The Obtain: Sensory cities and carbon trapping-crops

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That is immediately’s version of The Download, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what’s happening on the planet of know-how.

Why sounds and smells are as very important to cities because the sights

When David Howes thinks of his residence metropolis of Montreal, he thinks of the harmonious tones of carillon bells and the scent of bagels being cooked over wooden fires. However when he stopped in at his native tourism workplace to ask the place they suggest that guests go to scent, style, and take heed to town, he simply obtained clean stares.

“They solely learn about issues to see, not concerning the metropolis’s different sensory sights, its soundmarks and smellmarks,” says Howes, director of Concordia College’s Middle for Sensory Research, a hub for the rising area sometimes called “sensory urbanism.”

All over the world, researchers like Howes are investigating how nonvisual info defines the character of a metropolis and impacts its livability. Utilizing strategies starting from low-tech sound walks and scent maps to information scraping, wearables, and digital actuality, they’re combating what they see as a limiting visible bias in city planning. Read the full story.

—Jennifer Hattam

These scientists need to seize extra carbon with CRISPR crops

The information: Crops are the unique carbon seize factories—and a brand new analysis program goals to make them simpler through the use of gene enhancing. The Revolutionary Genomics Institute, a analysis group based by CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna, has introduced a brand new program to make use of the revolutionary gene-editing device on agricultural crops to spice up their aptitude for carbon storage. 

The way it’d work: One of many major objectives can be to tweak photosynthesis so crops can develop extra shortly. By altering the enzymes concerned, researchers might minimize out energy-sapping aspect reactions, together with some that launch carbon dioxide. The researchers additionally hope they will discover methods to retailer extra carbon within the soil, for instance by encouraging bigger, deeper root techniques. 

Greater image: It’ll be a major problem to make these methods work, however the analysis is a part of a rising effort by scientists to seek out methods to hoover up the carbon dioxide already within the ambiance as a way to sluggish local weather change. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to seek out you immediately’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.

1 The crypto market is in freefall 
With colossal quantities of cash at stake, crypto’s volatility now seems to be much less thrilling and extra worrying. (New York Mag)
+ The worth of Bitcoin has plunged to its lowest in 18 months. (Bloomberg $)
+ Even probably the most bullish traders are freaking out. (Motherboard)
+ Crypto corporations are making main layoffs, too. (The Verge)
+ El Salvador has misplaced round half its Bitcoin funding. (Mashable)
+ It’s okay to choose out of the crypto revolution. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Large Tech has agreed to reveal extra about disinformation
On a country-by-country foundation, one thing tech corporations have beforehand resisted. (FT $)
+ The EU is threatening to high-quality them for failing to cope with deepfakes. (Reuters)

three What finding out strokes teaches us about habit
A specific neural community within the mind might maintain the important thing to quitting smoking. (NYT $)

four The lengthy struggle to get unlawful, nonconsensual movies taken offline  
Survivors have struggled to get footage faraway from Pornhub. (New Yorker $)
+ Deepfake porn is ruining girls’s lives. (MIT Technology Review)

5 SpaceX has gained approval to launch its Starship rocket from Texas
Nevertheless it has to satisfy stringent measures to guard the setting. (WP $)
+ This new child star has a sibling. (Phys)
+ Our maps of the Milky Method have simply obtained a significant improve. (Nature)

6 India’s officers are massive followers of facial recognition
Privateness advocates disagree with police claims it’s solely getting used to surveil criminals. (Motherboard)
+ Right here’s methods to cease AI from recognizing your face in selfies. (MIT Technology Review)

7 We have to change how we warn beachgoers about lethal currents 
Static warning indicators aren’t working. Programs that warn of adjusting situations would possibly. (Hakai Magazine)
+ There’s a worldwide motion devoted to elevating consciousness of rip currents. (The Guardian)

eight Individuals are more and more afraid of being canceled
Psychiatrists marvel if it’s a brand new manifestation of OCD centered round worry of social wreck. (Slate)

9 Electrical automotive designs are getting extra artistic
Whereas some have gotten extra luxurious, others seat solely two passengers. (The Guardian)
+ This startup desires to pack extra vitality into electrical car batteries. (MIT Technology Review)

10 What’s the purpose of ingesting alcohol within the metaverse?
Drinks manufacturers are constructing digital bars—however there’s not a drop to drink. (WSJ $)

Quote of the day

“Older folks go on the web for a few issues. For the youthful era the web is ‘the issues.’”

— Payton Iheme, head of public coverage for relationship app Bumble, explains to the New York Times how completely different generations use know-how, and what which means for potential dangers.

The large story

Lunik: Contained in the CIA’s audacious plot to steal a Soviet satellite tv for pc

January 2021

In late October 1959, a Mexican spy named Eduardo Diaz Silveti slipped into the US Embassy in Mexico Metropolis. Tall and well-spoken with slicked-back hair, Silveti, 30, had discovered spycraft in Mexico’s secret police. Throughout the Chilly Warfare, the capital had turn into so overrun by Communist spies that the CIA had enlisted the assistance of the Mexican secret companies of their struggle in opposition to the Soviet Union.

Winston Scott, 49, was the primary secretary of the US Embassy. That was his cowl; he was additionally the CIA’s most revered spymaster in Latin America. Secrets and techniques had been a stock-in-trade for the silver-haired Alabaman: he had arrived in Mexico Metropolis in 1956 and turned the CIA station into one of the vital profitable counterespionage operations on the planet.

He had known as Silveti to his workplace, based on the Mexican, to supply him a top-secret mission that was “tremendously crucial for america.” In the event that they received issues incorrect, Scott warned that “World Warfare III might start.” They had been going to hatch a plot to steal a Soviet satellite tv for pc for just a few hours so American consultants might examine it. Read the full story.

—Jeff Maysh

We will nonetheless have good issues

A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre instances. (Obtained any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ This rumination on 40 years of ET is thought-provoking.
+ Find it irresistible or hate it, the texture of bouncy foods is an entire lotta enjoyable (thanks Charlotte!)
+ A superb joke for all of the feline feeders on the market.
+ A heartening story of how beekeeping is helping psychiatric patients in Greece.
+ This photo of Mars’ landscape taken by Perseverance is wonderful.

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