Sunday Special: A forest in Antartica and Zuck drops a rap song

Scientists find evidence of trees in the Antarctic and the Japanese are pulling up trees and sending them to space. Also: a father-daughter duo won the race to decode an extraterrestrial signal. It’s been another big week in science.

SCIENCE SUNDAY

The most interesting scientific discoveries and breakthroughs this week

Frozen Forest: Turns out Antarctica wasn’t always a frosty wasteland. Scientists recently discovered amber at the South Pole, a strong indicator that the icy continent housed a swampy rainforest some 92 million years ago.

Relative Relativity: Quantum physics may have hit a speed bump. Researchers from the University of Geneva measured gravitational distortions and concluded that gravity may, in fact, behave slightly differently from what Einstein’s Theory of Relativity predicts.

Meteoric Plot Twist: An asteroid struck Mars 11 million years ago, flinging chunks of debris towards Earth. Scientists recently discovered the debris may have interacted with liquid water some 742 million years ago.

Tree Rocket: Japan just launched the world’s first wooden satellite into space for a 6-month orbit. Named LignoSat, the satellite is an attempt to earmark wood as a space-grade material.

Dr. Robot: Robots can now learn how to operate on patients by watching surgeons do it first. Researchers from John Hopkins used imitation learning to train the da Vinci Surgical System robot to perform surgical procedures with complete autonomy.

NEW TECH

Our favorite new tech gadgets this week

1. ASIILOVI Bluetooth Beanie: Turn up the warmth, tune into the sound. A double-layer woolen beanie with in-built bluetooth stereo speakers for when you’re out in the cold this winter.

2. Ozlo Sleepbuds: Developed by former Bose engineers, these earbuds help you sleep better at night. It also has a cool feature that stops your podcast or audiobook if it detects that you’ve fallen asleep.

3. Even Realities G1 Smart Glasses: Minimalist smart glasses that can take notes, show directions, translate conversations, and more.

4. Bigscreen Beyond VR Headset: This VR headset is one of the smallest in the world, custom-built to the shape of your face. They’re designed to be light and comfortable, so you can wear them for longer.

SOCIAL SIGNALS

What’s trending in Tech on socials this week

Tomorrow’s Today: A teacher inspired students by using AI-generated images that depict their future selves based on their goals and aspirations.

Meandering Pole: This cool little post shows how the location of the magnetic North Pole has been dancing around for the last few centuries.

Fake Rescue: Reddit users are upset and surprised when they discovered that a viral post about AI saving someone's life had been entirely generated by ChatGPT.

Glow Up: A ChatGPT used tried to create a personalized skincare routine with the app — and was surprised by the results.

Flowery Fighters: Photos of Japanese fighter jets slapped with stunning, vibrant decals got Reddit users smashing the like button.

ONLY GOOD NEWS

A healthy dose of optimism to kickstart your week

Let There Be Light: Clinical trials of stem-cell transplants restore vision in 3 out of 4 trial subjects in Japan. Scientists are now planning multicenter clinical trials to build on the "encouraging results”.

Alzheimer’s Be Gone: Researchers at Texas A&M develop a noninvasive therapy - a breakthrough nasal spray to target cells with chronic neuroinflammation - which could potentially slow the progression of Alzheimer’s by several years.

Father and Daughter Crack the Code: A father-daughter duo won the race to decode a simulation of an extraterrestrial signal. The signal was developed by some of the world’s top astronomers to run a citizen response test in case we ever receive an interstellar message.

Bells-a-Ringing: The bells of Notre Dame sounded over Paris for the first time in 4 years. The 850-year old structure is finally nearing completion after sustaining significant damage from a fire in 2019.

MEME OF THE WEEK

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Zain and the Superhuman AI team