Science

About as much water as a single-use bottle holds, the The Washington Post reports. The electricity it takes is about as much as 14 LED light bulbs might burn through in an hour.

These are rough estimates, but they come with helpful illustrations to show the environmental costs of operating data centers for new AI tools.

The Federal Aviation Administration can’t “keep pace with the commercial spaceflight industry” and “lacks the resources” to respond to mission changes, SpaceX said in a letter sent in response to $633,000 in federal fines for launching two missions with unapproved changes. SpaceX owner Elon Musk has promised to sue the agency, but it seems as if we’re still in the “strongly worded letter” phase of this particular feud.

I highly encourage everyone to read this breakdown from our former colleague Nicole Wetsman. It neatly summarizes the difference between wellness features like blood oxygen, versus detection features like EKG and sleep apnea.

As I wrote in my review, I understand FOMO in not having the feature. But you’re only supposed to use it to monitor your baseline — not much else.

More than 2,000 people’s unclaimed bodies in Dallas and Tarrant counties were given to the University of North Texas Health Science Center’s Willed Body Program. Some of the bodies were used to teach medical students; others were sold to for-profit companies.

At 3:38AM ET, SpaceX confirmed the successful conclusion of its historic Polaris Dawn mission, which took four people, including Billionaire Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, farther into space than any astronaut has been in decades.

During the flight, Isaacman and Gillis became the first private astronauts to conduct a spacewalk. Gillis also recorded herself playing violin while in space, as Engadget notes.

Pulse oximetry features were recently removed from new Apple Watches due to Masimo's patent infringement claim. Now the medical device maker has announced deals with Qualcomm and Google for Wear OS reference platforms.

They say that OEMs who use them will design the wearables exteriors and software, but with internal hardware, software, and sensors designed/tested by Masimo.

An Oregon gas company said it could clean up its act by turning to “renewable natural gas” made from organic waste. Years later, it’s selling customers just as much fossil fuel gas as it did before, according to a ProPublica investigation.

Fossil fuel giants have used AI for years to increase production. Now, Microsoft sees the generative AI boom as an opportunity to boost profits for itself and oil and gas companies it wants to strike deals with, Karen Hao reports for The Atlantic. Microsoft’s own greenhouse gas emissions are growing with its focus on AI, taking the company further away from its climate goals.

After a historic spacewalk, the Polaris Dawn crew sent a message to Earth using Starlink’s laser communication technology. SpaceX has already started selling its “Plug and Plaser” tech to other companies to help improve communication from space.

Or is it a sound stage? Interesting.

When Dragon’s hatch opens for astronauts Sarah Gillis and Jared Isaacman, all four Polaris Dawn crewmembers will be exposed to the vacuum of space, according to SpaceX.

Gillis and Isaacman will then exit the spacecraft for about 12 minutes to perform the spacewalk and conduct suit mobility tests.

It popped up quickly with little transparency around its potential impact on the power grid, air quality, or water resources, local advocates say. The Elon Musk-led company is reportedly running gas generators without a proper permit. Local utility officials reportedly signed NDAs.

“We have been deemed by xAI not even valuable enough to have a conversation with,” says KeShaun Pearson, who grew up a few miles from the facility and is president of the local nonprofit Memphis Community Against Pollution. “To not even be included in conversations about what is transpiring in our own backyards.”

Specifically, it’s acquired Veri — a startup that lets you track your meals and glucose levels using continuous glucose monitors (CGMs). It’s unclear how exactly Veri will be incorporated into the Oura platform, but this is the latest in health tech companies trying to make metabolic health the next frontier. Dexcom and Abbott, for example, both launched over-the-counter CGMs in the past month.

Meanwhile, Trump claims that under a Harris presidency, “Oil will be dead. Fossil fuel will be dead. We’ll go back to windmills and we’ll go back to solar.”

I will not ban fracking. I have not banned fracking as Vice President of the United States and in fact I was the tie breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act which opened new leases on fracking.

Climate advocates previously hoped Harris would take a tougher stance against fracking. This statement in tonight’s debate repeats a promise she made in her CNN interview last month.

At 5:23AM ET, a SpaceX Falcon 9 successfully launched the four-person all-civilian crew into space on the multi-day mission. Among other things, they’ll be conducting the first-ever space walk by commercial astronauts wearing SpaceX-developed suits, and testing Starlink’s laser-based communications.

Apple’s busy updating the AirPods lineup, but MacRumors reports that when the Powerbeats Pro 2 revision ships next year, workout warriors can expect the heart rate tracking feature that has popped up on other buds like Sennheiser’s Momentum Sport.

Information from a software update also points to ANC, spatial audio, adaptive audio, and four colors with matching cases: orange, purple, black, and beige.