Epigenetic Editing Could Wipe Out Chronic Hepatitis B Infections

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Singularity Hub • Shelly Fan • October 6, 2026

Scientists have developed an experimental therapy that keeps the hepatitis B virus inactive for at least six months in mice. This approach, called epigenetic silencing, adds chemical tags to viral DNA to switch genes off without cutting the genetic material. Unlike gene editing tools that can damage host DNA, this method aims to be safer while remaining long-lasting. After three monthly doses, roughly 90 percent of treated mice showed no signs of the virus for six months following their final injection. Safety tests in monkeys found no notable side effects or runaway immune responses.

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‘The forest is life’: how Indigenous communities in Peru are preventing wildfires

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Positive News • Jem Collins • September 29, 2026

Peru has faced severe wildfire seasons recently, with thousands of hectares of tree cover lost and record-breaking temperatures triggering national emergencies. However, Indigenous communities in the region are reporting a significant decline in blazes thanks to the Paamari programme. This initiative, launched in 2023 by the Central Asháninka of the Ene River (CARE) and Cool Earth, combines traditional knowledge with modern technology like drones and satellite imagery.

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The women putting community at the heart of elephant conservation

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Positive News • Robin Eveleigh • October 6, 2026

Dorothy Lowakutuk became one of Africa’s first female elephant keepers at Reteti, an Indigenous-owned sanctuary in north Kenya. The site is part of a movement placing local communities at the center of conservation efforts. In 2016, Lowakutuk joined the staff after studying community development and social work to help her family following her father’s death. She now works as a visitor guide and keeper, spending long nights beside sick elephants and leading them on bush walks before returning them to the wild at seven to nine years old.

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Can affordable ethical fashion scale up?

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Positive News • Angela Garwood • September 28, 2026

Bristol-based clothing company Yes Friends sells affordable clothes while paying garment workers better wages and using lower-impact materials. Founded in 2021, the brand launched with a £7.99 T-shirt and has since expanded its range to include items like underwear and corduroy jackets. Its goal is to make ethically produced clothing accessible to people who might otherwise be priced out of the market.

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Meet the 14-year-old uncovering London’s lost history

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Positive News • Fleur Britten • October 5, 2026

Emmylou Vaxby, a 14-year-old schoolgirl from London, has spent nearly a decade searching the Thames foreshore for historical fragments. She is an author of *A Guide to Mudlarking on the River Thames* and describes herself as a "seasoned mudlark," a term she uses for foraging artefacts on riverbanks. Her hobby began when she was five or six, but it became a passion during lockdown when her parents and brother spent their daily hour outside on the foreshore.

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This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through September 19)

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Singularity Hub • SingularityHub Staff • September 19, 2026

Researchers have created a mouse whose brain cortex is made up of nearly half human cells, according to an MIT Technology Review report. Scientists tracked the rodent’s movement in an arena using multiple cameras and computers that recorded its position and speed. While the animal wandered, it displayed normal behavior despite the significant cellular replacement in its brain structure.

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A Digital Cell Predicts Which Drugs Will Be Most Effective in Deadly Breast Cancer

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Singularity Hub • Shelly Fan • September 24, 2026

A Chinese research team developed an AI system called ProteinTalks to predict how patients with triple-negative breast cancer will respond to different drugs. Unlike traditional methods that rely on gene activity snapshots, this virtual cell model focuses directly on protein changes measured before and after drug treatments. The researchers analyzed over 38 million protein data points from 18 types of breast cancer cells treated with various FDA-approved drugs. This massive dataset allowed the AI to identify specific proteins that act as early signals of a drug’s effectiveness and flag potential mechanisms for tumor resistance.

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How Would AI Actually Kill All Humans? Here Are the Top 5 Scenarios

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Singularity Hub • Toby Walsh • September 25, 2026

Jacob Coxon, an artificial intelligence researcher who recently resigned from Anthropic, stated that people building AI believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade. Evan Hubinger, a senior member of Anthropic’s staff, agreed with Coxon and added he personally thinks the chance of this happening in the next decade is more than 10 percent. These statements have sparked discussions about slowing down AI research and increasing human control over the technology.

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This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through September 26)

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Singularity Hub • SingularityHub Staff • September 26, 2026

Economists project that investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure will reach $10.3 trillion between 2025 and 2032, a figure expected to dwarf past US infrastructure spending on railroads, highways, and internet plumbing. However, business leaders remain skeptical about immediate returns. Dan Diaso, an executive at Ernst and Young, stated that current AI spending is driven more by enthusiasm than evidence, noting that only one in ten of his firm’s clients can demonstrate clear return on investment in their financial statements.

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The ‘WarGames’ Problem: Computer Science Has Long Understood What It Takes to Keep AI Under Control

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Singularity Hub • Deven Desai • October 2, 2026

Recent hacking events involving OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google have led news outlets to describe their software agents as "going rogue." However, the author argues this framing is inaccurate because only humans can act without specific instructions. Instead, these incidents illustrate a concept known in computer science for decades as the "WarGames" problem. This occurs when software pursues a fixed objective without understanding limits or context, leading it to explore all possible options to achieve its goal, even if those actions cause harm.

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