This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. AI means the end of internet search as weve known it We all know what it means, colloquially, to google something. You pop a few words in a search box and in return get a list of blue links to the most relevant results. Fundamentally, its just fetching information thats already out there on the internet and showing it to you, in a structured way. But all that is up for grabs. We are at a new inflection point. The biggest change to the way search engines deliver information to us since the 1990s is happening right now. No more keyword searching. Instead, you can ask questions in natural language. And instead of links, youll increasingly be met with answers written by generative AI and based on live information from across the internet, delivered the same way. Not everyone is excited for the change. Publishers are completely freaked out. And people are also worried about what these new LLM-powered results will mean for our fundamental shared reality. Read the full story. Mat Honan This story is from the latest print edition of MIT Technology Reviewits all about the exciting breakthroughs happening in the world right now. If you dont already, subscribe to receive future copies. Whats next for our privacy? Every day, we are tracked hundreds or even thousands of times across the digital world. All of this is collected, packaged together with other details, and used to create highly personalized profiles that are then shared or sold, often without our explicit knowledge or consent. A consensus is growing that Americans need better privacy protectionsand that the best way to deliver them would be for Congress to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation.So what can Americans expect for their personal data in 2025? We spoke to privacy experts and advocates about whats on their mind regarding how our digital data might be traded or protected moving forward. Read the full story.Eileen Guo This piece is part of MIT Technology Reviews Whats Next series, looking across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of them here. How optimistic are you about AIs future? The start of a new year, and maybe especially this one, feels like a good time for a gut check: How optimistic are you feeling about the future of technology? Our annual list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies, published on Friday, might help you decide. Artificial intelligence powers four of the breakthroughs featured on the list, and I expect your feelings about them will vary widely. Read the full story. James ODonnell This story is from the Algorithm, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things AI. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is ready to transform our understanding of the cosmos High atop Chiles 2,700-meter Cerro Pachn, the air is clear and dry, leaving few clouds to block the beautiful view of the stars. Its here that the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will soon use a car-size 3,200-megapixel digital camerathe largest ever builtto produce a new map of the entire night sky every three days. Findings from the observatory will help tease apart fundamental mysteries like the nature of dark matter and dark energy, two phenomena that have not been directly observed but affect how objects are bound togetherand pushed apart. A quarter-century in the making, the observatory is poised to expand our understanding of just about every corner of the universe. Read the full story. Adam Mann The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is one of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025, MIT Technology Reviews annual list of tech to watch. Check out the rest of the list, and cast your vote for the honorary 11th breakthroughyou have until 1 April! The must-reads Ive combed the internet to find you todays most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 A Louisiana man has died of bird flu Hes the first person known to have died from the virus in the US. (WP $)+ He was over 65 years old and had underlying health conditions. (NYT $)+ The risk of a bird flu pandemic is rising. (MIT Technology Review)2 Meta is shifting towards the right Appointing Trump ally Dana White to its board is the latest in a string of political moves. (NYT $)+ Mark Zuckerberg has overhauled Metas board in the last five years. (Bloomberg $)+ The company recently donated $1 million to Trumps inaugural fund. (WSJ $)3 The Pentagon is blacklisting Chinas biggest EV battery firm CATL and other companies will be barred from doing business with it. (WP $)+ The US is convinced theyre working with Chinas military. (CNN)4 Nvidia is working on a personal AI supercomputer Project Digits will go on sale in May, priced at a whopping $3,000. (TechCrunch)+ Its based on a super secret chip, apparently. (VentureBeat)+ CEO Jensen Huang has his sights set on humanoid robots, too. (FT $)5 Doctors are turning to AI for note taking during appointments It could save them hours each dayif it doesnt mess up, that is. (FT $)+ Artificial intelligence is infiltrating health care. We shouldnt let it make all the decisions. (MIT Technology Review) 6 U-Haul is a treasure trove of personal user dataAnd hackers are exploiting it to dox or hack their victims. (404 Media) 7 New York drivers are already trying to evade congestion pricingSubtly obscuring license plates can trick tracking cameras. (New York Post) + Reaction to the new charge is decidedly mixed. (NY Mag $)+ Why EVs are (mostly) set for solid growth in 2025. (MIT Technology Review)8 Frustrated workers are complaining about their bosses on LinkedInTry this at your own risk. (Insider $) 9 Men are notoriously poor at replying to text messages And their failure to communicate could be making them lonely. (The Atlantic $)10 You can now play Doom on a captch What better way to prove youre not a bot? (Vice)+ Death to captchas. (MIT Technology Review)Quote of the day We have glitches that need stitches. Tech entrepreneur Mike Johns describes his experience of becoming trapped in a malfunctioning self-driving car to the Guardian, nearly causing him to miss a flight. The big story What happens when your prescription drug becomes the center of covid misinformation September 2021 By the time Joe Rogan mentioned ivermectin as one ingredient in an experimental cocktail he was taking to treat his covid infection, the drug was a meme. In the weeks leading up to the popular podcasters revelation, the drug had already become a flashpoint in the covid culture wars. But Ivermectin isnt some new or experimental drug: in addition to its use as an anti-parasite treatment for livestock, its commonly employed in humans to treat a form of rosacea, among other things. So for those of us who have been using it for years, its sudden infamy was unexpected and unwelcome. Read the full story. Abby Ohlheiser We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet 'em at me.) + RIP the bar cart, we barely knew you.+ If youve ever wondered what happens to your unclaimed luggage, now youll finally have an answer.+ This motorbike-sized tuna is a thing of beauty. + Happy birthday to the one and only Michael Stipe, who turned 65 over the weekend.

