Technology

The Download: embryo ethics, and reducing chatbot risks

October 21, 2025
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. The astonishing embryo models of Jacob Hanna Instead of relying on the same old recipe biology has followed for a billion years, give or take, stem-cell scientist Jacob Hanna is coaxing the beginnings…

New noninvasive endometriosis tests are on the rise

October 21, 2025
Shantana Hazel often thought her insides might fall out during menstruation. It took 14 years of stabbing pain before she ultimately received a diagnosis of endometriosis, an inflammatory disease where tissue similar to the uterine lining implants outside the uterus and bleeds with each cycle. The results can include painful periods and damaging scar tissue.…

The astonishing embryo models of Jacob Hanna

October 21, 2025
When the Palestinian stem-cell scientist Jacob Hanna was stopped while entering the US last May, airport customs agents took him aside and held him for hours in “secondary,” a back office where you don’t have your passport and can’t use your phone. There were two young Russian women and a candy machine in the room…

Why AI should be able to “hang up” on you

October 21, 2025
Chatbots today are everything machines. If it can be put into words—relationship advice, work documents, code—AI will produce it, however imperfectly. But the one thing that almost no chatbot will ever do is stop talking to you.  That might seem reasonable. Why should a tech company build a feature that reduces the time people spend…

The Download: a promising retina implant, and how climate change affects flowers

October 20, 2025
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. This retina implant lets people with vision loss do a crossword puzzle The news: Science Corporation—a competitor to Neuralink founded by the former president of Elon Musk’s brain-interface venture—has leapfrogged its rival after…

This retina implant lets people with vision loss do a crossword puzzle

October 20, 2025
Science Corporation—a competitor to Neuralink founded by the former president of Elon Musk’s brain-interface venture—has leapfrogged its rival after acquiring a vision implant that’s in advanced testing, for a fire-sale price. The implant produces a form of “artificial vision” that lets some patients read text and do crosswords, according to a report published in The…

AI could predict who will have a heart attack

October 20, 2025
For all the modern marvels of cardiology, we struggle to predict who will have a heart attack. Many people never get screened at all. Now, startups like Bunkerhill Health, Nanox.AI, and HeartLung Technologies are applying AI algorithms to screen millions of CT scans for early signs of heart disease. This technology could be a breakthrough…

Flowers of the future

October 20, 2025
Flowers play a key role in most landscapes, from urban to rural areas. There might be dandelions poking through the cracks in the pavement, wildflowers on the highway median, or poppies covering a hillside. We might notice the time of year they bloom and connect that to our changing climate. Perhaps we are familiar with…