Industry
New Head of Trump's Cancer Panel Questioned Links Between Vaccines and Cancer
Yale epidemiologist Harvey Risch, who has entertained a connection between Covid vaccines and "turbo cancer" and promoted ivermectin, says he'll chair the President's Cancer Panel. An epidemiologist who has speculated about whether there is a connection between Covid-19 vaccines and "turbo cancer" in young people, and works as chief epidemiologist at a company that sells ivermectin alongside reviews that claim it has efficacy as a cancer treatment, has been appointed by president Donald Trump to a key position overseeing the National Cancer Program. Harvey Risch, a professor emeritus of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, announced his appointment as chair of the President's Cancer Panel on X earlier this month. Risch's profile page on the Yale website has also been updated to read "In November 2025, President Trump appointed Dr. Risch to Chair the President's Cancer panel." No formal announcement was made by the president or the White House, and the Cancer Panel website's list of current members does not include Risch.
AI Is Getting Better at Science. OpenAI Is Testing How Far It Can Go
AI Is Getting Better at Science. Demis Hassabis founded DeepMind to "solve intelligence" and then use that to "solve everything else." Sam Altman promised that "the gains to quality of life from AI driving faster scientific progress will be enormous." Dario Amodei of Anthropic predicted that as soon as 2026, AI progress could produce a "country of geniuses in a data center." Of all the foundational myths driving the AI boom, the hope that AI might help humanity understand the universe is among the most enduring. FrontierScience, a new benchmark published Tuesday by OpenAI, suggests that AI models are advancing toward that goal--and highlights the difficulty of testing models' capabilities as they become ever more competitive with human scientists.
Dancing robot is the size of a grain of salt
The fully programmable, autonomous microbot only costs one penny to make. The microrobot, fully integrated with sensors and a computer, is small enough to balance on the ridge of a fingerprint. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Designing a swarm of fully autonomous, submillimeter-sized robots sounds like an expensive, if not impossible task. However, a team at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan not only built a new generation of recordbreaking, solar powered machines.
What happened to iRobot can happen to anyone
Nobody is immune to knock-offs, bad decision making and tariffs. The company which popularized robot vacuum cleaners around the world has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy . The company plans to sell its assets to its primary supplier, China's Picea Robotics, in the hope of maintaining its business. Everyone's got a strident opinion as to why iRobot fell from grace. The rugged individualists blame limp regulators on both sides of the pond (and their hatred for big tech) for blocking Amazon's attempted purchase in 2023.
Jensen Huang Gets What He Wants
Jensen Huang was riding high. The name of the company he runs, Nvidia, is a play on the Latin word for . But when asked last month, Huang could not think of a single thing he is envious of. "I have a pretty great life," he said toward the end of a 75-minute interview with TIME, before tallying a list of things he is grateful for: his happy marriage, his adult children, and his two dogs, who earlier that day both received the all-clear on their ultrasounds. Then, of course, there was his professional life: running the world's most valuable company, worth some $4.3 trillion.
'Living rocks' suck up a lot of carbon
Super tough microbialites are some of the oldest evidence of life on Earth. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Among the tricky carnivorous plants, great white shark-killing orca whales, and other remarkable flora and fauna that call South Africa home is a remarkable group of "living rocks." Called microbialites, these communities are similar to coral reefs and are built up by microbes. These tiny living organisms absorb and release dissolved minerals into more solid rock-like forms.
Amazon is set to lay off 370 workers at its European HQ
In October, the company announced plans to fire 14,000 employees globally amid its deepening embrace of AI. Amazon's logo on the side of a logistics center. Amazon is set to fire 370 people at its European headquarters in Luxembourg in the coming weeks, as reports. Amazon initially planned to reduce its headcount there by 470, but under European Union law, companies have to negotiate layoffs with employee reps and, in some cases, governments. Amazon reportedly told employees at the European HQ in a memo the layoffs are adjustments that reflect business needs and local strategies.
Zoom opens up a taste of its AI Companion features to free users
PCWorld reports that Zoom launched AI Companion 3.0, making AI features available to free users for up to three meetings monthly with capabilities like summaries and notes. The update introduces Zoom Docs for document creation and editing, plus integration with Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive for enhanced data analysis. Key productivity features include automated follow-up task generation, email drafting, and daily meeting reports, significantly expanding AI accessibility beyond paid subscribers. Yesterday, Zoom launched its AI Companion 3.0 initiative (reports TechCrunch), which now makes the company's AI assistant available via the web and to free users. Users with a Zoom Basic account can use the AI companion for up to 3 meetings per month.
Creating psychological safety in the AI era
Trust in AI begins when leaders admit what they do not know, address fears, and help people adapt. Rolling out enterprise-grade AI means climbing two steep cliffs at once. And second, creating the cultural conditions where employees can maximize its value. While the technical hurdles are significant, the human element can be even more consequential; fear and ambiguity can stall momentum of even the most promising initiatives. Psychological safety--feeling free to express opinions and take calculated risks without worrying about career repercussions1--is essential for successful AI adoption. In psychologically safe workspaces, employees are empowered to challenge assumptions and raise concerns about new tools without fear of reprisal.
Fallout Season 2 review: Viva New Vegas
The return to the wasteland is way better than just okie dokie. The follow-up to a successful debut is often harder to make than the first, and that goes double when the inspiration for a show comes from the most beloved installment of the underlying franchise . That's precisely the challenge season 2 is facing as the TV series shifts its stage to the irradiated lights of New Vegas when the series returns on December 16 at 9PM ET/6PM PT on Prime Video . However, while other video game adaptations like suffered from a bit of a sophomore slump, continues to get more crass, vulgar and abrasive in the most entertaining ways. Season two picks up directly after the first as Lucy (played by Ella Purnelle) and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) make their way across the wasteland in pursuit of Lucy's father.