John Edwards, Technology Journalist & AuthorJanuary 15, 20255 Min ReadAlexander Yakimov via Alamy Stock PhotoZero-trust architecture has emerged as the leading security method for organizations of all types and sizes. Zero-trust shifts cyber defenses away from static, network-based perimeters to focus directly on protecting users, assets, and resources.Network segmentation and strong authentication methods give zero-trust adopters strong Layer 7 threat prevention. That's why a growing number of enterprises of all types and sizes are embracing the approach. Unfortunately, many security leaders continue to deploy zero-trust incorrectly, weakening its power and opening the door to all types of bad actors.To prevent the mistakes that many organizations make when planning a transition to zero-trust security, here's a look at six common misconceptions you need to avoid.Mistake One: A single security vendor can supply everythingOne vendor can't provide everything your organization needs to implement a zero-trust architecture strategy, warns Tim Morrow, situational awareness technical manager in the CERT division of Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute."Its dangerous to accept zero-trust architecture vendors' marketing material and product information without considering whether it will meet your organizations security priority needs and its capability to implement and maintain the architecture," Morrow says in an email interview.Related:Mistake Two: Zero-trust is too costly to implementAside from the costs saved by reducing the risk of a breach, zero-trust can help save long term expenses by improving asset utilization, operational effectiveness, and reduced compliance costs, says Dimple Ahluwalia, vice president and managing partner, security consulting and systems integration at IBM via email.Mistake Three: Underestimating the technical challengesIT and security leaders often overlook the need to implement and manage foundational security practices before establishing a zero-trust architecture, says Craig Zeigler, an incident response senior manager at accounting and business advisory firm Crowe, in an online interview. They may also fail to identify potential gaps, such as vendor-related issues, and ensure that the chosen solution is not only compatible with their specific needs but also equipped with the appropriate controls to provide equal or greater security. "In essence, without security leaders having a thorough understanding of their team and endpoints, implementing zero trust becomes a daunting task."Mistake Four: Failing to align zero-trust architecture strategy with overall enterprise assets and needsRelated:Cyberattacks are growing in number and severity. "A continuous vigil concerning the organization's security operations ... must be maintained," Morrow says. The zero-trust architecture must fully mesh with business operations and goals.Understand your organization's current assets -- data, applications, infrastructure, and workflows -- and set up a procedure to update this information periodically, Morrow advises. "Yearly updates of your organizations assets will definitely no longer be enough."Organizations also need to remember that their business and reputation are on the line each and every day, Morrow says. "Not doing your best to reduce your organizations risks to cyber threats can be very costly."Mistake Five: Viewing zero-trust as a solution rather than an ongoing strategyIt's essential for security leaders to understand that zero-trust is not a static goal, but a dynamic, evolving strategy, says Ricky Simpson, solutions director at Quorum Cyber, a Microsoft cybersecurity partner. "Building a culture that prioritizes security at every level, from executive leadership to individual employees, is critical to the success of zero-trust initiatives," he notes via email.Related:Simpson feels that continuous education, regular assessments, and a willingness to adapt to new threats and technologies are key components within a sustainable zero-trust framework. "By fostering collaboration and maintaining a vigilant stance, security leaders can better protect their organizations in an increasingly complex and hostile digital environment."Mistake Six: Believing that implementing zero-trust is simply a one-and-done projectZero-trust is actually a holistic and strategic approach to security that requires ongoing evaluations of trust and threats. "It's not a quick fix but a long-term shift in strategy," says Shane O'Donnell, vice president of Centric Consultings cybersecurity practice.Underestimating zero-trust implementation poses two major risks, notes O'Donnell in an email interview. First, unrealistic timelines and expectations can derail project planning, exhaust budgets, and drain resources. Second, hasty or flawed execution can actually create new security vulnerabilities, defeating the very purpose of a zero-trust architecture.O'Donnell says this misconception can be addressed through continuous education and understanding. "It's vital for security leaders to realize that transitioning to a zero-trust architecture means substantial technological and organizational changes," he says. "This strategy should be treated as an ongoing commitment that lasts way beyond the initial set-up stage."About the AuthorJohn EdwardsTechnology Journalist & AuthorJohn Edwards is a veteran business technology journalist. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and numerous business and technology publications, including Computerworld, CFO Magazine, IBM Data Management Magazine, RFID Journal, and Electronic Design. He has also written columns for The Economist's Business Intelligence Unit and PricewaterhouseCoopers' Communications Direct. John has authored several books on business technology topics. His work began appearing online as early as 1983. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, he wrote daily news and feature articles for both the CompuServe and Prodigy online services. His "Behind the Screens" commentaries made him the world's first known professional blogger.See more from John EdwardsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore Reports

Golden oyster mushrooms growing on a fallen log in IowaKatie Flenker / AlamyRegularly eating golden oyster mushrooms protected heart health and promoted longevity in mice.Golden oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus citrinopileatus) fungi native to parts of Russia, China and Japan are one of the richest natural sources of an antioxidant called ergothioneine. Studies in humans have shown the compound is associated with a lower risk of heart disease and premature death. These findings rely on observational data, however, so it isnt clear whether ergothioneine is driving the health benefits.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital innovation, staying adaptable isnt just a strategyits a survival skill. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face, says Luis Nio, digital manager for technology ventures and innovation at Chevron, quoting Mike Tyson. Drawing from a career that spans IT, HR, and infrastructure operations across the globe, Nio offers a unique perspective on innovation and how organizational microcultures within Chevron shape how digital transformation evolves. Centralized functions prioritize efficiency, relying on tools like AI, data analytics, and scalable system architectures. Meanwhile, business units focus on simplicity and effectiveness, deploying robotics and edge computing to meet site-specific needs and ensure safety. "From a digital transformation standpoint, what I have learned is that you have to tie your technology to what outcomes drive results for both areas, but you have to allow yourself to be flexible, to be nimble, and to understand that change is constant," he says. Central to this transformation is the rise of industrial AI. Unlike consumer applications, industrial AI operates in high-stakes environments where the cost of errors can be severe. "The wealth of potential information needs to be contextualized, modeled, and governed because of the safety of those underlying processes," says Nio. "If a machine reacts in ways you don't expect, people could get