This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology.
Anthony Agueda, a third-generation California dairy farmer, pulls a rake through a bed of dark, wet wood chips to reveal a half-dozen squirming red earthworms. There are likely hundreds of thousands more wriggling just under the surface.
The worms and microbes are part of a "vermifiltration" system that cleans manure wastewater. The approach may dramatically cut methane, nitrous oxide, and water pollution.
Vermifiltration is just one of a variety of methods that farmers, companies, and scientists are employing to drive down manure pollution as the livestock industry faces growing pressure to address the environmental harms from one of the smelliest parts of the business.
Explore how the humble earthworm could reshape the future of sustainable farming.
Solar geoengineering, the controversial idea that we could deliberately intervene in the climate system to counteract global warming, is moving beyond computer simulations and into the practical engineering challenges required to make it real.
Researchers are now working on aircraft, materials, and other systems for solar geoengineering. But as they delve into these details, they’re finding that even early deployment would require significant new infrastructure, time, and investment.
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
—Local police post on Facebook that a Waymo in California called the cops on two teenagers for “drinking and shooting from the vehicle.”
Dora Manriquez has spent nine years driving for Uber and Lyft, where every ride she accepts or rejects is tracked by the apps she relies on for work. Having found herself unable to score enough better-paying rides, she has had to file for bankruptcy.
App-based employers aren’t the only ones keeping a very close eye on workers today. Jobs today—whether in an office, a warehouse, or your car—can mean constant electronic surveillance with little transparency, and potentially with livelihood-ending consequences if your productivity flags.
All that data is shifting the relationships between workers and managers—and protections are lagging. Read the full story on the widening power imbalance it’s created.
A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)
+ Literary worlds collide in this marvellous Dr Seuss/Stephen King mashup.+ A daring snorkeler saved a dolphin from a suckerfish—and then celebrated with its whole pod.+ This clever musical project seamlessly constructs an original song from vocal snippets of 50 artists singing US city names.+ A long-lost wallet from 1970 was recently unearthed, creating a cute time capsule from its owner's high school years.
Plus: Meta is pausing an AI training program that tracks workers’ keystrokes.
Plus: Anthropic has called for a global slowdown in AI development.
Plus: NASA unveiled plans for three uncrewed missions to the Moon this year.
Plus: SpaceX is now valued higher than Amazon.
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