Submitted by WA ContentsGianni Botsford Architects expands Norman Foster extension with large-span aluminium-framed glazing United Kingdom Architecture News - Jan 07, 2025 - 12:43 html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"London-based architecture practice Gianni Botsford Architects has expanded Norman Foster's 1960s extension with large-span aluminium-framed glazing in Hampstead, London, United Kingdom.Image James EagleNamed Reciprocal House, the newly completed 280-square-metre family home is located in a Hampstead mews and discretely hidden behind a Victorian pub in London.A neutral and decaying 1860s cottage was replaced by Gianni Botsford Architects, who also renovated its superb 1969 addition by Foster Associates - now known Foster + Partners.The lightweight single-story Foster Associates building, which consists of steel trusses, concrete blocks, and large-span aluminum-framed windows, is intended to be complemented by the new four-story home.The late 1960s extension has been restored to its original state, preserving the industrial character of the Norman Foster-led design while influencing the design's elemental quality. One example of this is the use of a small but incredibly powerful palette of classic materials.The Foster Associates extension reflects the practice's early work and projects like as the 1965 construction of Creek Vean House in Cornwall, where Norman Foster was a member of Team 4 along with Su Brumwell, Wendy Cheesman, and Richard Rogers. Patty Hopkins, who founded Hopkins Architects with Michael Hopkins in 1976 after working at Foster Associates, was the project architect. She went on to construct her highly regarded high-tech home and studio in Hampstead.The main floor of this family home currently has a kitchen, dining area, and living room, while the upper two floors include three bedrooms and a roof terrace. Additionally, there is a studio area on the basement level that benefits from three-meter-tall lightwells. The open-plan room designed by Foster Associates, which was initially meant primarily for entertainment and as a place to house the previous owner's grand piano, is accessible from the ground floor.The staircase, kitchen cabinets, wardrobes, bathroom fixtures, screens, and doors are among the exquisitely manufactured aluminum components that Gianni Botsford Architects used to create the interiors. All of these were produced in East London.The new house's roof profile evokes the original cottage's, and the architecture has a strong geometric quality both inside and out thanks to the clear angled elevations.The circular rooflight with a diameter of 2 meters above the spiral aluminum staircase that connects the three major floors emphasizes this even more. A strong link with the outside can be created by fully opening the rooflight for natural ventilation.The previous house's memory is preserved by the new building's facades, which are covered in perforated aluminum mesh in a gentle copper brown hue. In addition, they offer privacy and protection from sunlight. "Our response to this sensitive and overlooked context is led by the notion of local adaptation and was carried out through careful and forensic analysis of the site to determine ways of providing privacy for the occupants of the house and neighbours, long views out to the borrowed landscape of back gardens, access to sunlight and daylight, acoustic separation, and security," said Gianni Botsford, director of Gianni Botsford Architects.The site and the new house's relationship to the Foster Associates expansion were examined using a number of physical study models created by Gianni Botsford Architects, with an emphasis on a strong sense of reciprocity between the two.This resulted in a design approach where the volumes and forms of the project's new and old components were both clearly defined and of comparable architectural stature.Additionally, it prompted a formal reaction that maximized Reciprocal House's relationship with the landscape, particularly with regard to the tall, mature trees that encircle its 56-square-meter roof terrace. Utilizing the original house's demolished masonry, the landscaping repurposes existing materials and plays with the concept of embodied memory. Ultimately, passive design was used from the beginning to minimize the project's environmental impact.The home is naturally shaded from solar gain by the trees that are already there, and the windows have been oriented and sized to maximize natural ventilation and illumination. When combined with an opening rooflight above, the spiral staircase's vertical natural ventilation shaft will enable the stack effect to expel heated air during warm weather.Throughout, high thermal mass materialsparticularly exposed concretehave been