hurt, and so there's an extra level of care that needs to happen and that we need to think about as we deploy these technologies." Nio highlights Chevrons efforts to use AI for predictive maintenance, subsurface analytics, and process automation, noting that AI sits on top of that foundation of strong data management and robust telecommunications capabilities. As such, AI is not just a tool but a transformation catalyst redefining how talent is managed, procurement is optimized, and safety is ensured. Looking ahead, Nio emphasizes the importance of adaptability and collaboration: Transformation is as much about technology as it is about people. With initiatives like the Citizen Developer Program and Learn Digital, Chevron is empowering its workforce to bridge the gap between emerging technologies and everyday operations using an iterative mindset. Nio is also keeping watch over the convergence of technologies like AI, quantum computing, Internet of Things, and robotics, which hold the potential to transform how we produce and manage energy. "My job is to keep an eye on those developments," says Nio, "to make sure that we're managing these things responsibly and the things that we test and trial and the things that we deploy, that we maintain a strict sense of responsibility to make sure that we keep everyone safe, our employees, our customers, and also our stakeholders from a broader perspective." This episode of Business Lab is produced in association with Infosys Cobalt. Full Transcript Megan Tatum: From MIT Technology Review, I'm Megan Tatum and this is Business Lab, the show that helps business leaders make sense of new technologies coming out of the lab and into the marketplace. Our topic today is digital transformation, from back office operations to infrastructure in the field like oil rigs, companies continue to look for ways to increase profit, meet sustainability goals, and invest in the latest and greatest technology. Two words for you: enabling innovation. My guest is Luis Nio, who is the digital manager of technology ventures, and innovation at Chevron. This podcast is produced in association with Infosys Cobalt. Welcome, Luis. Luis Nio: Thank you, Megan. Thank you for having me. Megan: Thank you so much for joining us. Just to set some context, Luis, you've had a really diverse career at Chevron, spanning IT, HR, and infrastructure operations. I wonder, how have those different roles shaped your approach to innovation and digital strategy? Luis: Thank you for the question. And you're right, my career has spanned many different areas and geographies in the company. It really feels like I've worked for different companies every time I change roles. Like I said, different functions, organizations, locations I've had since here in Houston and in Bakersfield, California and in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From an organizational standpoint, I've seen central teams international service centers, as you mentioned, field infrastructure and operation organizations in our business units, and I've also had corporate function roles. And the reason why I mentioned that diversity is that each one of those looks at digital transformation and innovation through its own lens. From the priority to scale and streamline in central organizations to the need to optimize and simplify out in business units and what I like to call the periphery, you really learn about the concept first off of microcultures and how different these organizations can be even within our own walls, but also how those come together in organizations like Chevron. Over time, I would highlight two things. In central organizations, whether that's functions like IT, HR, or our technical center, we have a central technical center, where we continuously look for efficiencies in scaling, for system architectures that allow for economies of scale. As you can imagine, the name of the game is efficiency. We have also looked to improve employee experience. We want to orchestrate ecosystems of large technology vendors that give us an edge and move the massive organization forward. In areas like this, in central areas like this, I would say that it is data analytics, data science, and artificial intelligence that has become the sort of the fundamental tools to achieve those objectives. Now, if you allow that pendulum to swing out to the business units and to the periphery, the name of the game is effectiveness and simplicity. The priority for the business units is to find and execute technologies that help us achieve the local objectives and keep our people safe. Especially when we are talking about our manufacturing environments where there's risk for our folks. In these areas, technologies like robotics, the Internet of Things, and obviously edge computing are currently the enablers of information. I wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to say that both of those, let's call it, areas of the company, rely on the same foundation and that is a foundation of strong data management, of strong network and telecommunications capabilities because those are the veins through which the data flows and everything relies on data. In my experience, this pendulum also drives our technology priorities and our technology strategy. From a digital transformation standpoint, what I have learned is that you have to tie your technology to what outcomes drive results for both areas, but you have to allow yourself to be flexible, to be nimble, and to understand that change is constant. If you are deploying something in the center and you suddenly realize that some business unit already has a solution, you cannot just say, let's shut it down and go with what I said. You have to adapt, you have to understand behavioral change management and you really have to make sure that change and adjustments are your bread and butter. I don't know if you know this, Megan, but there's a popular fight happening this weekend with Mike Tyson and he has a saying, and that is everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. And what he's trying to say is you have to be adaptable. The plan is good, but you have to make sure that you remain agile. Megan: Yeah, absolutely. Luis: And then I guess the last lesson really quick is about risk management or maybe risk appetite. Each group has its own risk appetite depending on the lens or where they're sitting, and this may create some conflict between organizations that want to move really, really fast and have urgency and others that want to take a step back and make sure that we're doing things right at the balance. I think that at the end, I think that's a question for leadership to make sure that they have a pulse on our ability to change. Megan: Absolutely, and you've mentioned a few different elements and technologies I'd love to dig into a bit more detail on. One of which is artificial intelligence because I know Chevron has been exploring AI for several years now. I wonder if you could tell us about some of the AI use cases it's working on and what frameworks you've developed for effective adoption as well. Luis: Yeah, absolutely. This is the big one, isn't it? Everybody's talking about AI. As you can imagine, the focus in our company is what is now being branded as industrial AI. That's really a simple term to explain that AI is being applied to industrial and manufacturing settings. And like other AI, and as I mentioned before, the foundation remains data. I want to stress the importance of data here. One of the differences however is that in the case of industrial AI, data comes from a variety of sources. Some of them are very critical. Some of them are non-critical. Sources like operating technologies, process control networks, and SCADA, all the way to Internet of Things sensors or industrial Internet of Things sensors, and unstructured data like engineering documentation and IT data. These are massive amounts of information coming from different places and also from different security structures. The complexity of industrial AI is considerably higher than what I would call consumer or productivity AI. Megan: Right. Luis: The wealth of potential information needs to be contextualized, modeled, and governed because