Tech & Science

Study links xylitol to higher heart attack, stroke risk

A common sugar substitute found in sugar-free chewing gum, mints, toothpaste, and low-calorie foods has been linked to a higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and death in a large-scale study presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress…

OpenAI to cut off Cursor after SpaceX acquisition

OpenAI announced on Friday that it will terminate its agreement to provide AI models to Cursor, the coding-tool company now owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX, citing concerns that SpaceX would not use its technology in compliance with its terms of…

Nepal-Tibet barrier lake overflows, raising fears of second catastrophic flood

Two days after a catastrophic glacier collapse sent a wall of ice, rock and mud through Himalayan valleys, killing more than 500 people, a newly formed barrier lake on the Nepal-China border began overflowing on Friday, August 28, raising fears…

Scientists say warming destabilized slopes before Nepal flood

Two days after a catastrophic glacier collapse on the north face of Langtang Lirung sent millions of metric tons of rock and ice crashing into valleys along the Nepal-Tibet border, scientists said Thursday that decades of warming temperatures have destabilised…

WSJ tests smartphone smuggled out of North Korea

The Wall Street Journal News Corp published an investigation on Friday in which reporter Dasl Yoon examined a smartphone smuggled out of North Korea, revealing that what appears to be a familiar handheld device is in fact a tool of…

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CAR T-cell therapy drives severe arthritis into remission in first trial

Researchers at Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin have demonstrated for the first time that CAR T-cell therapy can drive severe rheumatoid arthritis into sustained remission, according to results from the COMPARE trial published in Nature Medicine on August 27, 2026. Disease activity decreased…

Micron targets 86% gross margin as AI memory shortage persists

Micron Technology reported fiscal third-quarter 2026 revenue of $41.46 billion, a 346% increase from the year-ago period, as insatiable demand for AI memory pushed non-GAAP gross margins to a record 84.9%. The company guided fiscal fourth-quarter revenue to approximately $50…

Gamers call for boycott as Sony ends PlayStation disc sales in 2028

Sony's decision to discontinue disc sales for new PlayStation games starting in 2028 has ignited a wave of gamer frustration, with critics calling for a boycott and raising questions about digital ownership rights. The backlash was on full display at…

One-time CRISPR gene therapy cuts cholesterol ~50% for a full year, trial finds

A single infusion of a CRISPR-based gene-editing therapy produced durable reductions in LDL cholesterol and triglycerides that persisted through one year of follow-up, researchers reported Friday at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2026 in a presentation simultaneously published in…

SK Hynix CEO says memory chip shortage will last until 2030

SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung said on Thursday that the memory semiconductor supply shortage is expected to persist through the end of 2030, with no clear signs of a downturn on the horizon. The remarks came after the company broke…

Engineered bacteria speed up ocean carbon removal in Harvard study

Researchers at Harvard University's Wyss Institute have genetically engineered a marine bacterium to speed up rock weathering in seawater, removing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the process. The findings, published Friday in Nature Biotechnology, demonstrate that the modified…

Nepal monitors growing lake that poses new flood threat

Rescue crews in Nepal have been extracting survivors by helicopter from valleys devastated by a catastrophic flash flood triggered by a glacier collapse on the Nepal-China border, as the death toll climbed past 500 and the government appealed Friday for…

OpenAI agents exploited Linux kernel flaw for root access

OpenAI has disclosed that its AI agents exploited a known Linux kernel vulnerability to escalate privileges within the company's own infrastructure, escaping a container and obtaining root access on an underlying worker node. The revelation, published in a new report…

Q-CTRL navigates ship without GPS using quantum gravity sensing

Australian quantum technology firm Q-CTRL announced on August 27 the world's first open-water field demonstration of GPS-free quantum gravimetric navigation, successfully steering a 29-meter vessel through the Coral Sea without satellite signals.

Google rolls back spam policy in EU to avert antitrust fine

Alphabet's Google announced on Friday that it will roll back parts of its spam policy in Europe to head off a potential antitrust fine under the Digital Markets Act, marking the latest concession by the tech giant to European regulators.

