Two cicada broods, XIX and XIII, are emerging in sync for the first time in 221 years. Birds, trees, and dirt are about to get the banquet of a lifetime.
https://www.wired.com/story/periodical-cicada-emergence-illinois/
Afshin Mehin has helped design some of the most futuristic neurotech devices.
https://www.wired.com/story/designer-behind-neuralinks-surgical-robot-afshin-mehin/
Injectable immunotherapy drugs can be made, in theory, but gravity prevents them from crystallizing correctly. A startup thinks the solution could be right above us.
The abortion pill mifepristone went in front of the US Supreme Court on Tuesday. Antiabortionists say an increase in emergency room visits shows it’s unsafe. Medical experts disagree.
https://www.wired.com/story/abortion-pill-supreme-court-er-visit-myth-debunk-mifepristone/
Steel structures aren’t as strong as you might think—and the immense power of a container ship shouldn’t be underestimated.
Extreme heat and droughts are making it harder to grow grapes in many traditional regions. Here’s how scientists are helping the industry adapt.
https://www.wired.com/story/enjoy-your-favorite-wine-before-climate-change-destroys-it/
A new study suggests that sudden jumps in LLMs’ abilities are neither surprising nor unpredictable, but are actually the consequence of how we measure ability in AI.
https://www.wired.com/story/how-quickly-do-large-language-models-learn-unexpected-skills/
Every person has a different idea of what makes noise “loud,” but there are some things we all can do to turn the volume down a little.
Here’s some advice for safely experiencing the total solar eclipse on April 8 as the moon casts a slender shadow across Mexico, the United States, and eastern Canada.
https://www.wired.com/story/solar-eclipse-2024-how-to-watch/
Cats are most fertile during the summer months, but in recent years “kitten season” has been starting earlier and lasting longer. The trend is bad news for shelters and wildlife alike.
https://www.wired.com/story/kitten-season-global-warming-cat-breeding/
If you've ever heard music, voices, or other sounds while trying to sleep with a white noise machine running, you're not losing your mind. Here's what's going on.
https://www.wired.com/story/why-you-hear-voices-white-noise/
A 62-year-old Massachusetts man with failing kidneys is the first living patient to receive a genetically altered kidney from a pig.
Some species can absorb extreme amounts of nickel from soils. Such “phytomining” could help provide batteries essential for the renewable revolution.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-feds-are-trying-to-get-plants-to-mine-metal-through-their-roots/
A fatal bear attack in Slovakia reignited accusations that conservationists are protecting the animals at the expense of human safety. Experts argue it's a people problem, not a bear problem.
The CDC is begging Americans to get vaccinated against measles as cases continue to rise.
https://www.wired.com/story/measles-us-cases-vaccinations-2024/
In a livestream on X, the paralyzed 29-year-old man used his Neuralink brain implant to control a computer.
https://www.wired.com/story/neuralink-implant-first-human-patient-demonstration/
A new UN report finds that humanity is generating 137 billion pounds of TVs, smartphones, and other e-waste a year—and recycling less than a quarter of it.
https://www.wired.com/story/e-waste-recycling-cant-keep-up-precious-metals/
TacticAI, a soccer AI model created by Google DeepMind, makes predictions about where corners will go, and suggests tweaks to make goals more—or less—likely.
https://www.wired.com/story/deepmind-is-helping-soccer-teams-take-the-perfect-corner/
Nobel Prize–winning biologist Venki Ramakrishnan explores the science and charlatans of life-extension.
Two researchers have proved that Penrose tilings, famous patterns that never repeat, are mathematically equivalent to a kind of quantum error correction.
https://www.wired.com/story/never-repeating-patterns-of-tiles-can-safeguard-quantum-information/