Science

The first 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the US in just 10 days

Dr. Prakash Patel, a pulmonologist at Tristar StoneCrest Medical Center, takes a selfie with a nurse after getting his COVID-19 vaccine. Rob Lindsay The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that as of Wednesday morning, it had administered 1,008,025 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the US and distributed 9,465,725 doses in total. After members of three priority groups are vaccinated — healthcare workers, frontline workers, and people over 75 — vaccine access will be expanded to ...
Tags: Science, News, Cdc, US, Trends, US Postal Service, Wyoming, Vaccination, Vaccine, Anthony Fauci, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kaiser Family Foundation, Prakash Patel, Moderna, Robert Redfield, Nevada New Hampshire

Google reportedly tightens grip on research into ‘sensitive topics’

Google is currently under fire for apparently pushing out a researcher whose work warned of bias in AI, and now a report from Reuters says others doing such work at the company have been asked to “strike a positive tone” and undergo additional reviews for research touching on “sensitive topics.” Reuters, citing researchers at the company and internal documents, reports that Google has implemented new controls in the last year, including an extra round of inspection for papers on certain topic...
Tags: Google, Science, China, Israel, Tech, Artificial Intelligence, Reuters, Facebook Google Apple Microsoft, Timnit Gebru, Gebru

Google Reportedly Told AI Scientists To 'Strike A Positive Tone' In Research

Nearly three weeks after the abrupt exit of Black artificial intelligence ethicist Timnit Gebru, more details are emerging about the shady new set of policies Google has rolled out for its research team. Read more...
Tags: Google, Science, Research, Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Paper, Ai, Researchers, Timnit Gebru

Car Service Nuro Cleared For Driverless Deliveries In California

Driverless delivery service Nuro has been cleared for California’s first Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Permit, meaning the company could soon launch a fleet of autonomous commercial vehicles on city streets around the state.Read more...
Tags: Science, California, Vehicles, Fleet, Delivery Service, Company, Nuro, Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Permit

Consider This: Wait and Mash All the Holidays Into One

Medical experts are begging, warning, and bargaining with us to hault the holiday parties. One epidemiologist likened a Thanksgiving gathering to gasoline on the fire, and run-down California health officials have made a potential Christmas transmission surge sound like a reactor meltdown.Read more...
Tags: Science, Holidays, California, Holy House Of Horror

Gov. Andrew Cuomo says some of Moderna's vaccine vials contain extra doses, just like Pfizer's

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at a press conference in September. Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state has found additional doses in its vaccine vials from Moderna. The vials, which were thought to hold 10 doses, could hold up to 11. Cuomo's announcement follows similar news about the Pfizer vaccine: Pharmacists found many five-dose vials held six or seven doses. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. New York Gov. Andrew ...
Tags: Health, New York, Science, News, US, Trends, Food And Drug Administration, Fda, Pfizer, Vaccine, Andrew Cuomo, Cuomo, Toronto Canada, New York Department of Health, Moderna, Susie Neilson

Charlie Sheen, Dolph Lundgren, and Danny Trejo All Spread Russian Propaganda on Cameo: Report

The Libyan government released a suspected Russian intelligence agent, Maxim Shugaley from prison, in part because someone paid actors Dolph Lundgren, Charlie Sheen, and Danny Trejo to endorse his release on video app Cameo. Read more...
Tags: Facebook, Twitter, Science, Technology, Instagram, Social Media, War, Cybersecurity, Libya, Propaganda, Cameo, Misinformation, Muammar Qaddafi, Danny Trejo, Maxim Shugaley, Libyan Civil War

Stop Using Calorie-Counting Apps

You. Yes, you, with your finger poised over the download button of some kind of diet or calorie-counting app. Stop it. I know January, a prime time for weight loss resolutions, is right around the corner, and that some of you might be feeling not-so-great about extra pounds gained during quarantine. Others might feel…Read more...
Tags: Science, Health Tech, Myfitnesspal, Trust Me Its Not Worth It, Calorie Counting Apps

A year of the pandemic, in 26 photos

A man looks out of the window of his home during the coronavirus pandemic. Deliris/Shutterstock It's been almost a year since the Chinese government first notified the World Health Organization about the novel coronavirus. Since then, more than 78 million people have contracted COVID-19, and more than 1.7 million have died. Here are some of the most striking photos of the pandemic's impact so far. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Almost a year ago, on December 31, 2019, ...
Tags: Health, Photos, UK, England, New York, Texas, Science, News, Supreme Court, Minneapolis, White House, China, India, New York City, US, San Francisco