utilized. The house will remain cool without the need for active cooling thanks to this and the natural ventilation plan.On the other hand, improved air tightness and thermal insulation reduce the need for space heating, which is accomplished through underfloor heating and an acoustically attenuated air source heat pump.The front lightwell now contains an EV charger in addition to being heated by an air source heat pump. Since there are no gas-burning equipment in the kitchen, the entire house is electric and doesn't need a gas supply.By using low flow fittings and a grey water recycling system that purifies shower and bathtub water for use in flushing toilets, water usage is reduced. Green roofs and rainwater recycling also reduce runoff and water use."Due to the complex form, a decision was taken to construct the new house adjoining the retained extension in concrete and to leave the concrete visually exposed throughout to reduce the use of finishes, to temper the light, and to benefit from the thermal mass," Botsford continued. "The structure of the new house is optimised to allow for the thinnest possible wall and floor build ups," Botsford added. Image Jonny WilsonImage Jonny WilsonImage Jonny WilsonSite planBasement floor planGround level floor planFirst floor planSecond floor planRoof floor planElevationElevationSectionSectionThe London-based firm originally gained recognition with its Light House in West London and Casa Kik in Costa Rica, both of which won the Lubetkin Prize.Since then, Gianni Botsford Architects has finished a number of projects over the course of almost 30 years, including an R&D high-rise building, an art collector's gallery, and a smoking pavilion. The firm previously transformed a dilapidated bungalow, built in the 1960s in the back garden on an 1840s Notting Hill villa, into a new house that is carved from the ground to get enough light from its skylight and facades.Project factsProject name:Reciprocal HouseExpansion design:Gianni Botsford ArchitectsCompletion date: 2024Mechanical and Electrical Engineer:IntegrationStructural Engineer:Tall EngineersLandscape Architect:FFLOHeritage Consultant:HCUKPlanning Consultant: Barton WilmoreContractor:New Wave,Quantity Surveyor:MeasurMetalwork:Weber IndustriesAll images Schnepp Renou unless otherwise stated.All drawings Gianni Botsford Architects.> via Gianni Botsford Architects

End of the road for the London Resort scheme after almost 14 years of developmentAerial view of the 2021 proposals for the London ResortPlans to build Europes biggest theme park on the outskirts of London have come to a definitive end after the High Court ordered the company behind the 3.5bn scheme to be wound up.The London Resort, described as the UKs version of Disneyland, was first proposed almost 14 years ago and was due to open this year at a site on the Swanscombe Peninsula between Dartford and Gravesend.The future of the 465ha park, which was forecast to attract 12 million visitors a year, has been in doubt since its developer London Resort Company Holdings went into administration in March 2023.A High Court judge has now ordered the company to close following an application by Paramount, the schemes original backer, which said it is owed 13.5m.Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Sally Barber found the company has ceased trading and appears unlikely ever to do so again.The ruling caps a rocky few years for the park which started with Paramount Pictures decision to pull out of the project in 2017.A planning application was then withdrawn in 2022 following concerns raised by Natural England, which said the schemes former industrial site provided ideal conditions for a unique variety of wildlife, including one of the UKs rarest spiders.The companys chief executive, French businessman Pierre-Yves Gerbeau and its chairman, former Conservative transport minister Steven Norris, both subsequently stepped down and were not replaced.Although plans were announced to scale back the project, it suffered another blow when its main backer, Kuwaiti businessman Abdulla al-Humaidi, declared bankruptcy in 2023.Al-Humaidi, who claimed to have put 40m into the venture, described the UKs planning system last year as broken and said it needed to be streamlined.The theme park was intended to include partnerships with Paramount, the BBC and ITV to create experiences based on films including Mission Impossible, Dr Who, Top Gear, and Paddington.It would have been a major rival to another theme park mega-project, a UK outpost of Universal Studios currently proposed for a 476 acre plot in Bedfordshire.Plans for the park, unveiled last year, have been backed by several local authorities and would be approved directly by the government through a development consent order.

