When I was 15 I was starting to get into girls, and dreamed of driving when I got in those 8 months. I have a story that will make you wonder about your own teenage years. Click on your local Internet an listen to me, Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s hot and fresh tech news: a Ukrainian teen becomes a war hero, Big Tech brings big economics to the US, and scientists create their first replicant. You can listen to me and Mark Starling point and laugh at all things tech every Thursday at 643 am ET live on the radio or the iHeartRadio app.
CAMBRIDGE SCIENTISTS GROW BRAIN AND BEATING HEART
More akin to replicants than hosts, University of Cambridge scientists have grown a brain and a beating heartbeat without using eggs or sperm. The scientists used mouse stem cells for the experiment. Stem cells are nature’s master cells, and are capable of becoming any other cell. The scientistists, led by Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, figured out how to make the stem cells talk to each other to grow a brain, and got them to grow a heart in an embryo featuring a mouse yolk sac. I’m fascinated and alarmed at the same time. As a scientist, I’m always curious about how things work, as futurist I’m an optimist and always looking into the future. But, I believe there are some things that should remain mysteries.
BIG TECH BRINGS BIG JOBS STATESIDE
I normally don’t get into economic news, but there’s some really positive news coming to our shores. Honda, LG, and the auto companies have announced plans to build new battery factories in Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Indiana. The news is huge because it demonstrates the automakers are making a big bet on electric vehicles. Micron, Qualcomm, and Intel announced plans to invest over $140 billion in chip manufacturing plants in Ohio, New York, an of course Silicon Valley. Corning, that Corning, is building a new factory in Arizona to manufacture fiber optic cable. The news is actually big news as the CHIP Act is starting to kick in to bring microprocessor manufacturing back to the US. There hasn’t ben this much unified technology investment since the big fiber rollout in the early 2000s.
KID USES DRONE IN FIGHT AGAINST RUSSIANS
Last week, Andrii Pokrasa, aka ‘Drone Boy’, became a Ukrainian hero. Pokrasa and his father sent the Ukrainian military coordinates of Russian forces during the first days of the war. Pokrasa posted a notice of him having a drone and knowing how to use it in their village group. A man from the Ukrainian civil defense force responded, and put him to work monitoring Russian forces in Makariv, a suburb of Kyiv. He spotted tanks, troop carriers, and armored vehicles. Marked the drone’s location on a map and sent the coordinates to his contact in Ukrainian security. The Ukrainians wiped out the armored column based on his information. I know what I was doing when I was 15. This wasn’t it.
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Have a great, safe, and Happy Labor Day weekend!