+ The worst know-how 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. Learn the full record.
+ How 2023 marked the loss of life of anonymity on-line in China. As Chinese language 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 in the first place? Learn the full story.
+ Why final yr marked the first time gene enhancing lastly began dwelling as much as its potential.
+ 4 tendencies that modified AI in 2023. Countless product launches, boardroom coups, intense coverage debates, and a race to search out the subsequent huge factor. Learn the full story.
+ Have a look again over all the local weather data that had been damaged in 2023, from greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil fuels to highest-ever temperatures.
+ Nevertheless it wasn’t all dangerous information. There was some good local weather information in 2023. Actually! Examine the causes for optimism.
The race is on to avoid wasting coral reefs—by freezing them
As sweltering ocean temperatures make graveyards of coral reefs throughout the Caribbean and past, a workforce of scientists is scrambling to chill corals down. Approach 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 assist present conservation efforts, however to reboot reefs in the more and more probably occasion of a marine mass extinction. But main engineering hurdles nonetheless stand in the method of this plan. Learn the full story.
—Allison Man