Bids due in for Ellisland Museum and Farm job by 24 JanuarySource: GoogleEllisland Museum and Farm was purchased by Robert Burns in 1788The farm where Scottish national poet Robert Burns wrote Auld Lang Syne is looking for a conservation architect to design a nationally significant restoration of the site.The Ellisland Museum and Farm is asking design teams to send in bids for the 7m scheme north of Dumfries, which is called Saving the Home of Auld Lang Syne.Burns purchased the farm in 1788 and wrote the song, which is sung across the English speaking world on New Years Eve, at the property in December that year.The poet, who is celebrated each year in Scotland on Burns night on 27 January, stayed at the farm for three years before leaving in 1791.Most of the buildings at the site which he constructed were later dismantled, except the farmhouse, which remains largely in its original condition.The museum said it is looking for a multi-disciplinary design team led by a conservation architect for the eight month contract, valued at 170,000.Work will include designing the scheme up to RIBA stage three, with further design stages up to stage six included in the contract with a break clause but dependent on funding.The museum was recently awarded 490,000 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund for the development stage of the project, which it said will support the appointment of architects and the launch of a major international fundraising campaign to complete the scheme.The job will include fully restoring a 1788 cottage to the state in which it was in when Burns moved in with his new wife Jane Armour, developing a new exhibition space for the museums collection, and transforming a barn on the site into a Centre for Song.Teams have until 24 January to send in bids, with invitations to tender to be sent out on 31 January.

What if I told you there was a healthy dinner you could make any night of the week in about 12 minutes with no prep or planning and very little mess to clean up? It's real, and it's my new go-to meal for busy nights when I don't want to blow up my budget or healthy eating habits. All it takes is a trust little device we call the air fryer. If you're tired of people telling you to eat more fish, this is your ticket to a year filled with omega-3 fatty acids and free of wretched pots and pans to wash after. Salmon cooked in an air fryer gets a nice crust akin to a pan-sear but stays moist and tender on the inside as long as you don't overcook it. A fresh filet and seasonings are all you need to make the perfect air fryer salmon dinner. David Watsky/CNETThe air fryer gets a lot of credit for its work with chicken wings and french fries, but it often seems like it was made in a lab to cook filets of fatty salmon. The mighty air fryer only takes 1 or 2 minutes to preheat, so if you're making a quick weeknight meal for one or two, making salmon in the air fryer is an ace up your sleeve. Here's how to make a perfect filet every time. And for more, see our favorite places toorder salmon onlineand thebest air fryerswe tested for 2024. If you're wondering how these trendy and efficient countertop cookers work and which model is best, read mycomplete guide to air fryers. Ingredients for the 10-minute air fryer salmon 1 tbsp olive oil1 tsp soy sauce or tamari1 tsp brown sugar1 green onion, dicedSalmon filetSalt and pepper to tasteParchment paper (optional) 5 easy steps: The perfect 10-minute air fryer Step 1: Preheat the air fryer to 380 degrees F on either "air fry" or "roast."Step 2: Whisk together olive oil, brown sugar, soy sauce and green onion.Step 3: Pat the salmon filet dry and place it in the air fryer on top of parchment paper (paper optional).Step 4: Pour soy sauce mixture over salmon and brush to coat completely.Step 5: Close the basket and cook for about 8 minutes, checking with a fork or internal probe for doneness (cook a minute or two more if you prefer your salmon medium well or well done). Just 8 minutes in the air fryer and you have perfectly medium rare salmon. David Watsky/CNET What else can I cook in the air fryer? The air fryer is my go-to forroasted chicken, replacing my slow and dirty dish-heavy oven recipe. I recently learned to make juicyair fryer cheeseburgersand sizzlebaconin less than 10 minutes and without dirtying a skillet or sheet pan. Why should I use an air fryer instead of an oven? Air fryers are incredibly convenient and can do many of the same jobs that an oven can. They only take a couple of minutes to preheat, contain many of the cooking messes you'd otherwise have to spend time cleaning up and are overall more energy-efficient cooking appliances. What's the biggest limitation of cooking with an air fryer? When you're planning to cook meals with an air fryer, you need to make sure you have enough space inside of your appliance for the food you want to cook. Many air fryers can accommodate for a single person's serving size, but you'll likely have to run the air fryer multiple times to make enough food for your whole family.

