Épisodes

  • The weeds are winning

    The weeds are winning
    Feb 19 2025
    As the climate changes, genetic engineering will be essential for growing food. But is it creating a race of superweeds? This story was written by Douglas Main and narrated by Noa - newsoveraudio.com.
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    19 min
  • Why AI could eat quantum computing’s lunch

    Why AI could eat quantum computing’s lunch
    Feb 12 2025
    Tech companies have been funneling billions of dollars into quantum computers for years. The hope is that they’ll be a game changer for fields as diverse as finance, drug discovery, and logistics. Those expectations have been especially high in physics and chemistry, where the weird effects of quantum mechanics come into play. In theory, this is where quantum computers could have a huge advantage over conventional machines. But while the field struggles with the realities of tricky quantum hardware, another challenger is making headway in some of these most promising use cases. AI is now being applied to fundamental physics, chemistry, and materials science in a way that suggests quantum computing’s purported home turf might not be so safe after all. This story was written by Edd Gent and narrated by Noa - newsoveraudio.com.
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    18 min
  • The race to save our online lives from a digital dark age

    The race to save our online lives from a digital dark age
    Feb 6 2025
    We’re making more data than ever. What can—and should—we save for future generations? And will they be able to understand it? This story was written by Niall Firth and narrated by Noa.
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    26 min
  • Is this the end of animal testing?

    Is this the end of animal testing?
    Jan 29 2025
    More than 60 companies now produce organs on chips commercially, focusing on five major organs: liver, kidney, lung, intestines, and brain. They’re already being used to understand diseases, discover and test new drugs, and explore personalized approaches to treatment. Could this be the end of animal testing? This story was written by Harriet Brown and narrated by Noa.
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    21 min
  • Meet the divers trying to figure out how deep humans can go

    Meet the divers trying to figure out how deep humans can go
    Jan 22 2025
    Figuring out how the human body can withstand underwater pressure has been a problem for over a century, but a ragtag band of divers is experimenting with hydrogen to find out. This story was written by Samantha Schuyler and narrated by Noa.
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    25 min
  • Palmer Luckey on the Pentagon’s future of mixed reality

    Palmer Luckey on the Pentagon’s future of mixed reality
    Jan 15 2025
    Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus VR, has set his sights on a new mixed-reality headset customer: the Pentagon. His company Anduril Industries, which focuses on drones, cruise missiles, and other AI-enhanced technologies for the US Department of Defense, announced it would partner with Microsoft on the US Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), arguably the military’s largest effort to develop a headset for use on the battlefield. Anduril’s contribution to the project will be Lattice, an AI-powered system that connects everything from drones to radar jammers to surveil, detect objects, and aid in decision-making. It’s a tool that allows soldiers to receive instantaneous information not only from Anduril’s hardware, but also from radars, vehicles, sensors, and other equipment not made by Anduril. Now it will be built into the IVAS goggles. Luckey says the IVAS project is his top priority at Anduril. If designed well, the device will automatically sort through countless pieces of information—drone locations, vehicles, intelligence—and flag the most important ones to the wearer in real time. But that’s a big “if.” Though few would bet against Luckey’s expertise in the realm of mixed reality, few observers share his optimism for the IVAS program. They view it, thus far, as an avalanche of failures. This story was written by AI reporter James O'Donnell and narrated by Noa - newsoveraudio.com.
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    18 min
  • How covid conspiracy theories led to an alarming resurgence in AIDS denialism

    How covid conspiracy theories led to an alarming resurgence in AIDS denialism
    Jan 8 2025
    Podcaster Joe Rogan, former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and football quarterback Aaron Rodgers are all helping revive AIDS denialism—a false collection of theories arguing either that HIV doesn’t cause AIDS or that there’s no such thing as HIV at all. These ideas were initially promoted back in the 1980s and ’90s by a cadre of scientists from unrelated fields, as well as many science-adjacent figures and self-proclaimed investigative journalists. But as more and more evidence stacked up against them, and as more people with HIV and AIDS started living longer lives thanks to effective new treatments, their claims largely fell out of favor. At least until the coronavirus arrived. This story was written by Anna Merlan and narrated by Noa - newsoveraudio.com
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    34 min
  • How to fine-tune AI for prosperity

    How to fine-tune AI for prosperity
    Jan 1 2025
    The newest versions of generative AI are bedazzling, with lifelike videos, seemingly expert-sounding prose, and other all too humanlike behaviors. Business leaders are fretting over how to reinvent their companies as billions flow into startups, and the big AI companies are creating ever more powerful models. Predictions abound on how ChatGPT and the growing list of large language models will transform the way we work and organize our lives, providing instant advice on everything from financial investments to where to spend your next vacation and how to get there. But for economists, the most critical question around our obsession with AI is how the fledgling technology will (or won’t) boost overall productivity, and if it does, how long it will take. Think of it as the bottom line to the AI hype machine: Can the technology lead to renewed prosperity after years of stagnant economic growth? It could. But getting there will take some serious course corrections. This story was written by editor at large David Rotman and narrated by Noa - newsoveraudio.com.
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    33 min