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. The astonishing embryo models of Jacob Hanna Instead of relying on the same old recipe biology has followed for a billion years, give or take, stem-cell scientist Jacob Hanna is coaxing the beginnings…

21 October 2025

Shantana Hazel often thought her insides might fall out during menstruation. It took 14 years of stabbing pain before she ultimately received a diagnosis of endometriosis, an inflammatory disease where tissue similar to the uterine lining implants outside the uterus and bleeds with each cycle. The results can include painful periods and damaging scar tissue.…

21 October 2025

When the Palestinian stem-cell scientist Jacob Hanna was stopped while entering the US last May, airport customs agents took him aside and held him for hours in “secondary,” a back office where you don’t have your passport and can’t use your phone. There were two young Russian women and a candy machine in the room…

21 October 2025

Chatbots today are everything machines. If it can be put into words—relationship advice, work documents, code—AI will produce it, however imperfectly. But the one thing that almost no chatbot will ever do is stop talking to you.  That might seem reasonable. Why should a tech company build a feature that reduces the time people spend…

21 October 2025

Download the pattern for Dancing Ribbons here. Yoder recommends printing the pattern on paper in between normal printer paper and cardstock in weight, making sure it folds in straight lines (not too thick), folds back and forth easily on the same line (not too thin), and is crisp enough to make a satisfying snapping noise…

20 October 2025

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. This retina implant lets people with vision loss do a crossword puzzle The news: Science Corporation—a competitor to Neuralink founded by the former president of Elon Musk’s brain-interface venture—has leapfrogged its rival after…

20 October 2025

Science Corporation—a competitor to Neuralink founded by the former president of Elon Musk’s brain-interface venture—has leapfrogged its rival after acquiring, at a fire-sale price, a vision implant that’s in advanced testing,. The implant produces a form of “artificial vision” that lets some patients read text and do crosswords, according to a report published in the…

20 October 2025

Flowers play a key role in most landscapes, from urban to rural areas. There might be dandelions poking through the cracks in the pavement, wildflowers on the highway median, or poppies covering a hillside. We might notice the time of year they bloom and connect that to our changing climate. Perhaps we are familiar with…

20 October 2025

For all the modern marvels of cardiology, we struggle to predict who will have a heart attack. Many people never get screened at all. Now, startups like Bunkerhill Health, Nanox.AI, and HeartLung Technologies are applying AI algorithms to screen millions of CT scans for early signs of heart disease. This technology could be a breakthrough…

20 October 2025

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. From slop to Sotheby’s? AI art enters a new phase In this era of AI slop, the idea that generative AI tools like Midjourney and Runway could be used to make art can…

17 October 2025