Science

Last year, EchoStar agreed to offload 65Mhz of its spectrum to SpaceX for its direct-to-cell service, while AT&T snapped up 50Mhz of its spectrum to build out its 5G network. Now it’s official, with the FCC noting that SpaceX will be able to use its spectrum for “terrestrial, space-based, and hybrid network architectures.”

The Wall Street Journal has the story.

Calbee, the Japanese snack company, is temporarily switching its packaging on some items to grayscale, citing “supply instability affecting certain raw materials amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East.” CNN reports that it wasn’t clear what component was at risk — but it’s just the latest industry to feel the pinch as a result of the US and Israel attacking Iran in February.

The Trump Administration has made another website, this time a dedicated Pentagon page with “new, never-before-seen files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE).

Following its acquisition by Elon’s other company, xAI is now being referred to as SpaceXAI. Presumably this is only the start of the brand synergy to come.

In Wednesday’s annoucement of its compute partnership with Anthropic, the company formerly known as xAI referred to itself as “SpaceXAI.” It was the first time I had seen that name, and while I don’t think it’s a good one, it made some sense following SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI.

That’s according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Similar numbers of both Republicans and Democrats also cite data centers, which are quickly becoming a bipartisan issue, as a major reason for higher costs.

The $140 million funding round, led by Thiel, values Panthalassa at nearly $1 billion, according to the Financial Times. Data centers in space, data centers in the ocean… where won’t they try to put data centers?

App analytics firm Kochava and its subsidiary, Collective Data Solutions, will be prohibited from “selling, licensing, transferring, sharing or disclosing” sensitive location data without express consent from consumers. The ban settles the FTC’s lawsuit alleging that Kochava sold sensitive geolocation details that could track people seeking or performing abortions.

Instead, President Trump said he’s nominating Dr. Nicole Saphier for surgeon general. While Saphier doesn’t appear to be running the wellness grifter playbook and does, in fact, have a current medical license, she’s also a Fox News commentator with a MAHA-derate stance on vaccines. When will my suffering end?

That’s the finding of a new study from researchers at the University of Oxford, published in Nature today. The researchers found AI chatbots trained to be warmer were significantly more likely to make factual errors and agree with false beliefs than the originals. Cold models didn’t experience the same drop in accuracy.

That’s the title of a paper that 404 Media reports was recently published by Alexander Lerchner, a Senior Staff Scientist at Google DeepMind. Regardless of grand pronouncements from folks, including DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, about AGI’s potential, the paper states that “phenomenal consciousness” is a physical state, and “not a software artifact that can be accidentally or deliberately created.”

To encourage breaks that focus on carbs instead of doomscrolling and texting, KitKat in Panama created a limited edition Faraday cage wrapper for your phone that blocks cell signals. The wrapper is made from layers of copper, polyester, and polypropylene and is expected to work for about a year at which point you can recycle it.

Meta announced a new deal this morning with Overview Energy, a space-based solar company with plans to demo beaming “energy wirelessly from space to a solar farm on Earth” in 2028, ahead of commercial delivery in 2030.

Gwyneth Paltrow doesn’t seem to know what a peptide is, which might not entirely surprise you.

Launch, Ascent, and Vehicle Aerodynamics (LAVA) is the tool NASA uses to model reentry, aerodynamics, and fluid dynamics for Mars landers and the SLS (Space Launch System) that launched Artemis II. And now it’s available for researchers and commercial aerospace companies, even those without a supercomputer:

That’s listed among SpaceX’s “substantial capital expenditures” in the S-1 registration filed ahead of its IPO, reports Reuters.

RFK Jr. has declared that AI could make the FDA “irrelevant,” with entirely predictable effects on The Verge’s long-suffering health and wearable expert Victoria Song.

Kennedy’s remarks come from congressional hearings today. He claims AI, while “very dangerous” has the opportunity to “develop new drugs and personalized medicine for every citizen.” Please, a moment of silence for my sanity.

After Jeff Bezos lost one of AST’s giant space-based cell towers last weekend, the FCC has stepped up with some good news by approving its commercial license. AST can now operate a constellation of up to 248 satellites in low Earth orbit in order to deliver space-based cellular broadband to everyday smartphones. It was supposed to go live sometime later this year before the Blue Origin debacle.

Astronauts aboard the ISS are getting new custom HP laptops, an upgrade to an orbital compute setup that already includes HP workstations and printers. But is the company getting a little ahead of itself?

A rock NASA’s Curiosity rover drilled in 2020 contained “the most diverse collection of organic molecules ever found on the Red Planet,” including seven never previously detected on Mars. The finding published today in Nature was made using its onboard Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory.

Astronauts having very human reactions to witnessing Earthset. “Gone! It’s gone. Oh my god.”