Nodules containing nickel, cobalt, and manganese rest atop these core samples taken from the deep ocean floor. | Photo: Getty Images The race to mine battery minerals from the ocean floor would create a new stream of waste that could rob sea life of a critical food source, according to new research published today in the journal Nature Communications. That could have far-reaching effects across the ocean, potentially reaching larger fish like tuna that people depend on for food and livelihoods.The findings come as President Donald Trump attempts to circumvent international law and give companies permission to mine the deep sea commercially, which has yet to happen anywhere in the world. The first company to apply for an international mining permit from the Trump administration actually funded this study. It might not have anticipated that the results of that research would raise another warning flag about deep-sea mining.The study authors found that if mining operations release waste into the ocean’s “twilight zone,” about 200 to 1,500 meters below the surface of the sea, it could starve tiny animals called zooplankton and other creatures that eat them. That could have serious ramifications along entire food webs that connect predators and their prey, leading the scientists to argue there still needs to be more research into how to avoid potential risks.“Put the brakes on this process”“We’re trying to go against that [rush to mine] and put the brakes on this process. We don’t have the science to fully conclude what’s the best option,” says Michael Dowd, lead author of the study and an oceanography graduate student in the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. “Those current plans are going to cause severe impacts.” The Trump administration has set its sights on rock-like polymetallic nodules on the seafloor that are rich in nickel, cobalt, and manganese, which can be used to manufacture rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. A Canadian startup called The Metals Company (TMC) calls those nodules “batteries in a rock” and triggered a deep-sea mining craze several years ago when it partnered with the island nation of Nauru to start commercially harvesting those minerals. The effort pushed the International Seabed Authority (ISA) to start developing a “mining code” to regulate deep-sea mining and protect natural resources considered a “common heritage of humankind.” More than 900 ocean scientists and policy experts, meanwhile, have called for a freeze on deep-sea exploitation in a public statement that says mining could result “in the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning that would be irreversible on multi-generational timescales.”This year, The Metals Company and the Trump administration decided to move ahead rather than wait for the ISA to finalize its mining code. Trump signed an executive order to fast-track seabed mining in US and international waters, and TMC soon applied for a permit under that process. Critics say these moves violate international law, and ISA secretary-general Leticia Reis de Carvalho has said that unilateral action to mine the deep sea “sets a dangerous precedent that could destabilize the entire system of global ocean governance.”The new research adds to those calls for caution. The mining process involves transporting nodules along with seawater and sediments via pipe up to a ship where the valuable metals can be separated and collected. The leftover waste is pumped back into the ocean, but where exactly to dump it in the vast abyss is still a big question. The twilight zone is one option that industry has proposed, considered a midwater depth — where sunlight disappears and is replaced by the dim light of bioluminescent organisms. It’s an area that’s busy with life, including small fish, crustaceans, and gelatinous creatures called micronekton and the zooplankton they eat. The zooplankton gobble up particles from dead organic material that drifts down into the twilight zone. A major problem with releasing plumes of waste here is that it would inundate the zone with similarly sized sediment particles that could replace the zooplankton’s food source with a less nutritious alternative.The researchers from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa collected water and particle samples before and during a small-scale test mining operation TMC conducted in the Pacific Ocean in 2022. By comparing concentrations of amino acids in the particles, a measure of their nutritional value, they found that the particles from the waste plume were 10 to 100 times less nutritious. Dowd describes it as “junk food that has almost no organic material to it.”“This will cause this bottom-up impact where first, these zooplankton will starve, and it can cause the micronekton and up to starve,” he says. Whales and bigger fish like tuna and swordfish dive down to the twilight zone to eat micronekton. Zooplankton also migrate up toward the sea surface nightly to feed before returning to the ocean’s midwater. They become food for other animals at varying depths in that process, and the ritual also plays a key role in transporting carbon deep into the sea to regulate Earth’s climate. For all these reasons, flooding the twilight zone with junk particles from mining waste is likely to have cascading effects on life at all depths of the ocean. Releasing that waste in shallower waters, home to predators higher up on the food chain, is likely to pose similar or worse risks, the research paper notes. There’s little data available to understand what the impact might be further down in the water column than the twilight zone, where scientists are still discovering new species and where some species from shallower depths will migrate to avoid predators. If companies are hell-bent on mining the deep sea before even fully understanding the risks, they might be able to mitigate some harms by returning sediment waste all the way back down to the seafloor where they dug it up. This is likely a more complicated and costly endeavor than releasing it at shallower depths, however — and that has scientists concerned about the impact that cutting corners could have on sea life.  Advances in battery technology and e-waste recycling can limit the need to mineThe study authors tell The Verge that although they received funding from the company, they retained the independence to publish their findings without Metals Co. influencing their work. The Metals Company said in an email to The Verge that it plans to discharge waste at a depth of 2,000 meters, below the twilight zone studied in the paper, “based on the authors’ advice.” It claims that the waste particles dissipate quickly, and that there are fewer zooplankton at that depth anyway. “Concern about midwater impacts is understandable, but the data have moved on—and so should the conversation,” TMC environmental manager Michael Clarke said in the email.Advances in battery technology and e-waste recycling can also limit the need to mine. Automakers including Tesla, BYD, and Ford have turned to alternatives to conventional rechargeable batteries that would eliminate or limit the need for nickel and cobalt. Building out more robust recycling infrastructure could also help ensure that EVs and renewable energy sources like wind and solar that need rechargeable batteries don’t wind up causing new environmental crises. “We can recycle our [e-waste], we can mine our waste,” says Brian Popp, co-author of the study and a professor at the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. “We don’t need to dig up the deep sea to power the green revolution.”

