April 2024

Quartz, cobalt, and the waste we leave behind

April 24, 2024
Some time before the first dinosaurs, two supercontinents, Laurasia and Gondwana, collided, forcing molten rock out from the depths of the Earth. As eons passed, the liquid rock cooled and geological forces carved this rocky fault line into Pico Sacro, a strange conical peak that sits like a wizard’s hat near the northwestern corner of…

Madica, a program by Flourish Ventures, steps up pre-seed investing in Africa

April 24, 2024

Madica, an investment program launched by US-based investor Flourish Ventures to back pre-seed startups in Africa, plans to invest in up to 10 ventures by the end of the year, ramping up its funding efforts after closing three initial three deals. Madica disclosed the plans to TechCrunch indicating accelerated investing in the coming year as […]

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Google-backed Glance pilots Android lockscreen platform in US

April 24, 2024

Glance, which operates a lockscreen platform targetting Android smartphones, is setting its sights on the U.S. market. The Indian startup recently commenced a pilot program in partnership with Motorola and Verizon in the U.S., with plans for a full launch in the country later this year, sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The Bengaluru-headquartered […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Senate passes a bill forcing TikTok to face a ban if ByteDance doesn’t sell it

April 24, 2024

The Senate passed a bill, included with the foreign aid package, that will ban TikTok if its owner, ByteDance, doesn’t sell it within a year. Senators passed the bill 79-18 Tuesday after the House passed it with overwhelming majority over the weekend. President Joe Biden will have to sign the bill to make it law, […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The all-electric Mercedes G-Class ratchets up the tech and off-road capability

April 24, 2024

The Mercedes-Benz G-Class — the rugged off-road powerhouse that launched in 1979 and has since become a brutalist status symbol — has gone electric. This is, in many ways, Mercedes’ most prestigious car, a model more prized for its presence and exclusivity than its power and capability. Going electric, then, is more than an historic […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Tesla’s new growth plan is centered around mysterious cheaper models

April 24, 2024

Tesla’s been undergoing some major changes, and now we have a sense of why: the company says it is upending its product roadmap because of “pressure” on EV sales. The new and accelerated plan now includes “more affordable models” that the company claims will be launched next year. Or if Tesla CEO Elon Musk is […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

“I wanted to work on something that didn’t exist”

April 23, 2024
In 2017 Polina Anikeeva, PhD ’09, was invited to a conference in the Netherlands to give a talk about magnetic technologies that she and her team had developed at MIT and how they might be used for deep brain stimulation to treat Parkinson’s disease. After sitting through a long day of lectures, she was struck…