The Download: detecting bird flu, and powering industrial processes with nuclear energy
Plus: Donald Trump wants Apple to start building iPhones in America
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
A new biosensor can detect bird flu in five minutes
Over the winter, eggs suddenly became all but impossible to buy. As a bird flu outbreak rippled through dairy and poultry farms, grocery stores struggled to keep them on shelves.
The shortages and record-high prices in February raised costs dramatically for restaurants and bakeries and led some shoppers to skip the breakfast staple entirely. But a team based at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a device that could help slow future outbreaks by detecting bird flu in air samples in just five minutes. Read the full story.
—Carly Kay
This story is from the next edition of our print magazine, which is all about the body. Subscribe now to read it and get a copy of the magazine when it lands!
This Texas chemical plant could get its own nuclear reactors
Nuclear reactors could someday power a chemical plant in Texas, making it the first with such a facility onsite. The factory, which makes plastics and other materials, could become a model for power-hungry data centers and other industrial operations going forward.
The plans are the work of Dow Chemical and X-energy, which last week applied for a construction permit with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency in the US that governs nuclear energy.
While it’ll be years before nuclear reactors will actually turn on, this application marks a major milestone for the project, and for the potential of advanced nuclear technology to power industrial processes. Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart
MIT Technology Review Narrated: Exosomes are touted as a trendy cure-all. We don’t know if they work.
People are spending thousands of dollars on unproven exosome therapies for hair loss, skin aging, and acne, as well as more serious conditions like long covid and Alzheimer’s.
This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Donald Trump is confident Apple can make iPhones in the US
Tim Cook is probably less sure about that. (9to5Mac)
+ Politicians are obsessed with the fantasy of an America-made iPhone. (404 Media)
+ If you need a new phone, you’re better off buying one now. (Wired $)
2 Trade groups are weighing up suing Trump to fight his tariffs
The Chamber of Commerce and other groups feel they may not have another option. (WSJ $)
+ Trump has hit China with a 104% tariff. (CNBC)
+ What does he really hope to achieve? (Vox)
+ Even the conservative podcasters that helped him win aren’t happy. (FT $)
+ Trump’s tariffs will deliver a big blow to climate tech. (MIT Technology Review)
3 The UK government is building a “murder prediction” tool
But research shows that algorithmic crime prediction systems don’t work. (The Guardian)
+ Predictive policing algorithms are racist. They need to be dismantled. (MIT Technology Review)
4 DOGE has converted magnetic tapes to digital records
The problem is, magnetic tapes are stable and safe. Digital records are both hackable and vulnerable to bit rot. (404 Media)
+ Government technologists aren’t happy about the switch. (Economist $)
+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)
5 The crypto industry isn’t benefiting from Trump quite yet
In fact, VC investment has fallen. (Bloomberg $)
+ However, prosecutors are being told to stop pursuing certain crypto crimes. (WP $)
6 Tech bros are building a Christian utopia in Appalachia
These groups have traditionally existed only online. Can building a town bring them together? (Mother Jones $)
7 California’s only nuclear power plant is using AI
It’s the first time generative AI has been used onsite at a power plant.(The Markup)
+ Interest in nuclear power is surging. Is it enough to build new reactors? (MIT Technology Review)
8 Custom 3D-printed railway shelters are being trialed in Japan
In a bid to help rural stations replace ageing infrastructure. (Ars Technica)
9 We’re learning more about how the Titanic sank
Thanks to a new scan of its wreckage. (BBC)
10 Would you ride this headless horse robot?
Kawasaki’s outlandish concept model looks decidedly unsafe. (Vice)
+ A skeptic’s guide to humanoid-robot videos. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“iPhone manufacturing isn’t coming back to America.”
—An anonymous source familiar with Apple’s plans has some bad news for the Trump administration, the Washington Post reports.
The big story
Inside effective altruism, where the far future counts a lot more than the present
Since its birth in the late 2000s, effective altruism has aimed to answer the question “How can those with means have the most impact on the world in a quantifiable way?”—and supplied methods for calculating the answer.
It’s no surprise that effective altruisms’ ideas have long faced criticism for reflecting white Western saviorism, alongside an avoidance of structural problems in favor of abstract math. And as believers pour even greater amounts of money into the movement’s increasingly sci-fi ideals, such charges are only intensifying. Read the full story.
—Rebecca Ackermann
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Why is everybody suddenly obsessed with Dubai chocolate? 🍫
+ Inside one academic’s quest to locate the famous photograph hanging on the wall of The Shining’s Overlook Hotel.
+ Adorable: a Japanese town has created its own trading card game featuring older men in the community.
+ I think it’s safe to say Val Kilmer really didn’t enjoy being in the largely forgotten film Spartan.
