Good morning, everyone, and how are you today? The middle of the week has finally arrived, and you should congratulate yourselves for making it this far and deciding to soldier on. After all, consider the alternatives. None too pleasant, yes? This calls for a delicious cuppa stimulation. Our choice today is pomegranate green tea. As always, we invite you to join us. Meanwhile, here are some tidbits. Hope you have a meaningful and productive day, and please do keep in touch. We treasure your messages. …
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has extended the decision deadline for an experimental breast cancer pill from AstraZeneca in order to review additional data, Reuters notes. The delay comes after a majority of an FDA advisory panel in April votedagainst the drug in combination with another type of therapy known as CDK4/6 inhibitor, due to concerns about the design of a key late-stage trial rather than its safety or efficacy. The company said it has submitted additional analyses requested by the FDA to support its new drug application, including data linked to longer-term efficacy outcomes that will be presented at a conference on June 2. AstraZeneca’s camizestrant pill is designed for patients with a type of breast cancer in which tumors carry a specific mutation.
Brazil approved the country’s first generic version of Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic shot, opening the door to cheaper competition in one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for weight loss and diabetes drugs, Bloomberg News writes. EMS, a Brazilian pharmaceutical company, was cleared to sell its copycat drug, Ozivy, to treat adults with type 2 diabetes as an adjunct to diet and exercise. EMS plans to sell Ozivy for 30% less than Ozempic, and expects it to hit the market within 30 days. The approval marks a milestone for Brazil’s pharmaceutical industry as local drugmakers seek to enter the booming market for GLP-1 medicines, the class of drugs that includes Ozempic. The company plans to make 350,000 pens available initially and expects to sell about 1.2 million units in the first year.
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Sometimes I feel like a Negative Nathan here, but the degree to which college kids hate AI (even if they feel forced to use it) restores my belief that I am not wrong. There’s something special about being human, and we don’t have to surrender that just because powerful people (who didn’t have to deal with this as they tried to enter the workforce, or maintain a career) command us to.
Neurological and psychiatric disorders are a highly prevalent source of global disability. For the majority of these conditions, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), disease-modifying treatments remain unavailable, and existing pharmacological interventions are largely palliative.
Astrocytes modulate complex brain functions. These ubiquitous glial cells constitute a multilayered system of functional units that operate across multiple spatial scales, thereby increasing the degrees of freedom in brain information processing.
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
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MIT Technology Review Narrated: what’s next for IVF
IVF has brought millions of babies into the world over the last four decades. But the process can still be slow, painful, and expensive—and far from guaranteed to work. Now, a wave of new technologies aims to change that.
Researchers are using AI to identify promising sperm and embryos, developing robotic systems that could automate parts of the IVF process, and even exploring controversial genetic editing techniques designed to prevent inherited disease.
The technologies could make IVF more effective and accessible. But they’re also raising difficult ethical questions about how far reproductive medicine should go.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This is our latest story to be turned into an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 NASA unveiled plans for three uncrewed missions to the Moon this year They’re part of preparations for a crewed landing in 2028. (The Verge) + And steps to build the first lunar base at the Moon’s south pole. (NBC News) + Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin will lead the first uncrewed mission. (WP $) + NASA is building the first nuclear reactor-powered spacecraft. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Samsung’s largest unions have approved a landmark bonus scheme The deal averts a massive strike at the world’s largest memory-chip maker. (WSJ $) + Chip workers will get an average bonus of about $340,000. (Bloomberg $) + The dispute centered on who profits from the AI boom. (BI) + Resistance to AI is growing. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Elon Musk accused the Pentagon of misusing Starlink for drones He says military use of the system violates SpaceX rules. (Ars Technica) + The DoD is disputing a Starlink price hike during the Iran war. (Reuters $) + Stratospheric internet could take off this year. (MIT Technology Review)
4 China has overhauled the world’s biggest surveillance network with AI Beijing is pushing law enforcement towards predictive policing. (FT $) + Police use of smart glasses is also booming in China. (Gizmodo) + LLMs could supercharge mass surveillance. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Space Force is awarding SpaceX $2 billion for a military data network It will connect military sensors and weapons platforms worldwide. (Reuters $) + The contract comes amid concerns about SpaceX’s AI business. (WSJ $) + Speculation is growing around a possible SpaceX-Tesla merger. (CNBC)
6 Taiwan suspects Nvidia chips were smuggled to China via Japan To circumvent US restrictions. (Bloomberg $) + Is China about to win the AI race? (MIT Technology Review)
7 Booming AI chip demand has created two new $1 trillion companies South Korea’s SK Hynix and the US’ Micron have hit the landmark. (BBC)
8 AI has sparked a surge in demand for cybersecurity experts Thanks to a glut of new code and alarm over powerful models. (NYT $) + AI is making online swindles easier. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Internet is coming back in Iran after a three-month blackout Although it isn’t clear if the reconnection is permanent. (Wired $)
10 Physicists are rethinking the role of gravity in quantum mechanics There’s a new theory for how our everyday world emerges. (New Scientist $)
Quote of the day
“AI and its capabilities represent something analogous to the Second Coming.”
—Jeremy Nixon, the cofounder of AGI House and a former Google Brain researcher, tells the New York Times how Silicon Valley’s innovations could affect the pope.
One More Thing
ANDREW MERRITT
Inside the experimental world of animal infrastructure
In the mid-2000s, toads were meeting a gruesome end near Ede, a leafy old town in the Netherlands. Residents responded by building wildlife tunnels beneath the road to help them reach their breeding ponds safely.
The crossings became popular. But a few years later, researchers found the local toad population had crashed from more than 10,000 to fewer than 1,000.
The case reflects a wider global push to build wildlife crossings and other forms of “animal infrastructure.” But do they actually help animal populations recover? Read the full story to find out.
—Matthew Ponsford
We can still have nice things
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Good morning. You know that one Emily Dickinson poem? “Because I could not stop for Death – / He kindly stopped for me – / The Carriage held but just Ourselves – / And Immortality.” I’d love to hear a longevity enthusiast’s close reading. In the meantime, scroll down for a great story from Sarah Todd on the movement’s latest death-defying initiatives.
