Zeta becomes a unicorn with $250 million SoftBank-led funding
Zeta, a startup that helps banks and fintech firms launch products, is the newest to attain the coveted unicorn status after closing a new financing round. The banking tech firm, co-founded by veteran Indian entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia, said on Mond.....»»
Asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs may have led to the invention of "ant agriculture"
The event that wiped out the dinosaurs wasn't all bad. The low-light environment caused by the meteor impact some 66 million years ago favored the spread of fungi that feed on organic matter, which was abundant at the time as plants and animals were.....»»
From Open AI to hacked smart glasses, here are the 5 biggest AI headlines this week
Between OpenAI's $6.6 million funding round and some privacy-invading Meta Smart Glasses, we saw a scary number of developments in the AI space this week......»»
Nuclear rockets could travel to Mars in half the time, but designing the reactors that would power them isn"t easy
NASA plans to send crewed missions to Mars over the next decade—but the 140 million-mile (225 million-kilometer) journey to the red planet could take several months to years round trip......»»
Hoopla offers a library of Joker and Harley Quinn comics timed to Folie à Deux
The release of Joker: Folie à Deux has led to a number of tie-ins, including one from the online library service Hoopla......»»
The more sophisticated AI models get, the more likely they are to lie
Human feedback training may incentivize providing any answer—even wrong ones. When a research team led by Amrit Kirpalani, a medical educator at Western University in Ontario, C.....»»
How London’s Crystal Palace was built so quickly
New study finds it was the earliest-known building to use a standard screw thread. London's Great Exhibition of 1851 attracted some 6 million people eager to experience more than.....»»
One of Sony’s brightest TVs just got an early Prime Day deal
The 75-inch Sony Bravia 7 Mini-LED QLED 4K TV, a premium upgrade for your home theater setup, will be yours for $2,200 if you shop Best Buy's $600 discount......»»
Toyota bets big on air taxis with $500M investment in Joby
Auto giant Toyota is investing another $500 million into Joby, which pioneered the first test flight of an air taxi over the skies of New York City......»»
Verizon: Service Restored Following Yesterday’s Network Outage
Some time around 7:45am on the west coast, reports started popping up that Verizon was experiencing a network outage. At its absolute peak, roughly 1.6 million users reported issues with the network, according to Downdetector. How accurate that figur.....»»
UAW local seeking strike authorization at GM pickup plant in Indiana
UAW Local 2209 in Indiana said the issue involves the move of seniority employees to other shifts after the departure of roughly 250 part-time temporary employees......»»
Combating promotion and tenure bias against Black and Hispanic faculty
Black and Hispanic faculty members seeking promotion at research universities face career-damaging biases, with their scholarly production judged more harshly than that of their peers, according to an initiative co-led by the University of California.....»»
How future heat waves at sea could devastate UK marine ecosystems and fisheries
The oceans are warming at an alarming rate. 2023 shattered records across the world's oceans, and was the first time that ocean temperatures exceeded 1°C over pre-industrial levels. This led to the emergence of a series of marine heat wave events ac.....»»
Earth Defense Force 6 just removed its controversial requirement
Sci-fi shooter Earth Defense Force 6 just removed an account requirement on Steam that led players to review-bomb it at launch......»»
Carvana reaches 4 million vehicles bought and sold since its launch in 2013
Carvana on Oct. 3 released a report with insights on its first 4 million used-vehicle purchases and sales......»»
Study suggests statistical "noise" affects perceived evolutionary rates
For decades, researchers have observed that rates of evolution seem to accelerate over short time periods—say five million years versus fifty million years. This broad pattern has suggested that "younger" groups of organisms, in evolutionary terms,.....»»
New research uncovers how climate and soil shape tree and shrub wood density across ecosystems
An article published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences has provided new insights into how wood density in trees and shrubs adapts to different climate and soil conditions. Led by Dr. Song Xiang from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chine.....»»
OpenAI secures $6.6 billion in latest funding round
Thanks to $6.6 billion in funding from the likes of Microsoft and Nvidia with a $157 billion valuation, OpenAI is now one of the wealthiest private enterprises on the planet......»»
The true global impact of species-loss caused by humans is far greater than expected, study reveals
The extinction of hundreds of bird species caused by humans over the last 130,000 years has led to substantial reductions in avian functional diversity—a measure of the range of different roles and functions that birds undertake within the environm.....»»
Genetic database shows some fungal crops became completely reliant on ants 27 million years ago
When humans began farming crops thousands of years ago, agriculture had already been around for millions of years. In fact, several animal lineages have been growing their own food since long before humans evolved as a species......»»
Scientists offer a detailed look at the skeleton of an ancient predator that thrived in extreme conditions
Imagine a world on the brink of collapse: volcanic eruptions spewing toxic gases, oceans turning acidic, and up to 90% of Earth's species vanishing in the blink of an eye. This was the reality at the end of the Permian Period, around 252 million year.....»»