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The surprising barrier that keeps the US from building all the housing it needs

Vice President Kamala Harris has offered an ambitious plan to build more: “Right now, a serious housing shortage is part of what is driving up cost,” she said last month in Las Vegas.... Read more »

The Download: coping in a time of arrhythmia, and DNA data storage

—Jenna Ahart Read next: We’re making more data than ever. What can—and should—we save for future generations? And will they be able to understand it? Read our feature all about the race... Read more »

The arrhythmia of our current age

Even with my heart beating rat-a-tat-tat, I couldn’t help myself. Intrigued by the word, which I had heard before but had never really heard, I pulled out the phone that is always... Read more »

An easier-to-use technique for storing data in DNA is inspired by our cells 

The new method, published in Nature last week, is more efficient, storing 350 bits at a time by encoding strands in parallel. Rather than hand-threading each DNA strand, the team assembles strands... Read more »

Cultivating the next generation of AI innovators in a global tech hub

The world in all its complexity Today, the rewards of AI are mostly enjoyed by a few countries in what the Oxford Internet Institute dubs the “Compute North.” These countries, such as... Read more »

The Download: mysterious exosomes, and AI’s e-waste issue

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter all about the latest in AI. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to... Read more »

Palmer Luckey’s vision for the future of mixed reality

Silicon Valley players are poised to benefit. One of them is Palmer Luckey, the founder of the virtual-reality headset company Oculus, which he sold to Facebook for $2 billion. After Luckey’s highly... Read more »

Exosomes are touted as a trendy cure-all. We don’t know if they work.

We do know that exosomes are tiny particles that bud off from cells and that their contents can vary hugely, depending on the source of the cell (some popular options include human... Read more »

AI will add to the e-waste problem. Here’s what we can do about it.

E-waste is the term to describe things like air conditioners, televisions, and personal electronic devices such as cell phones and laptops when they are thrown away. These devices often contain hazardous or... Read more »

The Download: an interview with Palmer Luckey, and AI-assisted math tutors

Artificial intelligence could help. A new tool could improve the one-on-one tutoring sometimes used to supplement class instruction in these schools, by letting tutors tap into more experienced teachers’ expertise during virtual... Read more »