Moderna, Merck Report 42% Death Reduction From mRNA Cancer Vaccine

The disclosure came alongside a separate MIT Technology Review editorial package, the Impossible issue, which ran progress reports on six long-promised technologies and ideas, from an exercise pill to nuclear-powered spaceships. The newsletter said experts were asked what is holding the technologies back and how far they have come, and that it would examine each in the coming days.

Cybersecurity also featured in the Oct. 23 roundup. A newly disclosed PHP flaw had not yet produced successful attacks, according to NBC News, and experts said the vulnerabilities were harder to exploit than expected. Officials urged patches after the flaws forced websites offline worldwide, the BBC reported. The Economist noted that publicly disclosed fixes can also help hackers. The newsletter also quoted software developer Ian Landsman saying on X that volunteer Ondřej Surý's work patching PHP vulnerabilities made him an unsung hero of the internet.

In defense technology, Palmer Luckey's new startup Warhound plans to genetically enhance military dogs so they can detect explosives and protect troops, according to Wired. TechCrunch reported that the company has raised $200 million from investors including Sequoia, and Bloomberg reported that Colossal Biosciences will help clone and gene-edit the dogs. The newsletter also noted that the Pentagon wants an AI-powered lie detector.

The Starlink dispute produced conflicting accounts. Donald Trump said Elon Musk had restored Ukraine's Starlink access, but Zelensky said Starlink speeds remained capped, according to Reuters. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump reportedly asked Musk to lift the speed limits.

Google's energy plans drew two reports. The company will pay customers to free up power for data centers through a virtual power plant that rewards people for adjusting energy usage, according to The New York Times. The Guardian reported that Google illegally felled 250,000 trees in Finland for a data center.

In another security item, Dutch spies reportedly hacked Jared Kushner's iPhone, according to Vanity Fair, which alleged financial links to foreign officials.

The newsletter's biotech column, by Jessica Hamzelou, described attending a screening of the documentary You Can See Everything about disgraced former biotech CEO Elizabeth Holmes. Hamzelou wrote that the film left her unsettled and reignited a concern about science coverage: despite best efforts, journalists cannot see everything. She said the film was a reminder of how easy it is to fall for an appealing narrative and that it left her questioning how science is covered.

The roundup also cited reports that fossil fuels may have stopped the next ice age, that scientists had recreated solar flares to explain the corona's mystery, and that a road trip with America's cheapest EV showed charging infrastructure had improved. In the newsletter's One More Thing item, Stuart Bradford wrote that some researchers are using sonification, or turning information into sound, to help blind and visually impaired researchers explore the cosmos and uncover patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed.