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Medieval elite still received fancy burials despite disease stigma

Popular Science

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Wealth confers privilege, and for many people during the Middle Ages, this privilege extended into the afterlife . The trend often mirrored their relationship with religion before their deaths, too--nobility and knights frequently ensured they sat in the front pews of services. Money is only one facet of social relations, however. Communities have long discriminated against and ostracized residents with debilitating illnesses--especially those with outward physical effects.


Why chatbots are starting to check your age

MIT Technology Review

Confirming which users are kids is politically fraught and a technical nightmare. Here's what moves from OpenAI and the FTC tell us. How do tech companies check if their users are kids? This question has taken on new urgency recently thanks to growing concern about the dangers that can arise when children talk to AI chatbots. For years Big Tech asked for birthdays (that one could make up) to avoid violating child privacy laws, but they weren't required to moderate content accordingly. Two developments over the last week show how quickly things are changing in the US and how this issue is becoming a new battleground, even among parents and child-safety advocates.


Do trees really explode in extreme cold?

Popular Science

Do trees really explode in extreme cold? The answer involves frozen sap, the polar vortex, and a lot of internet exaggeration. Heavy snow fall, not explosions, are far more threatening to trees and yourself. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. The majority of the United States is bracing itself for a potentially historic polar vortex winter storm this weekend .


The Download: next-gen nuclear, and the data center backlash

MIT Technology Review

The popularity of commercial nuclear reactors has surged in recent years as worries about climate change and energy independence drowned out concerns about meltdowns and radioactive waste. The problem is, building nuclear power plants is expensive and slow. A new generation of nuclear power technology could reinvent what a reactor looks like--and how it works. Advocates hope that new tech can refresh the industry and help replace fossil fuels without emitting greenhouse gases. Here's what that might look like . Next-gen nuclear is one of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies this year.


Data centers are amazing. Everyone hates them.

MIT Technology Review

In these politically divisive times, there's one thing we all agree on--we don't want a giant data center in our backyard. Behold, the hyperscale data center! Massive structures, with thousands of specialized computer chips running in parallel to perform the complex calculations required by advanced AI models. A single facility can cover millions of square feet, built with millions of pounds of steel, aluminum, and concrete; feature hundreds of miles of wiring, connecting some hundreds of thousands of high-end GPU chips, and chewing through hundreds of megawatt-hours of electricity. These facilities run so hot from all that computing power that their cooling systems are triumphs of engineering complexity in themselves. But the star of the show are those chips with their advanced processors.