Twitter used to be full of cat memes and had a culture of sharing. Now, I pay a company to make sure my presence on the site is extremely limited, writes Annalee Newitz

Join Pearse Keane to find out why the NHS is collaborating with AI company DeepMind and how deep learning could transform ophthalmology

Is our love affair with AI really about building a new kind of deity to meet human needs no amount of rationality can fill? Max Barry's disturbing novel Providence lays out the case, says Sally Adee

In TV series Devs, a tech company has built an extremely powerful quantum computer. The show is both beautiful and captivating, says Rowan Hooper

A robot that uses artificial intelligence to find and remove weeds could eventually be used as an alternative to chemical insecticides

TfL as in Transport for London. Greeeeeaaat.

Sony has managed to best its top-of-the-line noise cancelling earbuds with a new, improved, and best of all, cheaper model.

With the acquisition of a start-up specialising in encrypted messaging and cloud services, Zoom will finally be able to make good on its claims of offering end-to-end encryption.

Big Tech is coming for your transaction data.

But can you still write "BOOBS" on it?

This solar contact could provide a potential explanation for the asteroid's weird, two-tone surface.

X-37B? Sorry, I thought you said your name was X Æ A-12.

This week, new claims about the accuracy of the Garden of Eden story emerged online and in tabloid magazines. Professor Tom Meyer, a scripture expert known as the Bible Memory Man, argues that there are two artifacts—a 4,000-year-old seal and roughly 3,600-year-old stone—that provide evidence both for the location of the Garden of Eden and the Adam and Eve story. But do his claims add up? (Spoiler alert: No)

In a story, reported this week in the Daily Express, Meyer, who teaches at his alma mater Shasta Bible College and University, refers first to a Sumerian king list, an inscribed Middle Bronze aged stone prism currently housed at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The prism dates to between 2100 B.C. and 1650 B.C. and was discovered in 1922 by Herbert Weld-Blundell during his excavations in Kish, the ancient capital of Sumer, in Mesopotamia. It was purchased by the Ashmolean shortly thereafter.

Meyer said, “In addition to enumerating the long reigns of pre-flood rulers, this prism lists Eridu—an ancient site in southern Iraq—as the first city ever built.” This is significant, he says, because “The ancient site of the Garden of Eden… is thought by some to be located at Eridu under a cluster of tels” (Tels are artificial hills).

Read more at The Daily Beast.

For the past two months, Katie Holliday has been cooped up alone in her Brooklyn apartment thinking longingly about an unlikely erogenous zone: the lower half of a stranger’s face. 

“I remember joking to my friend before all of this started, ‘Imagine if someone’s face becomes their most coveted body part?’” Holliday, who is 31, told The Daily Beast. “‘When someone removes their mask, is it a sign of trust? Is it like letting someone see you naked?’ I was kidding back then, but now it’s reality.”

Holliday doesn’t know exactly when it will be safe to start seeing people like she did before the pandemic began, but she’ll return to a singles scene unlike any other in history. “I’m picturing walking into a bar where everyone’s wearing masks,” she said. “I’ll meet someone whose face is covered. Are they cute or not? I don’t know!” 

Read more at The Daily Beast.

On Tuesday the president took his first trip since the coronavirus grounded the country, to a Honeywell factory in battleground state Arizona. This particular Honeywell factory produces N95 masks. Pictures of the trip immediately surfaced on the internet, and they showed a president sporting his usual mango-tinted, ever-tan skin, his usual topiary-structured hair tinted a baffling yellowish, and a pair of clear safety goggles.

But what was missing? What we did not see on the president’s face was a mask. While the rest of us cover our faces as recommended by the CDC, the president does not. In fact, we have never seen a mask on the president, despite the president’s love of masking himself when it comes to his tax returns, his sexual assault allegations, and his financial dealings.   

On Wednesday, when pressed on his decision not to wear a mask at a mask factory, the president responded with the very fishy, “I had a mask on for a period of time, I had it on back, backstage. But they said you didn’t need it, so, I didn’t need it. And by the way, if you noticed, nobody else had it on that was in the group.” Okay. Whatever you say. 

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Being at home this long, or really, just in one place for this long, has led me to see how much waste I produce. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot more than I thought. But I’m not here to shame anyone, in fact, quite the opposite. I think there are plenty of small ways we can cut down our carbon footprint, from driving less (check), to not using a washing machine or dryer (also, sadly, check), but gardening is what I’ve been doing, and is something that I’d recommend everyone give a shot now that we all have a little more times on our hands.

