Science

According to the company’slatest progress update,the patient has used the implant in combination with a specialized Quadstick game controllerto play the first-person shooter, in addition to designing his own custom Neuralink charger mount in CAD software.

This implant has also remained fully attached to the patient’s brain,unlike the recipient of the first procedure.

The company has a target of making all of its hardware packaging without plastic by 2025. Packaging for new products it made and launched in 2023 was at least 99 percent plastic-free, according to the company’slatest sustainability report.It’sreplacing plastic with paper,which can be included in curbside recycling programsunlike most plastic packaging.

Roughly half of customers lost power yesterday. As of this morning, more than 30 percent of customers are still without service,according to power utility Luma Energy.

It showshow vulnerable the US territory’s grid is afterHurricane Mariahit in 2017and left residents without electricity forup to 11 months.In July,Puerto Ricofiled a $1 billion suitagainst fossil fuel companies.

The World Health Organizationmade the declaration todayafter a new strain of the virus spread across the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring countries that hadn’t previously reported cases of mpox.

It’s deadlier this time around compared to 2022, when it was called monkeypox. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US alsowarned clinicians to stay on alertfor the virus.

In the meantime, NASA officialssaid on a media call that they will weighthe risks of bringing Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williamshome on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.

The spacesuits they brought wouldn’t work, so they’d have to return without the protection of wearing one. Staying in space longer, however, could expose the astronauts to extra radiation.

They’re on different sides of a debate over how to counteract pollution from data centers’ energy use,Financial Timesreports.

Amazon and Meta are part of alobby groupthat wants more lax standards forrenewable energy certificates, which can pose similar risksascarbon offset credits.Google, meanwhile, backs a differentstrategyfor bringing more renewables online wherever data centers operate.

The breakup of a Chinese Long March 6A rocket resulted in “over 300 pieces of trackable debris in low-Earth orbit,”according to US Space Command.The agency has “observed no immediate threats” as a result of the breakup.

Space.comhas agood storyabout the situation.

Thewarningsays that the possibility of a massive earthquake is higher than usual —notthat it will definitely occur within a certain timeframe.It follows a7.1-magnitude earthquakeearlier today that also triggered atsunami warning.

Byron Bernstein had six livestreamed conversations with Alok Kanojia, a psychiatrist. Then Bernstein died by suicide. Were those conversations ethical?

Yesterday, we got acetacean entry in the annals of photobombing.Congratulations to everyone involved, and also to me, since I have watched this clip like 10 times.

SunPowerhelped kick off a solar boom in the US,Canary Mediaexplains.But the company was hit hard by soaring interest rates and faced allegations of mismanagement,CNBCreports.Solar companies in the US have grappled with inflation and supply chain kinkspushing up projects costsin recent years, and havestruggled to competewith more affordable panels made in China.

The state-backed Shanghai Yuanxin Satellite Technology Company successfully launched 18 satellites on Tuesday, with goals of bringing 648 satellites into orbit by the end of 2025, according to theSouth China Morning Post.

The company, which aims to operate 14,000 satellites by 2030, still has ways to go to catch up to Starlink’s growing constellation of more than 6,000 satellites.

Just as inTwisters,Reed Timmer custom built his truck to get as close to tornadoes as possible. But where Glen Powell was shooting roman candles at tornadoes, Timmer shoots rockets full of sensors at them.

“I don’t want to jinx it, but it seems to have gone extremely well with the second implant,”Elon Musk saidon the Lex Fridman podcast. “There’s a lot of signal, a lot of electrodes.” The wires on Neuralink’sfirst human brain implantretracted, resulting in fewer electrodes that could measure brain signals. 10 more implants could come before the end of this year if regulators approve.

Severalrecentstudiesfoundan association between eating “ultraprocessed foods” — made with ingredients not found in a home kitchen — and cognitive decline. New preliminary research presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference suggests that regularly eating processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, and bologna increases the risk of developing dementia later in life.

The study tracked more than 130,000 adults in the United States for up to 43 years. During that period, 11,173 people developed dementia. Those who consumed about two servings of processed red meat per week had a 14 percent greater risk of developing dementia compared to those who ate fewer than three servings per month.

Conversely, eating unprocessed red meat did not significantly increase the risk for dementia.