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That is right now’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a each day dose of what’s occurring on this planet of know-how
The good business takeover of low-Earth orbit
NASA designed the Worldwide House Station to fly for 20 years. It has lasted six years longer than that, although it’s exhibiting its age, and NASA is at the moment learning tips on how to safely destroy the house laboratory by round 2030.
The ISS by no means actually grew to become what some had hoped: a launching level for an increasing human presence within the photo voltaic system. But it surely did allow basic analysis on supplies and drugs, and it helped us begin to perceive how house impacts the human physique.
To construct on that work, NASA has partnered with personal corporations to develop new, business house stations for analysis, manufacturing, and tourism. If they’re profitable, these corporations will carry a couple of new period of house exploration: personal rockets flying to personal locations. They’re already planning on doing it across the moon. Sooner or later, Mars might observe. Learn the complete story.
— David W. Brown
This story is for subscribers solely, and is from the subsequent journal concern of MIT Expertise Assessment, set to go stay on April 24, on the theme of Construct. If you happen to don’t already, enroll now to get a replica when it lands.
Why it’s so laborious for China’s chip business to turn out to be self-sufficient
Inside most laptop computer and information middle chips right now, there’s a tiny element referred to as ABF. It’s a skinny insulating layer across the wires that conduct electrical energy. And over 90% of the supplies world wide used to make this insulator are produced by a single Japanese firm named Ajinomoto.
As our AI reporter James O’Donnell defined in his story final week, Ajinomoto discovered within the Nineteen Nineties {that a} chemical by-product from the manufacturing of the seasoning powder MSG can be utilized to make insulator movies, which proved to be important for high-performance chips. And within the 30 years since, the corporate has completely dominated ABF provide.
Inside China, not less than three corporations are growing related insulator merchandise to rival Ajinomoto’s. For many years, the truth that the semiconductor provide chain was in a couple of corporations’ fingers was seen as a power, not an issue. However now, each the US and Chinese language governments more and more see it as an issue to be mounted. Learn the complete story.
—Zeyi Yang
This story is from China Report, our weekly e-newsletter masking tech and coverage inside China. Join to obtain it in your inbox each Tuesday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you right now’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Starlink is cracking down on web thieves
Customers have been connecting to its providers from nations the place it’s not licensed to function. (WSJ $)
+ Antarctica’s historical past of isolation is ending—because of Starlink. (MIT Expertise Assessment)
2 Microsoft has invested greater than $1 billion into an Abu Dhabi AI agency
The corporate, referred to as G42, not too long ago lower its hyperlinks with its Chinese language {hardware} provider. (FT $)
+ Behind Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s push to get AI instruments in builders’ fingers. (MIT Expertise Assessment)
3 How wartime British scientists labored how tips on how to maintain people alive underwater
Their extraordinary findings performed a key half in making D-Day a hit. (Wired $)
4 The longevity motion is stuffed with contradictory arguments
However who actually needs to stay ceaselessly anyway? (New Yorker $)
+ The hunt to legitimize longevity drugs. (MIT Expertise Assessment)
5 Audiobooks are successful with Spotify subscribers
However they’re restricted to fifteen hours’ of listening per 30 days. (Bloomberg $)
6 Farewell to Atlas the robotic 
Boston Dynamics’ dancing, backflipping humanoid robotic is retiring after 11 years within the highlight. (The Verge)
+ Is robotics about to have its personal ChatGPT second? (MIT Expertise Assessment)
7 All the things is so costly nowadays
And covert customized pricing programs are set to make issues even pricier. (The Atlantic $)
+ It seems Gen Z is so much richer than their elders. (Economist $)
8 Amazon is a swamp of trashy ebooks
They have been an issue earlier than the AI increase, however generative AI has made the problem considerably worse. (Vox)
9 TikTok’s hottest product is industrial-grade glycine from China
The amino acids are feeding the platform’s insatiable urge for food for ironic obsessions. (WP $)
10 Behold—the straw that received’t provide you with wrinkles
Unsurprisingly, it’s the sort of nonsense that may take off on social media. (NYT $)
Quote of the day
“Individuals can giggle and say, ‘Oh, look, there’s Brutus plunging a knife into the again of Julius Caesar.’”
—Nick Clegg, president of world affairs at Meta, describes his imaginative and prescient of future historical past courses enabled by VR, Axios reviews.
The large story
What’s demise?
November 2023
Simply as delivery certificates observe the time we enter the world, demise certificates mark the second we exit it. This apply displays conventional notions about life and demise as binaries. We’re right here till, all of a sudden, like a light-weight switched off, we’re gone.
However whereas this concept of demise is pervasive, proof is constructing that it’s an outdated social assemble, not likely grounded in biology. Dying is the truth is a course of—one with no clear level demarcating the edge throughout which somebody can’t come again.
Scientists and plenty of medical doctors have already embraced this extra nuanced understanding of demise. And as society catches up, the implications for the residing may very well be profound. Learn the complete story.
—Rachel Nuwer
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Obtained any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ This Swap bread has a cute lil secret.
+ If you happen to’re one among life’s poor navigators, concern not—you’re not alone.
+ Attempting to promote your private home? Don’t paint your entrance door these colours.
+ It is a fascinating take a look at the science behind getting into the state of inventive movement.
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