Headlines

Espionage boosted East Germany's economic output by 7.4%

East Germany's espionage activities in the West boosted the country's economic output by 7.4%. Value added in manufacturing alone increased by 22.3% through industrial espionage, equivalent to 20.2 billion East German marks or approximately 4.1 billion euros at 2020 prices.

Invasive marine species set to take advantage of rising seas

More than two-thirds of newly flooded coastlines worldwide could become suitable habitat for 122 non-native marine species—including Chinese mitten crabs, Pacific oysters and Asian tiger shrimp—by the middle and end of this century. The research, published in Nature Ecology &

Without water, forests lose their ability to absorb CO₂

To survive periods of drought, trees halt photosynthesis, a highly water-intensive process. For every molecule of CO₂ absorbed by a tree leaf, an average of around 400 water molecules are released. Entire forests may then end up emitting more CO₂ than they capture.

Shared DNA switch turns on genes in both bacteria and yeast

Microbial cell factories that produce pharmaceutical ingredients and other useful compounds include both the bacterium Escherichia coli and yeast, the organism used to leaven bread and ferment alcohol. The two organisms turn genes on by different rules, so a production design

A Dispatch from the Trenches of Algorithmic Living

This excerpt is reprinted with permission from NYU Press . It is adapted from Power in Listening: The Sounding Out! Reader . Sometime in 2021, I opened the Spotify app, navigating my way to a recent playlist I had made featuring Arlo Parks, Brittany Howard, Hozier, Charlotte