GETTING STARTED

Composting is a natural way to recycle all of the organic materials in your house through decomposition. Compost can improve your soil’s water retention, which saves you money on your water bills, and helps keep excess garbage out of landfills, too. To get started you need two things. The first is a compost bin for your kitchen. This is great whether you want to start a compost at home or if you have a compost center you can bring them to. You want something sleek, designy, yet simple because after all, it’s really just a trash can. This is an excellent one.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

It’s not going out on much of a limb to say that the single greatest line in any rock and roll song—shall we double down and say all music ever?—is “A-wop-bom-a-loo-mop-a-lomp-bom-bom!!”

Surely that says it all.

As with any truly oracular pronouncement, it inspires consternation in the first-time listener, and the second-time listener, and the third, the fourth, and on and on. The mystery never diminishes.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

THE CORONAVIRUS lockdown is now causing serious damage to the UK's economy, Tory MP Steve Baker has warned - stressing he was now "gravely concerned" at the situation

FRENCHIC, the British paint brand with eco-friendly formulas for breathing new life into furniture, homes and garden decor, has seen sales surge 500 percent recently as lockdown sends DIYers into overdrive.

STATE PENSIONS are calculated by National Insurance contributions - but can you top up any missed years?

Rafael Nadal revealed this week he was doubtful there will be further tennis in 2020.

A space flight start-up called Astra is about to attempt to launch two small rockets into orbit over a few weeks to win $12 million from the US military

Out of 28,000 suggestions, NASA selected the name Perseverance for its Mars 2020 rover, which will search for signs of life on the Red Planet

The ExoMars mission, a joint venture between the European and Russian space agencies, will be delayed for two years. It has already been plagued by issues and the coronavirus hasn't helped

When Mars was young, parts of the planet may have been able to sustain RNA, a molecule that probably played a key role in the beginnings of life on Earth

Spending at least six months in microgravity can cause astronauts’ brain volumes to increase, causing pressure to build up in their heads and creating vision problems

Mars could have had an ancient ocean in its northern hemisphere, and a large raft of volcanic rock may have floated across it to settle into mounds we can see today

SpaceX’s first crewed launch is planned for 27 May and will be run from a mission control with desks set six feet apart to comply with social distancing protocols

We’ve found a 200-metre cliff in Mars's Hellas basin, the first evidence of a river that flowed on the planet for more than 100,000 years

Your weekly selection of awesome robot videos

Beam now belongs to a Danish robot venture factory

With mapping and semi-autonomous navigation, even you can drive a Double 3

Researchers in Brazil are developing a drone that scouts for evidence—and want to use its footage to reconstruct crime scenes

A new two-way teleoperation system sends your motions to the robot and the robot's motions to you

New York City study shows that drones could deliver life-saving medical supplies several minutes before an ambulance arrives

Creepy robots and the strange phenomenon of the uncanny valley: definition, history, examples, and how to avoid it

Experts discuss technological inequality and the “reskilling” problem at an MIT conference

She’s also learning to iron.

DJ D-Nice, Miley Cyrus, Ben Gibbard, and a lot of Diplo.

Former engineering high flyer Ausenco has become the latest mining services company to be swallowed by private equity.

This is a video of the result of Youtuber Lil'Alien [Agentalex9 Alt.] feeding Rick Astley's rickrolling classic 'Never Gonna Give You Up' into the Jukebox neural network developed by OpenAI to create more song lyrics for the song. The music video consists of AI upscaled gifs from the original video. If you're really interested in the technology utilized and just what the hell is going on, there are a bunch of links on the video's Youtube page HERE. I just managed to watch the whole video and I can attest that, uh, that was really something. "Something good?" Haha, now let's not get ahead of ourselves. Keep going for whatever this is.

Undercover E. coli act as updated invisible ink.

The Lovecraftian inspired adventure game will launch on Xbox Series X, Xbox One and PC in late 2020 and will be available on Xbox Game Pass

During Inside Xbox's special stream today, Systemic Reaction gave us our first taste of next-gen dino hunting glory

This was a week of impossible announcements. Shin Megami Tensei crosses over with Fire Emblem. Project X Zone is coming to North America. Earthbound hits...

Alice still can’t deliver a laser light show party. Manny tries to crash said party but only gets a console platform debate for his trouble....

Chris punches stuff. Anna Marie whips girls. Alice does a sick dunk. And Jonathan Rainbows your Six. Now where’s that pizza?