In February 2007, a US military helicopter carrying blood to a field hospital in Iraq was shot down. All seven crew members were killed. Nearly two decades later, the Pentagon is spending $73 million to make sure blood never has to make that kind of trip in a hurry again.
The DARPA program is trying to produce shelf-stable plasma, platelets and red blood cells. The goal is dried blood products that can sit in storage for long periods and then be deployed fast on the battlefield. Blood has a limited shelf life and is often in short supply, and the 2007 crash showed what it can cost to move it.
The deadline is tight. DARPA wants bags of dried blood products in the field by 2029. I’d be cautious about that date. Researchers still have major questions about whether synthetic alternatives are safe and whether they work, and getting all of it done will be tough.
A battery that splits the difference
WeLion New Energy is betting that the next step for batteries isn’t fully solid-state. It’s halfway there. The Chinese company builds liquid-solid hybrid cells meant to pack more power into electric cars, boats and drones.
The company has a real track record behind the pitch. In 2023, WeLion released a battery pack with EV-maker Nio that offered a range of over 1,000 kilometers. The hybrid design could potentially improve safety and offer greater energy density than lithium-ion batteries.
WeLion is now developing cells with even higher energy density. But the hard part in batteries is rarely the lab result. It’s scaling up production and competing on cost, and both remain major challenges for the company.
Your weight-loss drug might be slowing your clock
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk say patients on their GLP-1 drugs age less quickly. The evidence comes from molecular “aging clocks” that track changes in DNA or levels of key proteins.
That has fed speculation that GLP-1 drugs could be acting on basic causes of aging and might be true longevity treatments. I’d hold off on rewriting your retirement plan. These claims come from the drugmakers themselves, and it’s still an open question how much the results tell us.
Researchers are also adapting the same class of drugs for brain disorders. New GLP-1 trials are targeting addiction and depression, even as scientists are still working out the side effects.
An OpenAI engineer, a $13.99 gadget and the FBI
The FBI has arrested an OpenAI engineer accused of snooping. The suspect, a Saudi national, is accused of planting a covert recording device. That device is a camera-and-microphone tool that sells online for $13.99, and it was allegedly found plugged into a TV’s USB port.
Two details stand out. He reportedly used chatbots to plan the covert recording. And OpenAI says its own AI models helped identify the employee. Make of that loop what you will.
Drones, data centers and China-free supply chains
Ukrainian drones have hit Russia’s largest data center. Sberbank claims its systems and services weren’t disrupted. Ukraine’s strikes on data centers have thrown Russia into turmoil, though they haven’t stopped Russian bot farms from trolling.
On the supply side, US defense startups are turning to Taiwan to build drones without Chinese parts. At least 13 joint agreements have been signed since 2025. That comes as questions grow over whether Taiwan’s “silicon shield” is weakening.
A separate war game showed how messy a solar geoengineering arms race could get. Participants feuded over the rules for dimming the sun, and the idea faces practical hurdles on top of the political ones.
Tesla, Character.ai and Apple’s Siri bet
US regulators are reviewing claims that Tesla robotaxis sped through school zones. In a separate story, Tesla’s security features reportedly thwarted a federal tracking attempt.
Character.ai has filed for bankruptcy. The company has been accused of stealing content and harming kids. Disney has offered $20 million for its chatbot tech, and the filings expose common problems with AI business models.
Apple has a new smart-home lineup built around a revamped Siri. HomeView pairs a 7-inch screen with face recognition, and the Home Collection adds cameras, locks and thermostats. The whole thing runs on Siri AI, which still has to prove it’s smart enough to carry a product line. Apple’s assistant has a long history of falling short on exactly that.
The surveillance question nobody has settled
The public fight between the Department of Defense and Anthropic has raised a question that should have an easy answer and doesn’t: Does the law allow the US government to conduct mass surveillance on Americans?
More than a decade after Edward Snowden exposed the NSA’s bulk collection of phone metadata from Americans, there’s still a gap between what ordinary people assume and what the law permits. AI is now supercharging surveillance, and the legal framework hasn’t caught up. The Pentagon’s use of AI has exposed just how gray those areas are.
Misinformation is the other worry heading into the midterms. Danielle Citron, a University of Virginia law professor, said Elon Musk’s ability to amplify conspiracy theories on X could give misinformation unprecedented influence.
Odds and ends
Scientists have identified a new dinosaur in a century-old fossil. Invictibellatrix amberina may be Europe’s first megaraptoran. SpaceX’s latest launch produced a “space jellyfish,” with rocket exhaust spreading into tentacles high in the atmosphere.
Elsewhere, 22 nations have called for a new global body to oversee AI. OpenAI has paused some model work over safety concerns, and it has also released 377 new math findings that have further rattled the field. Meta will pay up to $18 billion to settle a landmark child-safety case.
And if you need a break from all of it, pygmy raccoons have taught each other to make toys out of paper and sand. There’s also a tool called Stowaway that puts you in the window seat of whatever plane is flying over you right now. I tried to come up with a more productive use for your afternoon and couldn’t.