of the safety of those underlying processes. When you're in an industrial setting, if a machine reacts in ways you don't expect, people could get hurt, and so there's an extra level of care that needs to happen and that we need to think about as we deploy these technologies. AI sits on top of that foundation and it takes different shapes. It can show up as a copilot like the ones that have been popularized recently, or it can show up as agentic AI, which is something that we're looking at closely now. And agentic AI is just a term to mean that AI can operate autonomously and can use complex reasoning to solve multistep problems in an industrial setting. So with that in mind, going back to your question, we use both kinds of AI for multiple use cases, including predictive maintenance, subsurface analytics, process automation, and workflow optimization, and also end-user productivity. Each one of those use cases obviously needs specific objectives that the business is looking at in each area of the value chain. In predictive maintenance, for example, we monitor and we analyze equipment health, we prevent failures, and we allow for preventive maintenance and reduced downtime. The AI helps us understand when machinery needs to be maintained in order to prevent failure instead of just waiting for it to happen. In subsurface analysis, we're exploring AI to develop better models of hydrocarbon reservoirs. We are exploring AI to forecast geomechanical models and to capture and understand data from fiber optic sensing. Fiber optic sensing is a capability that has proven very valuable to us, and AI is helping us make sense of the wealth of information that comes out of the whole, as we like to say. Of course, we don't do this alone. We partner with many third-party organizations, with vendors, and with people inside subject matter experts inside of Chevron to move the projects forward. There are several other areas beyond industrial AI that we are looking at. AI really is a transformation catalyst, and so areas like finance and law and procurement and HR, we're also doing testing in those corporate areas. I can tell you that I've been part of projects in procurement, in HR. When I was in HR we ran a pretty amazing effort in partnership with a third-party company, and what they do is they seek to transform the way we understand talent, and the way they do that is they are trying to provide data-driven frameworks to make talent decisions. And so they redefine talent by framing data in the form of skills, and as they do this, they help de-bias processes that are usually or can be usually prone to unconscious biases and perspectives. It really is fascinating to think of your talent-based skills and to start decoupling them from what we know since the industrial era began, which is people fit in jobs. Now the question is more the other way around. How can jobs adapt to people's skills? And then in procurement, AI is basically helping us open the aperture to a wider array of vendors in an automated fashion that makes us better partners. It's more cost-effective. It's really helpful. Before I close here, you did reference frameworks, so the framework of industrial AI versus what I call productivity AI, the understanding of the use cases. All of this sits on top of our responsible AI frameworks. We have set up a central enterprise AI organization and they have really done a great job in developing key areas of responsible AI as well as training and adoption frameworks. This includes how to use AI, how not to use AI, what data we can share with the different GPTs that are available to us. We are now members of organizations like the Responsible AI Institute. This is an organization that fosters the safe use of AI and trustworthy AI. But our own responsible AI framework, it involves four pillars. The first one is the principles, and this is how we make sure we continue to stay aligned with the values that drive this company, which we call The Chevron Way. It includes assessment, making sure that we evaluate these solutions in proportion to impact and risk. As I mentioned, when you're talking about industrial processes, people's lives are at stake. And so we take a very close look at what we are putting out there and how we ensure that it keeps our people safe. It includes education, I mentioned training our people to augment their capabilities and reinforcing responsible principles, and the last of the four is governance oversight and accountability through control structures that we are putting in place. Megan: Fantastic. Thank you so much for those really fascinating specific examples as well. It's great to hear about. And digital transformation, which you did touch on briefly, has become critical of course to enable business growth and innovation. I wonder what has Chevron's digital transformation looked like and how has the shift affected overall operations and the way employees engage with technology as well? Luis: Yeah, yeah. That's a really good question. The term digital transformation is interpreted in many different ways. For me, it really is about leveraging technology to drive business results and to drive business transformation. We usually tend to specify emerging technology as the catalyst for transformation. I think that is okay, but I also think that there are ways that you can drive digital transformation with technology that's not necessarily emerging but is being optimized, and so under this umbrella, we include everything from our Citizen Developer Program to complex industry partnerships that help us maximize the value of data. The Citizen Developer Program has been very successful in helping bridge the gap between our technical software engineer and software development practices and people who are out there doing the work, getting familiar, and demystifying the way to build solutions. I do believe that transformation is as much about technology as it is about people. And so to go back to the responsible AI framework, we are actively training and upskilling the workforce. We created a program called Learn Digital that helps employees embrace the technologies. I mentioned the concept of demystifying. It's really important that people don't fall into the trap of getting scared by the potential of the technology or the fact that it is new and we help them and we give them the tools to bridge the change management gap so they can get to use them and get the most out of them. At a high level, our transformation has followed the cyclical nature that pretty much any transformation does. We have identified the data foundations that we need to have. We have understood the impact of the processes that we are trying to digitize. We organize that information, then we streamline and automate processes, we learn, and now machines learn and then we do it all over again. And so this cyclical mindset, this iterative mindset has really taken hold in our culture and it has made us a little bit better at accepting the technologies that are driving the change. Megan: And to look at one of those technologies in a bit more detail, cloud computing has revolutionized infrastructure across industries. But there's also a pendulum ship now toward hybrid and edge computing models. How is Chevron balancing cloud, hybrid, and edge strategies for optimal performance as well? Luis: Yeah, that's a great question and I think you could argue that was the genesis of the digital transformation effort. It's been a journey for us and it's a journey that I think we're not the only ones that may have started it as a cost savings and storage play, but then we got to this ever-increasing need for multiple things like scaling compute power to support large language models and maximize how we run complex models. There's an increasing need to store vast amounts of data for training and inference models while we improve data management and, while we predict future needs. There's a need for the opportunity to eliminate hardware constraints. One of the promises of cloud was that you would be able to ramp up and down depending on your compute needs as projects demanded. And that hasn't stopped, that has only increased. And then there's a need to be able to do this at