Apple released iOS 18.2 in December, and that update brought Mail Categories and more new features to iPhones, including Apple Intelligence features to some recent iPhone models. But when Apple released iOS 18 in September, one feature included in the update sends photo data from your iPhone to Apple's servers in an effort to help you better find pictures in your photo library. Apple calls this feature Enhanced Visual Search, and it's turned on by default.Read more: Everything You Need to Know About iOS 18Apple's Enhanced Visual Search privacy measures"Enhanced Visual Search in Photos allows you to search for photos using landmarks or points of interest," Apple wrote online. "Your device privately matches places in your photos to a global index Apple maintains on our servers."According to an Apple research post, parts of a photo that might contain a landmark are encrypted and sent to Apple's servers -- the whole picture is not sent. Your encrypted data is also one point amongst other pieces of junk data that aren't associated with any of your, or anyone else's, images.Once the data arrives at the Apple server, the server doesn't decrypt the data -- it only works with the encrypted data. If the server establishes whether or not the encrypted photo data contains a corresponding landmark, the server then sends your device an encrypted response, which your device then decrypts.The company also wrote in the post it uses a third-party-operated Oblivious HTTPrelay to hide your data's IP address. And each time your iPhone sends photo data to a server the data is given a new IP address.But some people have questioned if this is enough to protect your data."If my computer sends data to the manufacturer of the computer, then it's not private, or at least not entirely private," developer Jeff Johnson wrote online. "A software bug would be sufficient to make users vulnerable, and Apple can't guarantee that their software includes no bugs."If you are concerned about Enhanced Visual Search sending your photo data to Apple's servers, here's how to turn the feature off. It's important to note that if you have an iCloud account to store photos or backup your iPhone data, your photos are still going to Apple's servers. Turning this feature off won't stop that.How to disable Enhanced Visual Search Apple/Screenshot by CNET1. Open Settings.2. Tap Apps.3. Tap Photos.4. Tap the toggle next to Enhanced Visual Search.Now, your iPhone won't send encrypted photo data to Apple's servers to help you find photos on your iPhone. That also means searching for pictures on your iPhone will likely suffer. If you want to turn the feature back on, follow the steps above.For more on iOS 18, here's what to know about iOS 18.2 and iOS 18.1 and our iOS 18 cheat sheet. You can also check out what could come to your iPhone with iOS 18.3. Watch this: What to Expect From Apple in 2025 04:23

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program allows eligible teachers and public servants to have their student loans canceled after working in the field for 10 years and making 120 qualifying monthly loan payments. However, certain PSLF borrowers who were due to receive forgiveness last year may have been thwarted by administrative payment pauses.Now, the new PSLF Buyback program gives some of those borrowers an opportunity to "buy back" no-payment months that didn't count toward forgiveness while their loans were in forbearance or deferment, according to the Federal Student Aid office.In other words, if you're eligible for PSLF and have already worked the required 10 years but the federal payment pause caused you to miss the 120 payment mark last year, you can compensate for the missing months by applying for the buyback program."The buyback option is not a shortcut to accelerate your progress toward PSLF," said Elaine Rubin, director of corporate communications at Edvisors.com. You'll need to have hit the ten years of service and meet other conditions to qualify. If you're only five years into your teaching position, for example, you can't use this program to pay off your remaining five years of payments to get debt relief now.Here's what you need to know to see if you're eligible for the buyback program and file an application.What is the PSLF buyback program?The PSLF Buyback Program allows you to buy back certain skipped-payment months to count as qualifying payments under PSLF, which would speed up debt cancellation for a small number of eligible borrowers.For example, if you're a teacher who has worked 130 months in the role, you've already surpassed the required 10 years to be eligible for public loan forgiveness. But if your student loan was in deferment or forbearance for 15 months, you may have only made 115 months of payments. Normally, this would mean that you're not yet eligible for forgiveness under the PSLF program.Under the government's PSLF Buyback program, you can now make a payment (either in one lump sum or through multiple payments) within 90 days to cover the 5 months needed to fulfill your obligation and receive debt relief.What amount will you need to buy back? That depends on how many months short of the 120 goal you are and how much your monthly payment is. If you were on an income-driven repayment plan, your monthly payment could be as low as $0, Rubin said. But if your monthly payment is $200 and you've only made 117 payments, you'll need to pay $600 to complete the buyback process.After you submit an application requesting a buyback, the government will detail the total amount you must pay to your servicer within 90 days in order to have your remaining balance forgiven.Who's eligible for PSLF buyback?There are several