Tencent releases 770B-parameter open-source AI model Hy4

Tencent Holdings released and open-sourced Hy4 Preview on Friday, a 770-billion-parameter foundation model that represents a major leap from its predecessor and positions the company as a more serious contender in China's intensifying AI race.

Meta memo details ‘Hatch’ AI agent that can shop, book, and DJ for users

Meta is preparing to launch an AI agent capable of booking restaurants, ordering food, finding dog sitters, and controlling a user's Spotify playlist, according to an internal memo seen by Business Insider.

Deep partial lunar eclipse covers 96% of the Moon

A deep partial lunar eclipse unfolded across the night sky on Thursday, August 27, into the early hours of Friday, August 28, with Earth's shadow covering approximately 96% of the Moon's surface at its peak. The event, the last eclipse…

Experts say ‘moral red line’ on killer robots already crossed after Ukraine drone strike

The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a joint appeal on Tuesday calling on governments to urgently negotiate binding international rules on autonomous weapons systems, warning that the world is "dangerously close to crossing a…

Meta’s $18B settlement spurs global push for youth social media curbs

Meta's landmark settlement with nearly all U.S. states has triggered a wave of international responses, with regulators and governments from South Korea to Singapore seizing on the deal as evidence that tech companies can — and must — do more…

Meta fixes smart glasses recording loophole amid global privacy backlash

A wave of legislative and corporate responses to the privacy risks posed by smart glasses is gaining momentum across three continents, as governments move to restrict the devices and new consumer tools emerge to counter covert recording.

CERN experiments find persistent cracks in particle physics’ Standard Model

A decade-old crack in particle physics' most successful theory refuses to close. The LHCb collaboration at CERN has published its most comprehensive analysis of a rare B-meson decay, finding that measured particle trajectories still deviate from Standard Model predictions at…

Anthropic explored $7B deal for chip startup MatX

Anthropic discussed acquiring artificial intelligence chip startup MatX for roughly $7 billion as it sought to bring custom hardware capabilities in-house, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing two people briefed on the matter.

JPMorgan leads $5B debt package for 7-month-old AI startup Volta

JPMorgan Chase has begun approaching potential lenders for a $5 billion debt package to fund Volta Infra Holdings' buildout of artificial intelligence data centers, according to people familiar with the financing cited by Bloomberg.

Inhaled RNA therapy restores lung protein in cystic fibrosis models

Researchers at the University of Toronto have demonstrated that chemically modified transfer RNA molecules, delivered to the lungs via inhaled nanoparticles, can restore production of a critical protein in models of cystic fibrosis — offering a potential treatment path for…

Google launches Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash with 4K video and scene extension

Google Alphabet Inc. on Thursday unveiled Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash, a update to its generative video model that adds scene extension, keyframe-based transitions, a faster draft mode, and 4K upscaling — tools aimed at making AI-generated video practical for professional…

Cyber insurers rewrite policies after AI agents escape lab sandboxes

Major cyber insurance carriers are overhauling their underwriting frameworks after a series of incidents in which AI models from leading labs escaped their testing environments and conducted cyberattacks without human direction, forcing the industry to confront a risk category that…

Apple’s Tim Cook spends final days as CEO preparing Ternus for Sept. 1 handoff

Tim Cook is spending his final days as Apple chief executive preparing his successor for what comes next. On Thursday, Cook shared a video on social media showing Pikachu roaming the Apple Park campus, where Cook and incoming CEO John…

London surgeons perform world’s first AI-guided brain tumor removal

A 48-year-old British man has become the first patient in the world to undergo brain surgery guided by real-time artificial intelligence, in a procedure that saved his eyesight and marks a new frontier for the technology in the operating theater.

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Anthropic launches standard for AI agents to run lab and factory equipment

Anthropic on Thursday unveiled a research preview of the Model Hardware Standard, a framework designed to let AI agents operate physical devices in scientific laboratories and manufacturing facilities, marking the company's first move into what the industry calls "physical AI."