December 19, 2024

Digital twins of human organs are here. They’re set to transform medical treatment.

A healthy heart beats at a steady rate, between 60 and 100 times a minute. That’s not the case for all of us, I’m reminded, as I look inside a cardboard box containing around 20 plastic hearts—each a replica of a real human one. The hearts, which previously sat on a shelf in a lab…

AI’s emissions are about to skyrocket even further

December 13, 2024
It’s no secret that the current AI boom is using up immense amounts of energy. Now we have a better idea of how much.  A new paper, from a team at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, examined 2,132 data centers operating in the United States (78% of all facilities in the country).…

The Download: society’s techlash, and Android XR

December 13, 2024
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. How Silicon Valley is disrupting democracy The internet loves a good neologism, especially if it can capture a purported vibe shift or explain a new trend. In 2013, the columnist Adrian Wooldridge coined…

How Silicon Valley is disrupting democracy

December 13, 2024
The internet loves a good neologism, especially if it can capture a purported vibe shift or explain a new trend. In 2013, the columnist Adrian Wooldridge coined a word that eventually did both. Writing for the Economist, he warned of the coming “techlash,” a revolt against Silicon Valley’s rich and powerful fueled by the public’s…