theck1 IT/AI news

Not just Neanderthals: Ghost lineage in Africa left its mark on our DNA

John Timmer • July 31, 2026 When the history of our ancestry is written, the fact that we’ve interbred with some of our closest relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans, will have a central role. And it will be tempting to write it as a very tidy story: Once we got genomes from these other groups,

How fruit flies chase invisible ribbons of smell to get to their source

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Jacek Krywko • August 1, 2026 A fruit fly hunting a piece of rotting fruit or a mate navigates by smell, following plumes of odor. Out in the wild, turbulent air swirls these plumes into a chaotic, broken landscape—dense chemical filaments laced through long stretches of clean air. A fly trying to find the source

Defcon’s new badge is a security key you can see inside

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Kim Zetter, wired.com • August 1, 2026 It’s been a longtime feature of the annual Defcon hacker conference that attendees come away not only with knowledge of new software vulnerabilities and hacking techniques but also an elaborately designed conference badge—often electronic masterpieces embedded with intricate puzzles, complex crypto challenges, hidden Easter eggs, and even the

After noise complaints, judge orders Waymo to stop overnight charging in Santa Monica

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Cyrus Farivar • August 1, 2026 A local judge has ruled that Waymo can no longer use its side-by-side charging facilities overnight in Santa Monica, California, as these may pose a “public nuisance.” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bradley S. Phillips granted this week the City of Santa Monica’s motion for a preliminary injunction in

As Reddit stock falls, CEO questions value of Google’s AI Overviews

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Samuel Axon • August 1, 2026 Like any company, Reddit reports quarterly earnings, and its CEO, Steve Huffman, addresses investors during those reports. It’s not always about just sharing numbers, though: This quarter, Huffman took the opportunity to voice concerns and criticisms about Google’s AI Overviews feature, which automatically summarizes search results on most user

Review: Yes, we’re still arguing about Nolan’s The Odyssey

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Jennifer Ouellette • August 1, 2026 Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since the first casting and design reveals, igniting afresh with each new trailer. The film has garnered plenty of well-deserved accolades (and earnings) since its release, and yet somehow the debates rage on between classicists and the

Here’s how engineers plan to save the satellite sent to save NASA’s Swift mission

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Stephen Clark • August 1, 2026 One week ago, more than 200 miles above the Earth, a refrigerator-size satellite making its way toward an attempted rescue of NASA’s $500 million Swift gamma-ray observatory suddenly spun out of control. It didn’t look good. The spacecraft, named Link, was rotating on multiple axes, rendering it unable to

How headlights got brighter, whiter, and more blinding after dark

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Matthew MacConnell • August 3, 2026 Every so often, I’ll be piloting some sensor-laden, software-defined press car down a dark stretch of highway when an oncoming driver’s high beams arrive like a targeted retinal strike, an involuntary reminder that modern automotive lighting has entered its own lumen arms race. Anyone who has driven at night

Trump wants the power to stop the public from suing polluters

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Sarah J. Morath, The Conversation • August 3, 2026 Reducing rampant pollution across the United States was so important that when Congress passed many environmental protection laws, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Safe Drinking Water Act, it didn’t want to leave enforcement only to the executive branch. Congress specifically wrote into

SpaceX is set to acquire 130,000 acres of marshland in southern Louisiana

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Eric Berger • August 3, 2026 SpaceX and the state of Louisiana are close to finalizing a deal for the launch company to acquire about 130,000 acres along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. There have been persistent rumors about such an agreement for months, but now The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans