a tiny quantity from a third individual.

The thought was to keep away from having the baby inherit a deadly sickness. His mom carried genes for a illness in her mitochondria. Swapping these with genes from a donor—a third genetic mother or father—might forestall the baby from growing it. The technique appeared to work.

But it may not at all times achieve success. MIT Technology Review can reveal two circumstances by which infants conceived with the process have proven what scientists name “reversion.” In each circumstances, the proportion of mitochondrial genes from the kid’s mom has elevated over time, from lower than 1% in each embryos to round 50% in a single baby and 72% in one other.

Fortunately, each infants have been born to folks with out genes for mitochondrial illness. But the scientists behind the work consider that round one in 5 infants born utilizing the three-parent method might finally inherit excessive ranges of their moms’ mitochondrial genes. 

For infants born to folks with disease-causing mutations, this might spell catastrophe—leaving them with devastating and probably deadly sickness. Read the complete story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

Researchers launched a solar geoengineering test flight within the UK final yr

Last September, researchers within the UK launched a high-altitude climate balloon that launched a few hundred grams of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, a potential scientific first within the solar geoengineering discipline, MIT Technology Review can reveal.

In principle, spraying sulfur dioxide within the stratosphere might mimic a cooling impact that happens within the aftermath of main volcanic eruptions, reflecting extra daylight into area in a bid to ease international warming. It’s extremely controversial given considerations about potential unintended penalties, amongst different points.

But the UK effort was not a geoengineering experiment. Rather, the said purpose was to guage a low-cost, controllable, recoverable balloon system. And some are involved that the hassle went forward with out broader public disclosures and engagement prematurely. Read the complete story.

—James Temple

The eleventh Breakthrough Technology of 2023 takes flight

It’s official—after over a month of open voting, hydrogen planes are the readers’ alternative for the eleventh merchandise on our 2023 listing of Breakthrough Technologies! 

It simply so occurs there’s additionally some thrilling information about hydrogen planes this week. Startup Universal Hydrogen is planning a test flight at present. If all goes based on plan, it’ll be the most important plane but to fly powered by hydrogen gasoline cells.

But even when the test flight is profitable, there’s a lengthy street forward earlier than cargo or passengers will climb aboard a hydrogen-powered aircraft. Read the complete story.

—Casey Crownhart

Casey’s story is from The Spark, her weekly local weather change and vitality publication. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Wednesday.

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The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to seek out you at present’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.

1 OpenAI needs to make AI smarter than people
Rushing to construct such fashions doesn’t precisely fill ethicists with confidence, although. (Vox)
+ AI-powered search is getting actually messy. (Slate $)
+ Chatbots aren’t human, and we’d do nicely to keep in mind that. (NY Mag $)
+ OpenAI might do with a bit much less hype, based on government Mira Murati. (Fast Company $)
+ How to create, launch, and share generative AI responsibly. (MIT Technology Review)

2 The hunt for greener graphite is on
It’s important for EV batteries, and provides are working low. (Economist $)
+ A village in India has been caught within the crosshairs of a lithium mining growth. (Wired $)

3 Twitter is being stretched to breaking level
It’s working on a skeleton workers, and glitches and outages maintain cropping up. (WSJ $)
+ It suffered a main outage simply yesterday. (BBC)
+ Twitter’s turning into a critically boring place to be. (FT $)
+ What occurred to Elon Musk’s plan to show it into an “everything app”?  (Ars Technica)
+ Here’s how a Twitter engineer says it’ll break. (MIT Technology Review)

4 NASA’s SpaceX crew is on its solution to the ISS
They’re anticipated to spend a full yr in orbit. (CBS News)

5 Psychedelics are being trialed as a therapy for anorexia
Scientists are cautiously considering how breaking from actuality may benefit sufferers. (FT $)
+ The UK has opened its first psychedelic remedy clinic. (Vice)
+ Psychedelics are having a second and ladies may very well be those to learn. (MIT Technology Review)

6 TikTok’s display screen time restrict for teenagers is well circumvented
But the corporate insists it’s nonetheless a significant intervention. (NPR)

7 Turkey has shut down its hottest social platform
Residents had used Ekşi Sözlük to prepare aid within the wake of the earthquakes. (The Guardian)

8 How greenwashing lastly fell out of style 🍃
Financial regulation goes to make it a entire lot more durable to get away with. (The Atlantic $)

9 What AI artwork can educate us about actual artwork
There are not any reminiscences or lived expertise behind AI footage, for one. (New Yorker $)
+ This artist is dominating AI-generated artwork. And he’s not blissful about it. (MIT Technology Review)

10 How the Xerox Alto modified the world 💻
The 50-year previous pc paved the best way for contemporary laptops. (IEEE Spectrum)

Quote of the day

“If you enjoyed your ride, please don’t forget to give us five stars.”

—A SpaceX mission management supervisor jokes round with the crew onboard the Falcon 9 rocket en  path to the International Space Station, Reuters stories.

The massive story

We’re getting a higher thought of AI’s true carbon footprint

November 2022

Large language fashions have a soiled secret: they require huge quantities of vitality to coach and run. But it’s nonetheless a little bit of a thriller precisely how massive these fashions’ carbon footprints actually are. But AI startup Hugging Face believes it’s provide you with a new, extra correct solution to calculate it.

The startup’s work may very well be a step towards extra reasonable information from tech firms concerning the carbon footprint of their AI product—and comes at a time when specialists are calling for the sector to do a higher job of evaluating AI’s environmental affect. Read the complete story.

—Melissa Heikkilä

We can nonetheless have good issues

A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre instances. (Got any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ Tidycore is one TikTok pattern that sounds rewarding, if exhausting.
+ Giant armadillos are critically cute—and critically endangered.
+ This is so heartwarming: Turkey’s baklava makers are again in enterprise after the devastating earthquake.
+ I like these recipes for entertaining at dwelling: make mine a horseradish vodka bloody mary.
+ The web has a lot of Thoughts concerning the newly introduced Lord of the Rings motion pictures.

…. to be continued
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