requirements to be eligible for the PSLF buyback:You have worked at least 120 months in a qualifying public service role, including during the months when your student loan payments were in forbearance or deferredBuying back certain months of deferment or forbearance will get you over the threshold of 120 payments, allowing you to qualify for forgiveness under PSLFYour loan has a remaining balance greater than zeroIn other words, you cannot request a buyback if you have less than 10 years of service, and a buyback does not apply to defaulted loans or discharged loans.You can check on your qualifying payments for PSLF at StudentAid.gov, the central dashboard for this program. You can view more detailed information about the eligibility requirements here.How do I apply for the PSLF buyback program?Here are the steps for applying for the PSLF buyback program:If you have unreported periods of qualifying employment, submit them by using thePSLF Help Tool.Wait to review how yourpayment count adjustmentapplies to PSLF credit.Confirm the missing payment months you want to buy back and make sure you have approved qualifying employment for the same months (see how toverify these months).Submit a buyback request throughPSLF Reconsideration.Wait to hear back from StudentAid.gov about your final payoff amount.Rubin warns that the application is a bit confusing. "Be patient, but make sure that your information has been filed," Rubin said.You can check the status of your application through StudentAid.gov.Can I apply for PSLF buyback if I'm enrolled in SAVE?Yes, you can apply for the PSLF buyback if you're enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education plan. The SAVE program, an income-driven repayment plan, is considered an eligible forbearance type under the PSLF buyback.Payments have been on hold for SAVE borrowers since the summer, so if you're a PSLF borrower who would have received debt relief in the fall or winter, you're a prime candidate for the buyback program.How long will the PSLF buyback program be open?Rubin said the PSLF buyback program is currently open, and there is no hard deadline for applications.That being said, once you submit your application and learn your buyback amount, you have 90 days to make the buyback payment to your loan servicer. If you fail to pay the total amount within that time frame, you need to start over with a new application.With a new administration coming into the White House, the long-term fate of the PSLF buyback program is unclear. Rubin recommends taking the time now, while PSLF buyback is still available, to determine whether you're eligible and submit your application. More student loan advice

OpinionJanuary 7, 20255 min readBreaking the Constitution Wont Fix the BureaucracyA government efficiency panel threatens U.S. government competence and constitutional underpinnings, warn two administrative science expertsBy Thomas J. Greitens & M. Ernita Joaquin edited by Dan VerganoTesla CEO Elon Musk, Co-Chair of the newly announced Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) carries his son "X" on his shoulders at the U.S. Capitol after a media availability with businessman Vivek Ramaswamy (3rd R). Andrew Harnik/Getty ImagesA constitutional winter is upon us, partly enabled by last summers spike in the price of eggs. While the Federal Reserve battled egg inflation, angry voters reinstalled Donald Trump in the White House. Among his first acts: appointing two tech billionaires, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, as efficiency czars. What their Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)more an advisory group, reallyproposes to do, however, involves constitutional gambits that would rob James Madison, the father of the Constitution, of sleep.Trump rode to victory attacking grocery costs and convincing voters that government was wasteful and that he alone could fix their grievances. His supporters included people fed up with Bidenomics and administrative snafus, everyday bureaucratic mazes that waste time, money and patience.Incoming presidents have often promised to address such snafus. Most famously, former president Bill Clinton, with his vice president, Al Gore, launched a reinventing government initiative that sought solutions from career public servants even as the initiative trumpeted basic business principles.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.In stark contrast, Trumps first-term agenda of deconstructing the administrative state failed in its ultimate goal of making key federal positions at-will hires to somehow deliver better government. Through DOGE, Trump will try again to overhaul the bureaucracy, this time with the help of business people whose ideas about the Constitution presage lengthy court battles.In November, what appeared as the DOGE plan in the Wall Street Journal revealed a fundamental misunderstanding of public administration. Rather than addressing administrative snafus with a scalpel, DOGE risks creating constitutional ones with its axe.DOGEs lip service to eliminating waste, fraud and abuse thinly veils an agenda aimed at dismantling corporate watchdogs, from the EPA to the FDIC, and politicizing agencies like the DOJ and IRS to pursue presidential ends, without constitutional guardrails. This approach threatens the delicate constitutional balance that has sustained the Republic for over a century, dividing power among the three branches and the nonpartisan bureaucracy in their midst.To nurture this balance, DOGE could consider mission-driven recommendations from the good government community of public administration scholars and nonpartisan research groups like the National