a global level. For a company like ours that is distributed across the globe, we want to do this everywhere while actively managing those resources without the weight of the infrastructure that we used to carry on our books. Cloud has really helped us change the way we think about the digital assets that we have. It's important also that it has created this symbiotic need to grow between AI and the cloud. So you don't have the AI without the cloud, but now you don't have the cloud without AI. In reality, we work on balancing the benefits of cloud and hybrid and edge computing, and we keep operational efficiency as our North Star. We have key partnerships in cloud, that's something that I want to make sure I talk about. Microsoft is probably the most strategic of our partnerships because they've helped us set our foundation for cloud. But we also think of the convenience of hybrid through the lens of leveraging a convenient, scalable public cloud and a very secure private cloud that helps us meet our operational and safety needs. Edge computing fills the gap or the need for low latency and real-time data processing, which are critical constraints for decision-making in most of the locations where we operate. You can think of an offshore rig, a refinery, an oil rig out in the field, and maybe even not-so-remote areas like here in our corporate offices. Putting that compute power close to the data source is critical. So we work and we partner with vendors to enable lighter compute that we can set at the edge and, I mentioned the foundation earlier, faster communication protocols at the edge that also solve the need for speed. But it is important to remember that you don't want to think about edge computing and cloud as separate things. Cloud supports edge by providing centralized management by providing advanced analytics among others. You can train models in the cloud and then deploy them to edge devices, keeping real-time priorities in mind. I would say that edge computing also supports our cybersecurity strategy because it allows us to control and secure sensitive environments and information while we embed machine learning and AI capabilities out there. So I have mentioned use cases like predictive maintenance and safety, those are good examples of areas where we want to make sure our cybersecurity strategy is front and center. When I was talking about my experience I talked about the center and the edge. Our strategy to balance that pendulum relies on flexibility and on effective asset management. And so making sure that our cloud reflects those strategic realities gives us a good footing to achieve our corporate objectives. Megan: As you say, safety is a top priority. How do technologies like the Internet of Things and AI help enhance safety protocols specifically too, especially in the context of emissions tracking and leak detection? Luis: Yeah, thank you for the question. Safety is the most important thing that we think and talk about here at Chevron. There is nothing more important than ensuring that our people are safe and healthy, so I would break safety down into two. Before I jump to emissions tracking and leak detection, I just want to make a quick point on personal safety and how we leverage IoT and AI to that end. We use sensing capabilities that help us keep workers out of harm's way, and so things like computer vision to identify and alert people who are coming into safety areas. We also use computer vision, for example, to identify PPE requirementspersonal protective equipment requirementsand so if there are areas that require a certain type of clothing, a certain type of identification, or a hard hat, we are using technologies that can help us make sure people have that before they go into a particular area. We're also using wearables. Wearables help us in one of the use cases is they help us track exhaustion and dehydration in locations where that creates inherent risk, and so locations that are very hot, whether it's because of the weather or because they are enclosed, we can use wearables that tell us how fast the person's getting dehydrated, what are the levels of liquid or sodium that they need to make sure that they're safe or if they need to take a break. We have those capabilities now. Going back to emissions tracking and leak detection, I think it's actually the combination of IoT and AI that can transform how we prevent and react to those. In this case, we also deploy sensing capabilities. We use things like computer vision, like infrared capabilities, and we use others that deliver data to the AI models, which then alert and enable rapid response. The way I would explain how we use IoT and AI for safety, whether it's personnel safety or emissions tracking and leak detection, is to think about sensors as the extension of human ability to sense. In some cases, you could argue it's super abilities. And so if you think of sight normally you would've had supervisors or people out there that would be looking at the field and identifying issues. Well, now we can use computer vision with traditional RGB vision, we can use them with infrared, we can use multi-angle to identify patterns, and have AI tell us what's going on. If you keep thinking about the human senses, that's sight, but you can also use sound through ultrasonic sensors or microphone sensors. You can use touch through vibration recognition and heat recognition. And even more recently, this is something that we are testing more recently, you can use smell. There are companies that are starting to digitize smell. Pretty exciting, also a little bit crazy. But it is happening. And so these are all tools that any human would use to identify risk. Well, so now we can do it as an extension of our human abilities to do so. This way we can react much faster and better to the anomalies. A specific example with methane. We have a simple goal with methane, we want to keep methane in the pipe. Once it's out, it's really hard or almost impossible to take it back. Over the last six to seven years, we have reduced our methane intensity by over 60% and we're leveraging technology to achieve that. We have deployed a methane detection program. We have trialed over 10 to 15 advanced methane detection technologies. A technology that I have been looking at recently is called Aquanta Vision. This is a company supported by an incubator program we have called Chevron Studio. We did this in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and what they do is they leverage optical gas imaging to detect methane effectively and to allow us to prevent it from escaping the pipe. So that's just an example of the technologies that we're leveraging in this space. Megan: Wow, that's fascinating stuff. And on emissions as well, Chevron has made significant investments in new energy technologies like hydrogen, carbon capture, and renewables. How do these technologies fit into Chevron's broader goal of reducing its carbon footprint? Luis: This is obviously a fascinating space for us, one that is ever-changing. It is honestly not my area of expertise. But what I can say is we truly believe we can achieve high returns and lower carbon, and that's something that we communicate broadly. A few years ago, I believe it was 2021, we established our Chevron New Energies company and they actively explore lower carbon alternatives including hydrogen, renewables, and carbon capture offsets. My area, the digital area, and the convergence between digital technologies and the technical sciences will enable the techno-commercial viability of those business lines. Thinking about carbon capture, is something that we've done for a long time. We have decades of experience in carbon capture technologies across the world. One of our larger projects, the Gorgon Project in Australia, I think they've captured something between 5 and 10 million tons of CO2 emissions in the past few years, and so we have good expertise in that space. But we also actively partner in carbon capture. We have joined hubs of carbon capture here in Houston, for example, where we investing in companies like there's a company called Carbon Clean, a company called Carbon Engineering, and one called Svante. I'm familiar with