Hype grows for SpaceX’s Starship orbital flight test, but barriers remain (2 minute read)
The US Federal Aviation Administration released an air traffic advisory setting April 10 as a tentative launch date for SpaceX's Starship launch system. The launch is still pending the issuance of a launch license. SpaceX still may face legal battles and civil lawsuits over environmental concerns as soon as the launch license is issued. The flight test may be delayed if a civil suit is filed and a judge issues a temporary injunction.
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Northvolt: EVs' Sustainability Issues Can Be Fixed With Recycling (11 minute read)
Northvolt, a startup valued at $12 billion and co-founded by an ex-Tesla VP, plans to build the world's largest battery-recycling plant. The company is backed by Goldman Sachs, Volkswagen, and Spotify cofounder Daniel Ek. The new plant is expected to recycle 125,000 tons of battery materials annually at full capacity. Northvolt aims to use 50% recycled metals in its batteries by 2030 and source most raw materials from recycling by 2040.
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Science & Futuristic Technology
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Peanut allergies may be treatable with mRNA-based medicine (2 minute read)
Researchers at the University of California have developed an experimental therapy for peanut allergies using mRNA technology. The treatment is delivered to the liver inside a nanoparticle, where it prompts specific cells to tolerate peanut proteins. It has been tested in mice, where in addition to reversing peanut allergies, it also prevented the development of severe conditions. The research team believes that the treatment could be ready for human testing within three years.
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Ozempic Is About to Be Old News (9 minute read)
The weight-loss drug, semaglutide, is an effective treatment for obesity. However, it is expensive, can cause side effects, and requires weekly injections. The pharmaceutical industry is in the process of developing even more powerful medications to meet the colossal demand for obesity drugs. The first of these next-gen obesity drugs could become available this summer. Many new obesity drugs will be released over the next five years.
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Programming, Design & Data Science
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english2bits (GitHub Repo)
english2bits (e2b) is an IDE powered by AI agents. It allows developers to use AI agents with access to various tools to do the coding work for them. e2b operates in a secure, sandboxed cloud environment. Developers simply write a technical specification or short documentation in plain English and the AI agent will do the coding. Agents can write to files, run code, run commands, install dependencies, and deploy code.
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openplayground (GitHub Repo)
openplayground is a large language model playground that can run on a laptop. It allows users to leverage a variety of language models on their local machine. openplayground provides a full suite of UI features, including keyboard shortcuts, logprops, and parameter tuning. Multiple models can be run side-by-side for comparison purposes.
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Apple has reportedly started a small number of corporate layoffs (2 minute read)
Apple is laying off a small number of people from one of its retail teams. It is unclear how many people will be affected. Apple is pitching the move as a way to improve operations. Impacted employees have until the end of the week to seek alternative roles within the organization. Apple has recently implemented other cost-cutting measures, such as restricting hiring, delaying bonuses and projects, and lowering travel budgets.
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The takeaways from Stanford’s 386-page report on the state of AI (5 minute read)
Stanford's annual report on the state of AI this year covered topics such as the geopolitical and training costs of foundation models, the environmental impact of AI technologies, and public opinion trends. It also discussed AI policies in around 100 countries and K-12 AI education. This article summarizes some of the most important facts from the report. A link to the full paper is available.
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Flecs (Website)
Flecs is a lightweight Entity Component System that lets developers build games and simulations with millions of entities.
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