The Download: ancient DNA, and offshore wind

This is currently&#8217s edition of The Down load, our weekday e-newsletter that provides a each day dose of what&#8217s going on in the entire world of engineering.

DNA that was frozen for two million many years has been sequenced

What is took place: Right after an 8-yr exertion to recover DNA from Greenland’s frozen interior, researchers say they’ve managed to sequence gene fragments from ancient fish, vegetation, and even a mastodon that lived 2 million decades in the past. It is the oldest DNA ever recovered.

How they did it: The scientists examined genetic product that was still left at the rear of by dozens of species and washed into sediment layers extended ago. The DNA was preserved by freezing temperatures and sure to clay and quartz, which also slows down the course of action of degradation.

Why it issues: The genetic results, which paint a photograph of an era when Greenland was protected with flowering vegetation and cedar trees, could deliver clues to how ecosystems adapted to warmer climates in the past. Read the entire tale.

—Antonio Regalado

The wild new technological know-how coming to offshore wind electrical power

Wind electricity is one particular of the world’s speediest-expanding renewable power sources, and shortly its get to might broaden even further more. This week, California is auctioning web pages off its coastline that could property the to start with floating wind turbines in the US. 

There are by now a couple of demonstration jobs about the planet for floating offshore wind turbines, but the engineering is moving into a new period, with far more governments environment aims for installations and much larger jobs coming into the preparing and permitting stages. California could be a main testing floor for the know-how. But what it would take to essentially come about, and what will California’s auction indicate for wind electricity globally? Examine the comprehensive tale.

—Casey Crownhart

Casey’s tale is from The Spark, her weekly e-newsletter covering vitality and climate modify. Signal up to receive it in your inbox.

The ought to-reads

I have combed the net to uncover you today’s most enjoyment/important/frightening/intriguing tales about technology.

1 Sam Bankman-Fried is reportedly currently being investigated by US prosecutors 
The inquiry needs to decide regardless of whether he manipulated the industry for two cryptocurrencies. (NYT $)
+ The FTX founder has produced his fair share of enemies currently. (Vox)
+ Fb is inquiring lawmakers to go easy on crypto, be sure to. (Motherboard)
+ An underground neighborhood in Lebanon is mining crypto in neglected dams. (Rest of Entire world)

2 Apple is finally encrypting most of iCloud 
It will defend facts from both hackers and regulation enforcement. (WSJ $)
+ The firm has dropped its plans to scan iCloud Images for opportunity child abuse. (Wired $)
+ Govt agencies are unlikely to welcome Innovative Info Defense. (WP $)
 
3 Ukraine is revolutionizing sea warfare with naval drones
The uncrewed boats are focusing on enemy ships. (Economist $)
+ Russian disinformation is demonizing Ukrainian refugees. (WP $)
 
4 China has agreed to US inspections of its tech firms
In a bid to avoid currently being positioned on a trade blacklist. (FT $)
 
5 How France’s privacy darling turned cyber snooper
Eric Leandri utilised to be a staunch defender of electronic privateness. Now, he runs a cybersurveillance organization. (Politico)

6 Scammers are scamming every single other
And a shocking number of them are complaining about it on-line. (Wired $)
+ The 1,000 Chinese SpaceX engineers who by no means existed. (MIT Engineering Critique)
 
7 Performing out the internet’s carbon footprint is shockingly difficult 
We’re using a lot more electrical power, but it’s difficult to examine specific things to do. (The Conversation)
 
8 The issues with being “chronically online”
It’s typically a good deal of people today finding het up in excess of practically nothing. (Vox)
+ Even the fanciest influencers are experience the price-of-dwelling pinch. (Wired $)
 
9 The simple magic of Christmas shopping in real lifetime
On-line may possibly be more effortless, but algorithms are not likely to delight you with an surprising discover. (The Atlantic $)

10 How to prepare for a huge asteroid strike
The Asteroid Launcher simulator delivers a fascinating look at what could happen—but with any luck , won’t. (Motherboard)
+ How to keep secure from a solar flare. (Insider $)
+ Enjoy the minute NASA’s DART spacecraft crashed into an asteroid. (MIT Technologies Evaluation)

Quotation of the day

“It’s not a good appear. It’s but yet another unspoken signal of disrespect. There is no dialogue. Just like, beds showed up.”

—A disgruntled Twitter employee tells Forbes about beds mysteriously showing in the company’s offices without having any warning, presumably to enable personnel to pull crazy hrs.

The large tale

Is your mind a laptop?

It is an analogy that goes again to the dawn of the personal computer period: at any time since we found that devices could resolve challenges by manipulating symbols, we have puzzled if the mind may well work in a equivalent style.

Alan Turing, for illustration, asked what it would get for a machine to “think” back in 1950, wondering that if devices could believe like human brains, it was only all-natural to surprise if brains might perform like machines.

Currently, industry experts are divided. We requested them to notify us why they assume we should—or shouldn’t—think of the brain as remaining “like a pc.” Although everyone agrees that our organic brains generate our aware minds, they’re break up on the question of what position, if any, is performed by data processing—the very important similarity that brains and computer systems are alleged to share. Read the comprehensive tale.

—Dan Falk

We can continue to have nice factors

A position for consolation, entertaining and distraction in these strange periods. (Acquired any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet &#8217em at me.)

+ How ‘goblin method’ turned the word of the 12 months.
+ 2022 has been A Year, but at least the memes ended up great.
+ Yeardley Smith, aka the voice of Lisa Simpson, has been on a serious journey.
+ Netflix has a ton of mystery codes to shake up your suggestions. What’re you waiting around for?
+ Here’s why what we believe we know about the mind at 25 a long time old almost certainly isn’t real at all.