Academy of Public Administration. They routinely investigate the best ways to make government more efficient and effective. Their past research findings can improve hiring, program implementation, cost management and other administrative techniques. These could have real, positive impacts on government efficiency while still allowing Trump to leave a positive legacy on the civil service. Plenty of these initiatives are already moving bureaucracy away from its technocratic, often snafu-riddled proceduralism to a more publicly engaged demonstration of outcomes.Instead, the DOGE blueprint blatantly ignores Congresseven with GOP controland champions the unitary executive theory of government by presenting normal bureaucratic rulemaking as a supposed scourge of democracy. Overstretching the summers Supreme Court rulings in West Virginia v. EPA and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the DOGE blueprint assumes that this executive, backed by a sympathetic judiciary, can drive action through reorganization, rule nullification and impoundments.Congress must confront this challenge and assert its status as the first among equals (primus inter pares) in the three branches of U.S. government. Congress shaped the administrative state through the Pendleton Act of 1883, creating the merit system for civil servants, and the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946, requiring participatory rulemaking in creating regulations. DOGE cannot simply rescind or replace current administrative rules without judicial approval.Even the worlds wealthiest individuals must recognize that a country is not a company. Nobody said efficiency was the reason for democracy. Efficiency is just one core public value that must take its place alongside equity, neutral competence, effectiveness and accountability. In fact, conflict among such values is typical in a democracy, hence the need for expertise, impartiality and experience among those involved in day-to-day governing. A tech bro culture that hopes to put feds in trauma harms public safety and businesses that rely on regulatory stability.Oath-bound civil servants, more than shrewd operators and artful dodgers" helped make America great. In the past, reformers who campaigned against the bureaucracy have often found it necessary to enlistguess whocompetent bureaucrats to advance their priorities. The Trump loyalty tests and DOGE measures will instead drive out such workers and deter the best and the brightest from serving. The incoming administration as well promises to institute the Schedule F reclassification of federal workers. This executive order, already attempted in the final months of the first Trump administration, would politicize parts of the federal bureaucracy by transferring many civil service positions structured on merit into this new category focused more on supporting and advocating for policies supported by a president.If implemented in the first months of the second Trump administration, Schedule F would dismantle a large part of the federal Civil Service and probably degrade more recent efforts at agency rebuilding and merit-based worker protections scrambled together during the Biden administration. It would allow for the arbitrary firing of federal bureaucrats based on perceptions of political support of the president. This could start the transformation of the federal bureaucracy back to a 19th-century style spoils system where political leaders reward supporters with bureaucratic jobs regardless of qualifications.The nations founders enshrined the separation of powers precisely to counter monarchical tendencies more than two centuries ago. Yet presidentialism, advancing since Nixons era, now invites a constitutional referendum on the intentionally limited powers, in the name of reforming bureaucracy.Musk and Ramaswamy risk taking us back to the system of patronage, corruption and incompetence that defined government through the 1800s and that past reformers eliminated. President Theodore Roosevelt also appointed a businessman to lead the reforming Keep Commission in 1905, but his progressive ethos and movement is exactly what DOGE wants reversed. Roosevelt confronted capitalisms excesses amid popular anger. Today we cannot ignore the nations alarming income gap between rich and poor. DOGE, however, wont draw your attention to the combined net worth of its leaders and the incoming Cabinet running in the vicinity of $500 billion, a level rife with conflicts of interest. Despite the irony of two commissioners heading one efficiency body, and their railing against regulatory strangleholds, our economic system seems strangely capable of churning out collective trillionaires. An overhyped overhaul that exacerbates inequality, however, will further alienate Americans from engaging in constitutional debates or defending protections they didnt realize were lost.Perhaps disruption, then, is the real point, as DOGE measures drag out in courts, competent public servants exit and presidential powers further rise unchecked. With the free press dying of competition from billionaire-controlled social media, and factionalism rising in its wake, the impulses that scared the framers of the Constitution have never been stronger, as the separation of parties tramples the separation of powers.Could it happen here? has nagged the country for a decade now. Today a waylaid Congress, a partisan judiciary, and an overreaching presidency may deal violence to the Constitution in our lifetime. If that happens, a constitutional snafu will make our current worries about the price of eggs seem quaint.This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

