Huge knowledge facilities are creeping into cities

You might by no means have heard of Hikvision, however likelihood is you’ve already been captured by considered one of its hundreds of thousands of cameras. The Chinese language firm’s merchandise may be discovered anyplace from police surveillance methods to child screens in additional than 190 nations. Its potential to make decent-quality merchandise at low cost costs (in addition to its ties with the Chinese language state) has helped make Hikvision the most important producer of video surveillance gear on this planet.

However whereas Hikvision’s shut hyperlinks with the Chinese language authorities have helped it develop, these hyperlinks might now be its undoing. The agency has helped construct China’s large police surveillance system and tailor-made it to oppress the Muslim minority teams in Xinjiang. In consequence, the US authorities has imposed a number of sanctions on it within the final three years. This yr, the US Treasury is reportedly contemplating including Hikvision to the Specifically Designated Nationals and Blocked Individuals (SDN) Record, often reserved for nations like North Korea or Iran.

Right here’s all the things it is best to learn about Hikvision: a agency that used to fly underneath the radar however now faces changing into probably the most sanctioned tech firm on this planet. Read the full story.

—Zeyi Yang

Scientists hacked a locust’s mind to smell out most cancers 

They’ve completed what? Some animals, together with canine, have been taught to identify indicators that people are sick. They’re thought to have the ability to sense the chemical substances that folks emit via physique odor or breath. The combination of chemical substances can range relying on an individual’s metabolism, which is believed to alter once we get sick. However canine are costly to coach and take care of and making a tool that mimics a canine’s nostril remains to be too tough. So scientists determined to “hijack” an insect’s mind as an alternative.

How did they do it? They uncovered the mind of a residing locust and inserted electrodes into the lobes that obtain alerts from the bugs’ antennae, which they use to sense odors. The locusts’ brains reacted distinctly to odors emitted from human cells each with and with out most cancers in a lab—the primary time a residing insect mind has been examined as a software to detect the illness. 

What subsequent? The crew behind the work hopes it might in the future result in an insect-based breath check that could possibly be utilized in most cancers screening, or encourage a man-made model that works in a lot the identical method. Though that’s a great distance off. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

Vitality-hungry knowledge facilities are quietly shifting into cities