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From Quantum Security to Climate Change Innovation: Frontier Tech Stories That Defined 2025 (Maria)
The author writes, “In 2025, frontier technologies crossed key thresholds — not just advancing, but beginning to scale. From quantum security and spatial computing to climate and food systems innovation, this was a year when convergence turned into consequence. Across industries and geographies, we began to see technologies once at the edge of experimentation begin shaping decisions.”
Elon Musk’s DOGE Gutted Federal Agencies, Cancelled Major Programs — But Federal Spending Still Went UP: Report (Sean)
The author writes, “Back in February, Elon Musk infamously waved around a chainsaw onstage at CPAC as his Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE, kicked off its activities, but a new report by The New York Times has revealed that while the agency did fire lots of federal workers, slash budgets, and cancel grants and programs, the end result not only didn’t save the $1 trillion Musk promised — federal spending actually went up. According to the report … DOGE claimed it ‘made more than 29,000 cuts to the federal government — slashing billion-dollar contracts, canceling thousands of grants and pushing out civil servants,’ but nonetheless failed to keep Musk’s promise that it would ‘reduce federal spending by $1 trillion before October.’”
The Americans Who Stood Up for Immigrants This Year (Dana)
From The Bulwark: “Faced with the Trump-Miller firehose of cruelty, many people rose up to defend their neighbors, friends, and fellow worshipers.”
How Rolling Sand Dunes Are Creeping up on Last Remaining Oases on Edge of Sahara (Laura)
From The Guardian: “In western Chad, villagers are desperately trying to hold back the sand as the climate crisis wreaks havoc on one of the hottest countries in the world.”
Scientists Found a Way To Restore Brain Blood Flow in Dementia (Mili)
The author writes, “A potential new way to treat reduced brain blood flow and certain forms of dementia is beginning to emerge. Scientists at the University of Vermont Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine have uncovered new details about how blood circulation in the brain is controlled and how vascular problems might be reversed. Their preclinical research … suggests that replacing a missing phospholipid in the bloodstream could help restore normal brain blood flow and ease dementia-related symptoms.”
Ford Workers Told Their CEO ‘None of the Young People Want To Work Here.’ So Jim Farley Took a Page Out of the Founder’s Playbook (Reader Jim)
From Fortune: “Ford CEO Jim Farley learned from older employees that some young workers at the carmaker were taking shifts at Amazon to make ends meet, he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Farley said he drew on founder Henry Ford’s decision to raise factory wages to $5 a day in 1914 to make temporary workers into full-time employees. Young people have previously eschewed manufacturing jobs due to low wages.”
Hubble Space Telescope Spies Dusty Debris From Two Cosmic Collisions (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope got a rare look at the aftermath of two cosmic collisions — and helped scientists solve a decades-old mystery. Many years ago, scientists saw a dense, bright spot near a young star called Fomalhaut. They thought it could be a planet and continued to track it.”