Cherk Is Gonna Win an Emmy or an Oscar or Something for Apple TV+, for Sure

Apple TV+ had a rough launch over the course of the past year, perhaps in part because of repeated meddling by Apple execs in creative decisions. It’s starting to turn the ship around with a stronger slate of programming and is hoping to win an award or two over the next few months.Read more...
Tags: Apple, Science, Technology, Movies, Film, Apple TV, Streaming, Variety, Cherk

Apple Reportedly Booting Thousands of Video Games From Its China App Store

Apple is getting ready to remove thousands more video games from its App Store in China due to pressure from the Chinese government, reports the Wall Street Journal. The company had previously warned Chinese video game developers that premium gaming apps were at risk of removal from the App Store, but the Chinese…Read more...
Tags: Apple, Science, Video Games, China, Censorship, App Store, Wall Street Journal

Watch the 'Seven Minutes of Terror' Awaiting NASA's Perseverance on Its Martian Descent

In just 57 days, NASA’s Perseverance rover will attempt a landing on Mars. Mission controllers say it’ll be “seven minutes of terror,” as this new depiction demonstrates in dramatic fashion.Read more...
Tags: Science, Nasa, Mars, Rovers, Perseverance, Mars 2020, Perseverance Rover

Patients Are Paying More Out of Pocket for MRIs and Other Brain Health Exams

Health care costs in the U.S. are rising most everywhere, and a new study out Wednesday suggests that people seeking care for neurological problems are no exception. The study found that people with private insurance are increasingly paying out-of-pocket for services like MRIs, and that these costs have risen over the…Read more...
Tags: Science, Healthcare, Neurology, Medical Bills, Brains

The 10 Best Deals of December 23, 2020

Wednesday’s Best Deals | Kinja DealsRead more...
Tags: Deals, Kinja Deals, Science

Taste Brings a Cards Against Humanity-Style Edge to Dating Apps

Dating apps are usually cutesy, at best. The questions they ask are always geared toward the agreeable and the design is chipper and romantic. Taste, a new dating app, isn’t that.Read more...
Tags: Ios, Apps, Science, Dating

The Best and Worst of the World's Covid-19 Response

On January 7, 2020, I wrote about a mysterious, pneumonia-causing viral illness making people sick in Wuhan, China. It was the first Gizmodo article about what eventually became known as covid-19, the second pandemic to strike humanity in the 21st century. It’s eerie to look back at those early days and weeks, when it…Read more...
Tags: Health, Science, Gizmodo, Wuhan China, Pandemic, Coronavirus, Covid 19

I Defeated the AI That Roasts Your Spotify Taste

Disappointments are a natural part of life. Sometimes you buy a new game that doesn’t live up to the hype, or you end up with a new gadget that, while cool in concept, is actually kind of useless. In my case, that meant (possibly) breaking a playlist-roasting bot that my coworkers and colleagues were raving about. Read more...
Tags: Spotify, Science, Artificial Intelligence, Rip

Zoom Is Reportedly Prepping for the Incoming Video-Conferencing Crash with... Email

First Microsoft and Google incorporated classic Zoom features like breakout rooms into their own video-conferencing services. Now Zoom is reportedly challenging the tech titans by developing its own email and calendar apps, according to a report from The Information.Read more...
Tags: Google, Science, Gmail, Microsoft, Outlook, Calendar, Zoom, First Microsoft

It's Iguanas-Falling-Out-of-Trees Cold in Miami

The weather forecast for South Florida is sunny with a chance of stunned iguanas. Miami faces its coldest Christmas in more than 20 years, and the National Weather Service has issued a warning that chilly temperatures could send ectotherms plummeting from trees or curling up on sidewalks and roadways.Read more...
Tags: Florida, National Weather Service, Science, Cold, Miami, South Florida, Weather Is Happening, Igunas

Archaeologists Find Evidence That a Massive Tsunami Hit Ancient Levantine Coast

When Gilad Shtienberg began digging on an Israeli beach in August 2018, the last thing he expected to find were seashells. Boring some 30 feet below the sandy surface, Shtienberg, a geomorphologist at the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology in California, was excavating a doorknob-shaped cove called the Bay of Dor.…Read more...
Tags: Science, California, Israel, Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology, Gilad Shtienberg, Shtienberg

The Fictional Characters, TV Shows, and Movies We Lost in 2020

It was a rough year for all of us in the real world, but those fictional universes we spend so much time in didn’t get off scot-free. A lot of television shows ended their runs this year, and a lot of our favorite characters from sci-fi, fantasy, and horror took their final bows as well. Here are most of who and what…Read more...
Tags: Science, Television, Movies, Video Games, Supernatural, Birds Of Prey, Westworld, The Expanse, Year In Review, Spoilers, Legends Of Tomorrow, Lovecraft Country, Star Wars The Clone Wars, Io9 Year In Review, She Ra And The Princesses Of Power, The Mandalorian

Substack Backs Out of the Moderation Game, but Can It Stay Impartial?