RSS feed readers are the most effective way to stay on top of the news you want. With all of the advancements in technology, we have yet to see something that really surpasses the effectiveness and simplicity of an RSS feed aggregator, and that's why pretty much every news website still offers an RSS feed (that includes XDA, by the way).

Over the years, there have been a few initiatives that attempt to bring awareness to the idea that public USB charging ports are a disaster waiting to happen. In theory, these public charging ports could be compromised and be used to access data from your phone when you're only trying to charge your phone, a process referred to as "juice jacking".

Tinder is testing an AI-powered “Chemistry” feature that learns about your interests and personality by analyzing your camera roll. In its latest earnings report, the dating app’s parent company, Match Group, described it as an interactive matching feature that’s designed to combat “swipe fatigue” by surfacing fewer, more compatible matches.Chemistry requires the user’s permission to access camera roll photos, and will also ask “interactive questions” to get to know users better. Match says this is a “major pillar of Tinder’s upcoming 2026 product experience,” and that the feature is already live in New Zealand and Australia, with plans to expand to additional countries in the coming months.Giving an app’s AI free rein to look through photos on your device feels a little invasive, even if the feature is opt-in only. Match Group has introduced this and other AI features in an effort to encourage Tinder users to stick with the app, which has suffered a decline in paying subscribers for more than two years.

From utilities designed to boost your creativity and productivity to media apps for organizing your documents, images, movies, and game collections, self-hosted services have become pretty diverse these days. In fact, the container ecosystem has grown so much that you’ll find dedicated apps (and even platforms) created specifically to help you manage, maintain, and troubleshoot other home lab utilities.

Countless cars have received military-grade marketing over the years, their performances likened to some form of ordnance or another. Saab was notorious for leaning on its aeronautical origins, and it's hard to imagine what kind of state Jeep would be in today without literally parading its olive drab roots at every opportunity. But not since World War II's requisitioning of automotive factories have we had such a direct crossover between a civilian machine and defense devices as we have in today's 1,250-horsepower, $2.35-million Czinger 21C. The car's components are formed, layer by microscopic layer, in the very same machines that spin o …Read the full story at The Verge.

