As inference scales, the data footprint grows with it Traditionally, AI infrastructure conversations have centered on the compute-intensive process of training a model. Training is finite: a run starts, burns through compute,... Read more »

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Elon Musk reportedly ordered the recent Starlink slowdown in UkraineThe restrictions hampered drone strikes and air defences. (WSJ... Read more »

Cheap and proven traffic-calming opportunities abound—from using planters to tighten intersections to lowering speed limits—but government logjams and red tape can be speed bumps. “There’s so many moving parts,” says Laura Sandt... Read more »

The PFAS monster is also a moving target. New compounds are still being created and used. There are more than 12,000 of them, and much of the cleanup research focuses on only... Read more »

Then there’s the problem of manufacturing at scale. Mass production requires large quantities of defect-free sheets of ceramic-like material to make the electrolytes as well as dry rooms for assembly, since those... Read more »

Still, developing space propulsion using reactors has been slow going. The US has started—and terminated—several programs looking into it over the past 75 years. The latest casualty was DRACO, a collaboration between... Read more »

There are regulatory hurdles too. The FDA approves medications to treat diseases, not to enhance wellness, says Thomas Burris, a pharmacologist at the University of Florida whose work focuses on diseases that... Read more »

There are other hurdles. Many animals communicate not just through sound but through visual cues, touch, pheromones, or a combination of signals, some of which might be difficult for us to perceive.... Read more »

My brain, throughout my 20-plus-year career as a science and tech journalist, has played host to a near ­constant tug-of-war between ambition and reality. Learning to find that balance is a big... Read more »