What was supposed to be the final round of United Nations negotiations for a global plastics treaty ended without an agreement on Sunday, as delegates failed to reconcile opposing views on whether to impose a cap on plastic production. Another negotiating session — dubbed INC-5.2 after this week’s INC-5 —...
New technologies could refine the copper the world needs — without the dirty smelting
At a laboratory in Newark, New Jersey, a gray liquid swirls vigorously inside a reactor the size of a small watermelon. Here, scientists with the mining technology startup Still Bright are using a rare metal, vanadium, to extract a common one, copper, from ores that are too difficult or costly...
Protection of wetlands could come down to farmers, says a new report
This coverage is made possible through a partnership with Grist and Interlochen Public Radio in Northern Michigan. Tucked about a mile offshore from Lake Michigan, in northern Michigan’s Charlevoix County, sits Norwood Centennial Farms. Besides some 300 cows that live there, a creek and underground springs make up a wetland...
I’m grateful for a lot of things. But not Thanksgiving.
The vision “This one day a year doesn’t suffice for the gratitude and appreciation that we have for our plant, animal, water, and land relatives. Our way of life is a thanks giving, every day.” — Lucy Suppah, of the Native American Youth and Family Center The spotlight The further...
A physical deck of Balatro cards can soon be yours for $16
If your group chat is anything like Engadget's Slack, Balatro probably comes up several times a week. The indie poker-style title is one of the most talked-about games of the year for good reason: it's endlessly compelling. But what if you don't have a laptop, phone, Steam Deck, Switch or other...
Threads now allows users to follow fediverse accounts directly in its app
Meta is taking another important step toward making Threads interoperable with the fediverse. The app now allows users to follow accounts from Mastodon and other fediverse apps directly from Threads, Mark Zuckerberg said in an update. Since the early days of Threads, Meta has promised to bake-in support for ActivityPub,...
DeepMind’s GenCast AI is really good at forecasting the weather
When Helene made landfall in Florida earlier this year, 234 people lost their lives to the worst hurricane to strike the US mainland since Katarina in 2005. It’s natural disasters like that, and their growing intensity due to climate change, that have pushed scientists to develop more accurate weather forecasting...
Xreal’s new One Series AR glasses use USB-C to connect with nearly any device
When we took a look at Xreal’s Air 2 Ultra AR glasses earlier this year at CES in Las Vegas, we had positive first impressions but also noted that its success would “ultimately boil down to the range of apps.” Xreal may have come up with a novel way to...
Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s excellent character creator is now a standalone freebie
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is known for having one of the best character creation systems around, and now everyone can experience it without dropping $60. EA just announced that it has made the tools free for all users, as part of a larger Dragon Age Day celebration. It’s available right...
PlayStation VR2 will get hand-tracking support soon
Just when it seemed like PC support was Sony’s final word on the PlayStation VR2, the company is showing off hand tracking for the virtual reality headset. As spotted by UploadVR, Sony has been demoing controller-free hand-tracking support on the PSVR2 at SIGGRAPH Asia 2024, an academic conference and tradeshow...