these names because the corporate VC team is close to me. These companies provide technologies for direct air capture. They provide solutions for hard-to-abate industries. And so we want to keep an eye on these emerging capabilities and make use of them to continuously lower our carbon footprint. There are two areas here that I would like to talk about. Hydrogen first. This is another area that we're familiar with. Our plan is to build on our existing assets and capabilities to deliver a large-scale hydrogen business. Since 2005, I think we've been doing retail hydrogen, and we also have several partnerships there. In renewables, we are creating a range of fuels for different transportation types. We use diesel, bio-based diesel, we use renewable natural gas, we use sustainable aviation fuel. Yeah, so these are all areas of importance to us. They're emerging business lines that are young in comparison to the rest of our company. We've been a company for 140 years plus, and this started in 2021, so you can imagine how steep that learning curve is. I mentioned how we leverage our corporate venture capital team to learn and to keep an eye out on what are these emerging trends and technologies that we want to learn about. They leverage two things. They leverage a core fund, which is focused on areas that can seek innovation for our core business for the title. And we have a separate future energy fund that explores areas that are emerging. Not only do they invest in places like hydrogen, carbon capture, and renewables, but they also may invest in other areas like wind and geothermal and nuclear capability. So we constantly keep our eyes open for these emerging technologies. Megan: I see. And I wonder if you could share a bit more actually about Chevron's role in driving sustainable business innovation. I'm thinking of initiatives like converting used cooking oil into biodiesel, for example. I wonder how those contribute to that overall goal of creating a circular economy. Luis: Yeah, this is fascinating and I was so happy to learn a little bit more about this year when I had the chance to visit our offices in Iowa. I'll get into that in a second. But happy to talk about this, again with the caveat that it's not my area of expertise. Megan: Of course. Luis: In the case of biodiesel, we acquired a company called REG in 2022. They were one of the founders of the renewable fuels industry, and they honestly do incredible work to create energy through a process, I forget the name of the process to be honest. But at the most basic level what they do is they prepare feedstocks that come from different types of biomass, you mentioned cooking oils, there's also soybeans, there's animal fats. And through various chemical reactions, what they do is convert components of the feedstock into biodiesel and glycerin. After that process, what they do is they separate un-reactive methanol, which is recovered and recycled into the process, and the biodiesel goes through a final processing to make sure that it meets the standards necessary to be commercialized. What REG has done is it has boosted our knowledge as a broader organization on how to do this better. They continuously look for bio-feedstocks that can help us deliver new types of energy. I had mentioned bio-based diesel. One of the areas that we're very focused on right now is sustainable aviation fuel. I find that fascinating. The reason why this is working and the reason why this is exciting is because they brought this great expertise and capability into Chevron. And in turn, as a larger organization, we're able to leverage our manufacturing and distribution capabilities to continue to provide that value to our customers. I mentioned that I learned a little bit more about this this year. I was lucky earlier in the year I was able to visit our REG offices in Ames, Iowa. That's where they're located. And I will tell you that the passion and commitment that those people have for the work that they do was incredibly energizing. These are folks who have helped us believe, really, that our promise of lower carbon is attainable. Megan: Wow. Sounds like there's some fascinating work going on. Which brings me to my final question. Which is sort of looking ahead, what emerging technologies are you most excited about and how do you see them impacting both Chevron's core business and the energy sector as a whole as well? Luis: Yeah, that's a great question. I have no doubt that the energy business is changing and will continue to change only faster, both our core business as well as the future energy, or the way it's going to look in the future. Honestly, in my line of work, I come across exciting technology every day. The obvious answers are AI and industrial AI. These are things that are already changing the way we live without a doubt. You can see it in people's productivity. You can see it in how we optimize and transform workflows. AI is changing everything. I am actually very, very interested in IoT, in the Internet of Things, and robotics, the ability to protect humans in high-risk environments, like I mentioned, is critical to us, the opportunity to prevent high-risk events and predict when they're likely to happen. This is pretty massive, both for our productivity objectives as well as for our lower carbon objectives. If we can predict when we are at risk of particular events, we could avoid them altogether. As I mentioned before, this ubiquitous ability to sense our surroundings is a capability that our industry and I'm going to say humankind, is only beginning to explore. There's another area that I didn't talk too much about, which I think is coming, and that is quantum computing. Quantum computing promises to change the way we think of compute power and it will unlock our ability to simulate chemistry, to simulate molecular dynamics in ways we have not been able to do before. We're working really hard in this space. When I say molecular dynamics, think of the way that we produce energy today. It is all about the molecule and understanding the interactions between hydrocarbon molecules and the environment. The ability to do that in multi-variable systems is something that quantum, we believe, can provide an edge on, and so we're working really hard in this space. Yeah, there are so many, and having talked about all of them, AI, IoT, robotics, quantum, the most interesting thing to me is the convergence of all of them. If you think about the opportunity to leverage robotics, but also do it as the machines continue to control limited processes and understand what it is they need to do in a preventive and predictive way, this is such an incredible potential to transform our lives, to make an impact in the world for the better. We see that potential. My job is to keep an eye on those developments, to make sure that we're managing these things responsibly and the things that we test and trial and the things that we deploy, that we maintain a strict sense of responsibility to make sure that we keep everyone safe, our employees, our customers, and also our stakeholders from a broader perspective. Megan: Absolutely. Such an important point to finish on. And unfortunately, that is all the time we have for today, but what a fascinating conversation. Thank you so much for joining us on the Business Lab, Luis. Luis: Great to talk to you. Megan: Thank you so much. That was Luis Nio, who is the digital manager of technology ventures and innovation at Chevron, who I spoke with today from Brighton, England. That's it for this episode of Business Lab. I'm Megan Tatum, I'm your host and a contributing editor at Insights, the custom publishing division of MIT Technology Review. We were founded in 1899 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and you can find us in print on the web and at events each year around the world. For more information about us and the show, please check out our website at technologyreview.com. This show is available wherever you get your podcasts, and if you enjoyed this episode, we really hope you'll take a moment to rate and review us. Business Lab is a production of MIT Technology Review, and this episode was produced by Giro Studios. Thank you so much for listening.