Substack, the popular mailing list platform that is purported to be the next big thing in media, is talking about content moderation and bias, and it’s going about as well as you’d expect.Read more...
Tags: Science, Emails, Commentary, Substack

These Ultralight Carbon Fiber Headphones Are Perfect for Traveling Again, Whenever That Might Be

Carbon fiber, the high-tech material that now makes up everything from car hoods to iPhone cases, is light and strong. When Bowers & Wilkins designed a Carbon Edition of its PX7 headphones, the goal was to create a pair of headphones that were rugged and streamlined with solid audio quality. They pulled it off.Read more...
Tags: Reviews, Science, Headphones, Bowers Wilkins

Clubhouse, a Social Network Without Much Influence, Gets an Influencer Program

Anyone who has sat through an interminable panel discussion on a random topic and thought to themselves, “I wish this would never end,” will find a lot to like on Clubhouse. But due to the closed beta nature of the audio-focused social network, most people will have to make do with reading trend pieces about how much “…Read more...
Tags: Science, App, Clubhouse, Influencer Program

The Expanse Just Delivered an Explosive, Game-Changing Episode

The Expanse—one of the best sci-fi shows ever, and one of the best TV shows (full stop) of 2020—dropped the first three episodes of season five all at once last week. This week, we just got one as the Amazon series switches to a weekly release format. But damn, what an incredible episode.Read more...
Tags: Amazon, Science, Chad Coleman, Streaming, The Expanse, James Sa Corey, TV Recap, Amazon Studios, Steven Strait, Wes Chatham, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Dominique Tipper, Nadine Nicole, Keon Alexander, Expanse Recaps, Io9 Features

Everyone Is a Prepper Now, in The Sense That They're All Trying Not to Die

Last year, somewhere between story research and general curiosity, I found myself in Central Park with Shane Hobel, a compact and furiously energetic man who makes his living teaching other people how to stay alive. There were seven of us in his bite-sized “urban survival” course, for which Hobel travels down to New…Read more...
Tags: Science, Central Park, Pandemic, Shane Hobel, Hobel, Prepping, Survivalism, Stockpiling

Scientists Find a Meteorite That Could Reshape Our Understanding of Asteroids

Scientists have released an analysis of a meteorite fragment gathered after a 2008 asteroid near-collision with Earth. They show the parent asteroid was huge, and the results suggest that special, water-holding type of asteroids can be larger and have different mineral compositions than previously thought.Read more...
Tags: Science, Scientists, Asteroids, Meteors, Dwarf Planets

South African Covid-19 variant has reached the UK, says Matt Hancock

Two people test positive for variant after contact with travellers from South AfricaCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA “highly concerning” new variant of coronavirus that is suspected of fuelling a rise in cases in South Africa has been detected in the UK, Matt Hancock has said.Surveillance by Public Health England on Tuesday identified two people who contracted the virus after being in contact with separate travellers from South Africa. One case is in London, the othe...
Tags: Health, UK, Science, London, Africa, Society, UK News, World news, Medical Research, South Africa, Infectious Diseases, Public Health England, Matt Hancock, Coronavirus

No rules, no problem: DeepMind’s MuZero masters games while learning how to play them

DeepMind has made it a mission to show that not only can an AI truly become proficient at a game, it can do so without even being told the rules. Its newest AI agent, called MuZero, accomplishes this not just with visually simple games with complex strategies, like Go, Chess, and Shogi, but with visually complex Atari games. The success of DeepMind’s earlier AIs was at least partly due to a very efficient navigation of the immense decision trees that represent the possible actions in a gam...
Tags: Gaming, Science, Tech, Bbc, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Atari, Deepmind, AlphaGo, Shogi, Alphazero, Muzero, AlphaZero MuZero

South African Covid-19 variant may be 'more effective at spreading'

Research still to confirm threat posed but variant does not appear to provoke more serious symptomsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe South African variant of Covid-19, two cases of which have now been detected in the UK, is likely to be more transmissible, may hit young people harder, and may be more resistant to vaccines, scientists in South Africa believe.However, research is still continuing to confirm the threat posed by the variant, which does not appear to pro...
Tags: UK, Science, Africa, UK News, World news, Medical Research, South Africa, Infectious Diseases, Microbiology, Coronavirus