On March 22, Coinbase, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, was sent a notice by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warning that the regulator planned to sue, alleging the company had violated securities laws. Crypto assets, the SEC insists, are securities, and so fall under its jurisdiction. But on Continue Reading
The Therapy Part of Psychedelic Therapy Is a Mess
Interested in giving psychedelic therapy a go? It will probably look something like this: In a room of muted colors, you’ll swallow a dose of a psychedelic drug, then lie back on a futon. Gentle music will play in the background; maybe some Brian Eno. You won’t be alone: One Continue Reading
A Deadly Cousin of Ebola Has Flared Up in Africa
In February, a 23-year-old Tanzanian fisherman suddenly fell ill, having just returned from a busy trading outpost in the middle of Lake Victoria. Back at home in Bukoba, a district in northwestern Tanzania, he was hit by bouts of vomiting and diarrhea. He developed a fever and began bleeding from Continue Reading
This Student Is Taking On ‘Biased’ Exam Software
Robin Pocronie brought a lamp with her to court. It’s nothing special, just a basic Ikea floor lamp. But for the masters student, the lamp was a useful prop to help explain how she believes her university’s exam supervision software discriminated against her based on the color of her skin. Continue Reading
ChatGPT Has a Big Privacy Problem
When OpenAI released GPT-3 in July 2020, it offered a glimpse of the data used to train the large language model. Millions of pages scraped from the web, Reddit posts, books, and more are used to create the generative text system, according to a technical paper. Scooped up in this data is Continue Reading
Finally, an Honest Conversation About Contraception
Ironically, contraception is a “very unsexy part of science,” says Alice Pelton, founder of The Lowdown, a review platform for contraception that’s run by women, for women. The field of women’s reproductive health is “badly underserved,” Pelton says, and receives just a fraction of the funding it deserves. Side effects of Continue Reading
Palantir’s Plan to Decipher the Mysteries of Long Covid
At least 65 million people are still suffering from long Covid, the mysterious cocktail of symptoms that persist in some patients more than 12 weeks after an initial infection. Researchers are still working to understand this illness, but it’s been slow progress so far. This is because long Covid is not Continue Reading
Your First Lab-Grown Burger Won’t Contain Much Beef
The future of meat poses a philosophical conundrum. Some things we can unequivocally call a beef burger. A 100 percent beef patty, for example. Take out some of that ground mince and add in a little water, onion, some salt and pepper. Now you’ve a burger that’s 82 percent beef. Is Continue Reading
‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey’ Turned a Children’s Icon Into a Murderer. Good
When the trailer for Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey hit the internet last year, it produced a mild viral hysteria. The angriest Pooh fans accused director Rhys Frake-Waterfield of invading their childhood psyches, the creative equivalent of napalming 100 Aker Wood. When the film was released in theaters, critics mauled Continue Reading
Porsche’s E-Fuel Burns Just Like the Real Thing
For the global automotive industry, emissions-free motoring is the future. Mandates, regulations, and looming deadlines all point to an end to our fossil-fueled, carbon-spewing ways. Battery-electric vehicles look like the chosen short-term solution, with hydrogen fuel cells holding some promise a little further down the road. But no new-car future Continue Reading