A man from Vancouver caught people's attention because they thought he was RedNote's CEO.Jerry welcomed new users who had been flocking to the app ahead of a potential TikTok ban.People got a bit carried away, and it became a viral case of mistaken identity.Americans flocking to the Chinese app RedNote thought the platform's CEO had left them an encouraging message.Turns out, he wasn't the CEO. He's just a guy from Vancouver.Jerry, who shares a RedNote account with his girlfriend Dani that has about 31,000 followers, posted a video on January 13.In the video he welcomed US users who had been signing up ahead of a possible ban on TikTok. He said the app, also known as Xiaohongshum, was mainly Chinese-speaking, and it was a place people mainly used for finding restaurants and sharing lifestyle content such as makeup videos."But do feel free to speak English and post English content because I believe there are a lot more English-speaking people on this platform nowadays," Jerry said. "We need to build this community."Mistaken identityFor reasons that aren't entirely clear, some users assumed Jerry was RedNote's CEO.His video got reposted on TikTok, and the rumor quickly spread around the platform. People thanked him for welcoming them with open arms while the potential TikTok ban loomed.Jerry's video was also mentioned at the end of a Fox 5 New York news segment about the ban threat."The CEO of RedNote even made a video welcoming new users who speak English to the app, and he also encouraged them to never stop sharing their voice," said Jennifer Williams, a sports reporter for FOX 5 News.On Tuesday, Jerry and Dani, on their TikTok account FakeCEORealGF, tried to clear up the confusion. In the video, Dani showed Jerry what had happened, and he responded with disbelief."Guys, I'm not the RedNote CEO, just to be clear," Jerry said."I'm just another normal guy in Vancouver," he added. "I didn't expect this post to go viral like this, and thank you for all the comments, but I want to clarify that I'm not the CEO of RedNote."Jerry said all the points he made were still true, and he hoped new users enjoyed the platform.Dani, who is Chinese and grew up in North America, and Jerry, who was born in Shanghai and moved to Canada a decade ago, said they had enjoyed watching Chinese and American cultures merge on RedNote."Guys, I hope you guys aren't mad at us," Dani said. "We're really sorry for any misunderstandings this caused."TikTokers who made the error joked in the comments that Jerry had been promoted."We married the first guy to be nice to us," one viewer wrote. Another said: "He said 'welcome' and we said 'THE CEO?!?!'"Others remarked on Jerry's American accent, remarking, "We have to start using critical thinking skills."Jerry and Dani and Fox 5 New York did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. @fakeceorealgf Hey guys! Its really us - we woke up to find that apparently Jerry went viral as the accidental CEO of red note so we recorded this reaction/clarification video to diffuse the confusion He is flattered but also very embarrassed by how this misunderstanding came about. We decided to reupload this video natively on TikTok (this is our only account) to spread the word - if you see this video, please help us share it for the people From Jerry: I stand by what I saw in my original welcome video. For all the TikTok refugees coming over to Red Note, we stand with you all to make your voice heard! I am flattered by all the kind and polite comments and hope the TikTok refugees find a new home and friends to discover a new side of Chinese culture and community #rednote #rednoteceo #tiktokrefugee #xiaohongshu #xhs #littleredbook #redbook #rednotemigration #rednotewelcome #accidentalceo #tiktok #china original sound - FakeCEORealGF TikTok faces a January 19 deadline to comply with a divest-or-ban law requiring its US operations to be sold. It remains unclear what the ramifications of the bill could be. Creators have been highly critical of the ban, saying their small businesses and livelihoods will be destroyed. Black creators, who were instrumental in the platform's growth, could be significantly affected.Element of trollingIn response, TikTok users have been considering their options and downloading alternative apps,including Lemon8and RedNote. Both haverapidly climbed theapp download charts in recent days.The influx to RedNote has beenhelping some of its users learn English, BI reported this week.There's also an element of trolling going on. Frustrated about losing a valuable resource for their income and ability to mobilize, TikTokers are leaning into downloading other Chinese apps to send a message.A major criticism of the potential TikTok ban is that it is hypocritical. Many claim it focuses heavily on one app while leaving alone other tech companies such as Meta, which owns Instagram.

Vox reader Dov Stein asks: Why do people think the past was so much better when so many things have drastically improved?Thats an excellent question, one I think about a lot as someone who runs a section at Vox dedicated in part to covering how meaningful economic and scientific and social progress can and is being made.Theres nothing new about yearning for a supposed golden age, or feeling as if the present doesnt measure up to an imagined past. But youre right that a hatred of the present seems particularly acute these days and youre right that hatred ignores all the many, many ways in which today is better than yesterday.Much of the world is gripped by a politics of nostalgia, one grounded in the assumption that we have to turn back time to a moment when everything was better. After all, what is Make America Great Again but a slogan that implicitly argues that the US was great, once; is no longer great, now; and can be made great, again, by turning back the clock. Its not just a right-wing thing the politics of climate change is grounded in the idea that the climate of the past is the best one.I share your frustration that so many people miss the ways in which the present has improved on the past. Its not really our fault: Humans have memories that are both short and bad, which leads us to forget just how bad many things used to be in even the recent past, and take for granted the improvements that have been made. But lets go deeper.Do people wish they could turn back the clock?Apparently! A 2023 survey from Pew Research Center found that nearly six in ten respondents in the US said that life was better for people like them 50 years ago. While certain groups, like Republicans and older adults, were more likely to say the past was better than the present, these feelings were fairly widespread. And that nostalgia is deepening the share of Americans who said life today is worse than life in the past was up 15 percent in 2023 from two years before.Nor is this just an American phenomenon. Another Pew poll, this one from 2018, surveyed people from 27 countries. In 15 of them, a plurality of respondents reported that the financial situation of average people in their country was better 20 years ago than it is today. A poll by YouGov of people in the UK found that 70 percent of respondents felt the world was getting worse, compared to less than 10 percent who felt it was getting better. (Although to be honest, the UK has had a rough 21st century.) Beyond polls, theres evidence that popular culture is stuck in a nostalgia loop around the past. According to MRC Data, a music analytics firm, old songs represent some 70 percent of the US music market, while the market for new music is actually shrinking. Movies and TV programs turn overwhelmingly to sequels and reboots, continually mining the same old stories. (In 2024, nine of the top 10 highest-grossing movies were sequels and the one exception, Wicked, was an adaptation of a 21-year-old Broadway musical that was an adaptation of a 29-year-old novel that was a prequel of a 85-year-old movie that was, itself, an adaptation of a 124-year-old novel. Whew.)You see a lot of nostalgia politics memes like this one:Were things better in the old days?Putting aside pop culture like movies or music, where I think we can all agree that whatever was happening when you were 15 to 25 years old represents the zenith of human progress, the answer is: no, definitely not, almost entirely.Take the meme above. As Matthew Yglesias writes, the argument implicit in nostalgia politics memes is that material living standards of the typical American family have gotten worse since the post-WWII era. This is completely wrong.Is it ever! Beyond the fact that we have access to all kinds of technology that did not exist 70 years ago even for the richest people on the planet, Americans are much, much wealthier now than they were back then. You can see that in everything from car ownership which is twice as high now as it was in 1960 to the size of our houses, which are roughly 25 percent bigger on average than they were in 1960. One standout statistic from Yglesiass piece: In 1950, just having running water was about as common then as having air conditioning