The collection includes a new two-button wireless remote that can be used to control more than just lights. | Image: Ikea Ikea announced 21 new Matter-over-Thread devices that can “connect with a wider range of devices and platforms, making it easier for customers to build a smart home across different brands.” The collection includes both entirely new products and updates to existing offerings introducing new functionality and features.The new collection was teased by Ikea’s David Granath during our exclusive interview earlier this year, and the company originally promised support for the Matter smart home standard when it announced its Dirigera hub in May 2022. Although the hub’s Matter support ended up being delayed for several years, it was finally introduced in beta in March 2024. Several months later, Ikea updated its smart hub so all users could use it as a bridge between the company’s Zigbee-based smart home devices and other Matter-enabled systems.Earlier this year, Ikea updated its Dirigera hub to become a Matter controller, allowing Matter devices from other companies to be added and controlled using Ikea’s Home Smart app. The company says it’s expecting its new Matter-compatible smart home collection to show up in stores as early as this month in some countries. For the US, the smart remotes and sensors will be available in Ikea stores starting in January 2026, while the smart bulbs will debut in April 2026. Ahead of that Ikea is already updating its app and hub this week to make the Matter controller functionality officially available to all users.Smart bulbs have been one of Ikea’s most popular smart home products, and its new Kajplats collection features a simplified lineup, making it easier for customers to differentiate what’s available. There are 11 variations in the new Kajplats line, including 60mm E27/E26 bulbs with a standard globe shape, compact 45mm P45 E17/E14/E12 bulbs, and GU10 directional spotlight bulbs that are each available in dimmable white spectrum or full color-changing versions.Ikea will also be offering clear decorative bulbs in three sizes as large as 95mm, but they’re limited to the white spectrum. Despite the company moving away from Zigbee for its smart home products in favor of Matter-over-Thread, the new bulbs will still be compatible with Ikea’s older wireless remotes and can be used without its smart home app or Dirigera hub for customers preferring a simpler setup.As rumored earlier this year, Ikea is introducing two new Matter-compatible wireless remotes that are no longer designed for specific products and functions. The Bilresa remote will be available in a streamlined two-button version and one with a scroll wheel, and while both can be used to turn on lights and adjust their brightness, they’re designed to be generic and compatible with other product types.The scroll wheel remote can also control multiple groups, switchable using a button on the bottom. You can use the scroll wheel to adjust the volume on a smart speaker, for example, and then switch to controlling the color of your lights. Ikea will be selling both versions of the remote individually or in red, green, and beige three-packs so you can differentiate their functionality and which devices they control based on their color.The remotes also work with Ikea’s new Grillplats smart plug that lets you remotely turn on lamps and smaller appliances while also tracking their energy usage.Rounding out Ikea’s new smart home collection are five new smart sensors. Myggspray is an indoor / outdoor motion sensor that can trigger lights. Myggbett is a door / window sensor that can activate lights or send notifications when they’re opened or closed. And Klippbok is a water sensor small enough to fit under appliances that can alert you to leaks through notifications and a built-in audible alarm of its own.The puck-shaped Timmerflotte is a temperature and humidity sensor that cycles through both measurements with a button press using a pixelated LED display on top. It can help ensure your home’s target temperature is reached even in rooms that may be located on another floor than where your smart thermostat is installed. Lastly, the Alpstuga may look like a desktop clock, but in addition to displaying the time it’s also Ikea’s first air quality sensor that can measure CO2 as well as the level of airborne PM2.5 particles in your home, temperature, and humidity. It’s designed to work with Ikea’s existing air purifiers, expanding the reach of their built-in air quality sensors to other areas of your home.Ikea hasn’t revealed US pricing yet, but it did share pricing details for the UK. The new Kajplats will range in price from £4 to £9 (around $5.21 to $11.73) while the dual button remote will be £3, and the scroll wheel remote will be £4. The Klippbok, Myggbett, and Myggspray sensors will each be £7, and the Timmerflotte temperature / humidity sensor will be £5. The most expensive device in the new collection will be the £25 Alpstuga air quality sensor.

A home lab is never "finished", there are always new upgrades to make, new services to install and tinker with, and new operating systems to try. It's an ongoing experiment that usually starts as an old PC and can quickly turn into a sprawl of cables and devices, all of which have a purpose. Some of the biggest upgrades will obviously be flashy: a new router, new CPU for your build, or the addition of a dedicated GPU, but honestly, some of the best changes I've made have been small, relatively quiet upgrades.

On Thursday, Tesla shareholders will vote on whether to grant Elon Musk an enormous pay package, the largest ever awarded to a chief executive by orders of magnitude, or risk him leaving the company in a huff.If this sounds weirdly familiar, it's because the same thing unfolded nearly a year ago. At the 2024 meeting, Tesla shareholders were urged to vote in favor of a $50 billion payday for Musk, in order to keep him on the job as CEO. This time the money is much greater - estimated to be worth $1 trillion - and the stakes for Tesla are much higher. The proposal, put forward by Tesla's board in September, says that Musk must "completely …Read the full story at The Verge.

We've seen the Asus Vivobook 14 drop in price before, but this has to be the lowest price we've seen all year. It's now just $200 from Best Buy thanks to a steep $250 discount. We know that Black Friday is just around the corner, but we don't think we'll be seeing this laptop, this cheap, during the holiday sales that are coming up in just a few weeks' time. That means it's now the perfect time to pick this up, if you've been looking for a Windows laptop that can handle all the basics.

Ikea is making the smart home cheaper and easier with a new line of low-cost Matter-over-Thread smart home staples, including bulbs, buttons, and sensors. Ikea just announced a bunch of super cheap, colorful Matter-over-Thread devices that will work with any platform, and it feels like Christmas came early for the smart home.The 21 new products include a line of smart bulbs starting at just £4 and two new remote controls that start at just £3 (US pricing is not yet confirmed). Ikea also officially updated its Dirigera hub to a Matter controller and Thread border router to support the new products, which will start to arrive in the US in January. It's a big shift toward a simpler, more open smart home, a vote of confidence in Matter from a major mainstream brand, and great news for users, w …Read the full story at The Verge.

The next big leap in CPU design won’t come from adding more cores, chasing smaller nodes, or stacking additional chiplets onto one CPU. That's not to say that things like AMD's 3D V-Cache aren't good, meaningful innovations, but it doesn't really change how we think about CPUs.