January 7, 20252 min readPlants Photosynthetic Machinery Functions inside Hamster CellsTransplanted chloroplasts endured two days inside animal cellsand got to workBy Saugat Bolakhe edited by Sarah Lewin FrasierResearchers transplanted chloroplasts from algae into Chinese hamster (Cricetulus griseus) cells. Juniors Bildarchiv GmbH/Alamy Stock PhotoMore than a billion years ago a hungry cell devoured a tiny blue-green algae. But instead of the former simply digesting the latter, the duo struck a remarkable evolutionary deal. Now scientists are trying to engineer that miracle in a laboratory.In a recent experiment reported in the Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B, researchers transplanted that algaes photosynthesizing descendants, plant organelles called chloroplasts, into hamster cellswhere they converted light into energy, staying active for at least two days.In 2021 biologist Sachihiro Matsunaga of the University of Tokyo reported how sacoglossan sea slugs can steal chloroplasts from algae they eat, fueling the slugs energy needs for weeks. His team wanted to recreate this mechanism in other animal cells.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Scientists had previously tried transferring plant chloroplasts into fungi cells, but the cells cleanup squad destroyed foreign organelles within hours. For their attempt, Matsunagas group harvested extra-hardy chloroplasts from a red algae that thrives in acidic volcanic hot springs and housed them in lab-cultured hamster ovary cells.A fluorescence image shows chloroplasts (magenta) successfully incorporated into the hamster cells, with other features of the animal cells also highlighted: nuclei are in light blue, and organelles are in yellow-green.Incorporation of Photosynthetically Active Algal Chloroplasts in Cultured Mammalian Cells Towards Photosynthesis in Animals, by Ryota Aoki et al., in Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B, Vol. 100, No. 9; 2024 (CC BY-NC-ND)The team isolated the chloroplasts from algal cells using a centrifuge and gentle stirring. Instead of then piercing the host cells membranes, as in earlier work, the researchers adjusted the culture mediums composition so it coaxed the animal cells into engulfing the chloroplasts like amoebas do, Matsunaga says, mistaking them for nutrients.The transplanted chloroplasts maintained their structure and showed successful electron transport, a crucial step in processing light, for two days before deteriorating. Previous attempts at transplanting a chloroplast into a foreign cell had worked for just a few hours. I was impressed that they were able to get that much mileage out of it, says cell biologist Jef D. Boeke of the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.Challenges remain: Chloroplasts need a steady supply of proteins from the cell. Animal cells, however, dont have the necessary genes to make and transport these proteins, so chloroplasts would break down quickly without them, says Werner Khlbrandt, a structural biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt. Like Boeke, he was not involved in the new study. Next, Matsunagas team plans to try inserting photosynthesis-maintaining genes into animal cells, aiming to make them more compatible with the transplanted chloroplasts.These types of transplants could someday help scientists engineer living materials, Boeke says, such as photosynthesizing fungi or bacteria that might be used on rooftops to soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or lab organoids that can grow faster using a chloroplasts extra oxygen. Solar-powered humans, of course, remain pure fantasy, Matsunaga says: They would need a tennis courts worth of surface area covered with chloroplasts.

PS5 Midnight Black DualSense Edge, headset and earbuds unveiledAnd a shiny new look for PlayStation Portal, too.Image credit: Sony News by Tom Phillips Editor-in-Chief Published on Jan. 7, 2025 Sony has unveiled its latest accessories to get the Midnight Black treatment: the DualSense Edge wireless controller, Pulse Elite wireless headset and the Pulse Explore wireless earbuds, as well as the PlayStation Portal.The new range joins the existing Midnight Black colour options for the regular DualSense (released back in May 2021) and the Pulse 3D wireless headset (released in September 2021), as well as the PS5's black console covers.Sony adding more to its Midnight Black collection had previously been reported. As you'd expect, the range is coloured, well, black. Here's a video showing how it all looks:Sony's PS5 Midnight Black range.Watch on YouTube"Each Midnight Black accessory features a unique, rich shade of black, with sleek detailing on various buttons and accents such as the PlayStation logo," Sony says, attempting to spin the fact these are coloured black into a full paragraph, which I myself am also now guilty of.The charging case for the Pulse Explore earbuds is black, the charging hanger for the Pulse Elite headset is black, and the carrying case for the DualSense Edge controller is also black. However, the carrying case for the Pulse Elite wireless headset and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds will be... felt grey.The range will go on sale via direct.playstation.com and participating from 20th February, with pre-orders open on 16th January if you're feeling super keen. Pricing is as follows:PlayStation Portal remote player Midnight Black: $199.99 | 219.99 | 199.99 Pulse Explore wireless earbuds Midnight Black: $199.99 | 219.99 | 199.99Pulse Elite wireless headset Midnight Black: $149.99 | 149.99 | 129.99 GBPDualSense Edge wireless controller Midnight Black: $199.99 | 219.99 | 199.99Fancy one?