is now. Thats just economics. Educational attainment the percentage of Americans who graduate from high school or above is far greater now than it was then. While its true that college was less expensive in the past, it was also much rarer; a tiny proportion of the US population had a bachelors degree in 1960, while today more than a third of adults have such degrees. Perhaps most important of all is social progress. The 1950s might have been an okay place if you looked like the family in the meme above provided you were fine with much diminished living standards. But thats not true if you were a woman who wanted to work, or a person of color, or LGBTQ, or disabled, or just about anyone other than a straight white man. In the 1950s, interracial marriage could still be banned, anti-sodomy laws would still be on the books for decades, and the Civil Rights Act was still a decade away. Oh, and we were living under the constant threat of nuclear annihilation far greater than what we face today.And thats just America. In 1950, more than half the world lived in extreme poverty, meaning they lacked enough money to afford a tiny space to live, heat, and enough food to stave off malnutrition. As of 2018, it was just about 10 percent, even though the global population has more than tripled over that time period. Nearly 30 years has been added to average global life expectancy since 1950 thats almost the equivalent of adding an extra life for people. While the world has experienced a democratic backsliding in recent years, dont forget that in 1950 three-quarters of the global population lived in what political scientists call closed autocracies, including much of Europe. Today less than 20 percent of the worlds population lives under such oppression.Of course, saying the past is better than the present means making a judgment of what we mean when we say the past. Not everything has improved, and sometimes periods of progress are followed by periods of decline. The arc of history doesnt only go up and to the right. But if you step back a bit, although youll see some dips, the trend lines are quite clear. So why do so many people think that?One reason, I think, is the reality of progress itself.As I wrote late last year, as the world improves politically and materially, so do our expectations. Theres a term for this in climate science: shifting baselines. When things improve by, say, coming up with a vaccine that essentially eliminates polio we dont remain in a constant state of gratitude that we dont live with the same limitations and threats that our grandparents did. We reset our expectations and forget how things used to be. When progress does stumble like the major recession in 2008 we dont remain grateful that were still much better off than we were in the distant past. Instead, we get angry that were somewhat worse off than we were a few years ago, even though its almost certain that well be better off a few years from now.Our brains help deceive us. Thanks to selective memory, humans have a tendency to forget negative events from the past and reinforce positive memories. Its one reason why our feelings and memories about the past can be so inaccurate we literally forget the bad things and give the good things a nice, pleasant glow. The further back the memory goes, the stronger that tendency can be.Were also wary of change. Psychologists call it loss aversion we fear the sting of losing something will hurt much more than the benefit of gaining something. As a result, change can feel fundamentally scary, which also makes us feel more warmly about the era before change: the past. Then theres nostalgias ineffable pull. I was serious when I said that for most people, whatever movies or music were popular when they were young is the best pop culture. What many of us are yearning for when we think the past was better isnt the past itself, but our past selves when we were younger. Because while things really have been getting better over time, we really have been getting older, with everything that comes along with that experience. And no amount of progress at least not yet can reverse that.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

The Moon is one of 25 sites to be concerned about this year, according to a leading cultural heritage watchdog organization. That organization is the World Monuments Fund, which today announced the 25 sites on its annual World Monuments Watch. The sites were selected from over 200 nominations that underwent two review cycles before selection by an independent panel of experts. The Moon stands apart from the rest as a cultural heritage site that is not on Earth. For the first time, the Moon is included on the Watch to reflect the urgent need to recognize and preserve the artifacts that testify to humanitys first steps beyond Eartha defining moment in our shared history, said Bndicte de Montlaur, the president and CEO of the fund, in an organization release. Items such as the camera that captured the televised moon landing; a memorial disk left by astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin; and hundreds of other objects are emblematic of this legacy, de Montlaur added. Yet, they face mounting risks amidst accelerating lunar activities, undertaken without adequate preservation protocols.There are over 90 historic sites on the Moon where spacecraft have made contact with the lunar surface, the release noted. One of the most famous artifacts are astronauts first footprints beyond Earth, made by the Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969.As we embark on a new era of space exploration, we must ensure that the traces of these extraordinary milestones in humanitys historythe first moon landingsare preserved, the release stated. The inclusion of the Moon on the 2025 Watch advocates for international agreements and protections for lunar heritage sites and invites a broader public conversation on what this new Space Age might mean for the Moons cultural and natural landscape. The Moons inclusion on the list is a prudent one, as humankind intends to return to the Moon and stay there for the long term. NASAs Artemis mission plans to put a crewed mission on the lunar surface by mid-2027though that is later than the space agency intended. But thats just the tip of the iceberg, as a host of private missions, many funded through NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, are planned in the coming months and years. Just this morning, for example, SpaceX launched a pair of landers to the Moon, namely Firefly Aerospaces Blue Ghost lander and ispaces Resilience lander.SpaceXs Starship is also in the mixNASAs chosen lander for Artemis missions, yet ultimately a privately owned vessel that could one day ferry tourists to the Moon and its many historic sites.Plans are also in the works to mine the Moon for its various resources, including water ice, helium-3, and rare earth elements (REEs). Some private ventures are also hoping to use the Moon as a kind of graveyard, in which the remains of loved ones are plopped onto the dusty surface. Needless to say, the Moon will never be the same again, prompting the World Monuments Fund to voice its concerns. Indeed, the Moon does not have wind or flowing water on its surface, so natural degradation of lunar artifacts has not been a problem. In fact, the lunar surface is immaculately preserved. But exploitative visitation, souveniring, and looting by future missions and private lunar exploration could eventually compromise this truly unique cultural heritage, removing artifacts and forever erasing iconic prints and tracks from the Moons surface, the fund warns on its landing page for the Moon.Other sites on the World Monument Funds list this year include those damaged by conflict and natural disaster, such as the historic city of Antakya (ancient Antioch) in Turkey, which was devastated by earthquakes in 2023, and Gazas historic urban fabric, which is on the receiving end of ongoing Israeli airstrikes. Sites on the list that are under threat from climate change are Africas Swahili Coast and Maines historic lighthouses. Other sites include the monasteries in Albanias Drino Valleyunder pressure from over-tourismFrances Chapel of the Sorbonne in Paris, which has been closed for years, and historic buildings in Indias Musi River, which suffers from pervasive pollution issues.Cultural heritage needs protection from a range of threats, both natural and anthropogenic. In 2023, Greenpeace experts found that 4th-century Buddhist murals in China were being damaged by heavy rain and humidity. Last year, a group of researchers from the University of Virginia found evidence that the Russian military is damaging Ukrainian archaeological sites during its occupation of the country. The World Monuments Funds full list of 25 sites for 2025 can be found on the organizations website, but it is (obviously) not comprehensive. Though weve said goodbye to 2024, plenty of the sites featured in last years list remain under threat, many from the same causes that are endangering this years sites.

Yarn Residence / REACT ARCHITECTSSave this picture! Panagiotis VoumvakisHousesAliki, GreeceArchitects: REACT ARCHITECTSAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:240 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2023 PhotographsPhotographs:Panagiotis VoumvakisManufacturersBrands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers: DIMITRIS KYRIAKOPOULOS, ECO -FIRE, EFARMOGES KRITIKOS, GESCOVA, Home deco, Kitchen Gallery, MODA BAGNO, NIKOS PAPADATOS, SKANDALIS, SMK GROUP-PAROS, YDRO PAROS Lead Architects: Yiorgos Spiridonos, Natasha Deliyianni Lighting Designers: LUUNMore SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. Yarn is located in the settlement of Agkairia on Paros. It has a southwestern orientation to maximize light and protect against the strong northern winds characteristic of the Cycladic island. The plot allowed for the development of this residence with open floor plans, following a jagged line that embraces the volumes of the house, creating sheltered courtyards, outdoor spaces, visual boundaries, and sheltered outdoor seating areas. By incorporating elements of Cycladic architecture found in similar buildings, we designed a house that harmoniously integrates with the landscape, adhering to the principles of bioclimatic architecture aimed at minimizing the building's environmental footprint and creating protected spaces from the strong winds and heat of the summer months.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Although oriented toward the view, the residence possesses an interiority that exudes tranquility, inspired by the Cycladic monasteries. The large volume of a single building is fragmented into smaller masses, ensuring a harmonious adaptation of the structure to the landscape and significantly reducing the building's bulk. The courtyard space that connects the separate volumes creates a cohesive residential ensemble. The entrance on the eastern side is marked by a large stairs descent and endemic planting that define the central axis around which the residence develops. Living spaces are located on the southern side with an open floor plan, while the sleeping and guest quarters are arranged on the northern side in smaller, independent volumes.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Particular attention has been given to every morphological element added to the building to meet the needs of modern residents. The design of the openings is integrated with the architectural character of the structure. The element of repetition and standardization of openings dominates the design. Additionally, the pergola in the BBQ area rests against the stone wall. The dry stone walls, a unique construction characteristic of the Cyclades, extend in a ribbon along the entire length of the residence, defining its aesthetics in relation to the existing landscape. The largest white volume of the living area is centrally positioned within the residence, adjacent to the swimming pool courtyard.Save this picture!All elements that compose the surrounding outdoor spacesmall scales, pergolas, planting, materials, and floor coveringsare directly related to the unique geometry of the project. The composition leverages the irregular layout of the stone walls, which nonetheless conform to the topography and shape of the plot, creating a living space with functions that are interconnected and developed in sequence. The stone "ribbon" symbolically defines the space and organizes the development of the residence, primarily establishing human intervention by utilizing earth materials, namely stone masonry, with the aim of ensuring the building's harmonious integration into the environment. Endemic planting complements and connects the building with its surroundings, delineating the space. The distinct geometric arrangement, the simple volumes, the use of unplastered stone walls, and the economy of hard surfaces emphasize the archetypal form of this residence. The landscape architecture is integrated into the project, covering much of the land with vegetation while leaving the majority of the plot intact, preserving its original flora.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessAbout this officeREACT ARCHITECTSOfficeMaterialsStoneConcreteMaterials and TagsPublished on January 15, 2025Cite: "Yarn Residence / REACT ARCHITECTS" 15 Jan 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1025616/yarn-residence-react-architects&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

The first version of Tetris visible in the Lenin Museum in Tampere. It's displayed on a SyncMaster 750s monitor and can be played by visitors using a Key Tronic keyboard. Credit: WikicommonsShareTheres a global community dedicated to finding new ways to challenge themselves in Tetris, from speedruning the classic puzzler to technically beating it. But the latest feat isnt a newly discovered hidden glitch or high scoreits an entirely new way to play the game.Thomas Rinsma, a security analyst and hobbyist tinkerer, recently figured out how to create a version of Tetris that runs inside a PDF file. According to a personal website post subsequently highlighted by BoingBoing on January 15th, Rinsma tackled the project just for fun after learning the potential implementations of PDFs JavaScript API. The result is a novel version Rinsma calls PDFTRIS.PDFTRIS in action. Credit: Popular Science [I] realized there just might be enough I/O possibility there for a game, he wrote. I/O stands for Input/Output, and refers to the communication between a computer and its users.Rinsma explained that its already relatively well-known that PDFs can support a number of features such as dynamic content scripting when opened in something like Adobe Acrobat/Reader. Some of that same scripting support, however, is also available in both Mozilla Firefox and Google Chromiums respective PDF readers, PDF.js and PDFium.[ Related: Is Tetris infinite? Teen world champ reaches fabled rebirth ]It gets a bit complex to the layperson from there, but regardless, the end result is a PDF containing a 1020 grid of field buttons. These alternate between shaded and empty blocks depending on the JavaScript input, allowing a player to use preprogrammed keyboard instructions to move and shift the tetronimoesthe official term for four-block shapes such as those in Tetris blocks.It was a bit tricky to find a union of features that work in both engines, but in the end it turns out that showing/hiding annotation fields works well to make monochrome pixels, and keyboard input can be achieved by typing in a text input box, Rinsma wrote in a post to Hacker News. Get the Popular Science newsletter Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.Throw in the ability for the file to automatically loop and reload each command, and you have a functional game of Tetris. It even speeds up as your score increases. Anyone interested in checking under PDFTRISs hood can check out Rinsmas open-source files available on GitHub.For those in the know, the ability to play a video game in a PDF file begs a certain, extremely specific programming community question. As luck would have it, Rinsma already has the answer: Yes, PDFs can also run Doom.

NewsHealth & MedicineLethal snake venom may be countered by new AI-designed proteinsAn artificial intelligence tool designs proteins that match toxins scientists want to target When snakes like this Mozambique spitting cobra bite, they deliver potent toxins to victims via their venom. AI-designed proteins that stick to these toxins could one day be part of new antivenom therapies.Digital Vision/gettyimagesBy Meghan Rosen17 seconds agoArtificial intelligence could take the bite out of snake venom.Using AI, scientists have designed proteins that say not so fassst to toxins wielded by cobras and other venomous snakes. Its a proof-of-concept approach that could one day offer a new treatment for snakebites. In lab experiments, the custom proteins saved the lives of mice given an otherwise lethal dose of toxins, researchers report January 15 in Nature.These proteins are really doing their job, says Michael Hust, an antibody researcher at the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany who was not involved with the new research. The mice are surviving. This is what we all want.

Nature, Published online: 15 January 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-04214-3Evidence from 2,000-year-old DNA reveals that women in Celtic society stayed in their ancestral communities after marriage, whereas men were mobile, and that the southern coast of Britain was a hotspot for cultural exchange.