Elon Musk's brain-computer interface company Neuralink is officially looking for test subjects for its upcoming human trials.⁠ ⁠ The six-year experiment is aimed at folks with quadriplegia due to spinal cord injury or ALS, according to an official announcement, with the aim of giving them mental control over various devices.⁠ ⁠ Neuralink is hoping to test its first device, called the N1 implant, and its R1 robot, which will surgically implant the chip inside the participants' brains. The company also wants to test an app that turns brain signals into computer instructions, called the N1 User App.⁠ ⁠ The trial is far from the first time implants have allowed people with paralysis to control computer devices. However, the company's efforts to robotically implant these implants and allow for wireless connectivity have intrigued some experts.⁠ ⁠ Head to the link in our bio to read more⁠ ⁠ 📷 Neuralink

Donald Trump Jr.'s account on X-formerly-Twitter was apparently hacked today, NBC News reports, with the son of former president Donald Trump posting — falsely — that his father had died.⁠ ⁠ "I’m sad to announce, my father Donald Trump has passed away," the account tweeted, as evidenced by screenshots obtained by NBC. "I will be running for president in 2024."⁠ ⁠ Unsurprisingly, the seemingly hacked account also tweeted racist slurs and threatened to "burn the SEC."⁠ ⁠ Donald Trump spokesperson Andrew Surabian followed up the bizarre outburst, saying that the claim of the elder Trump's demise was "obviously not true. Don's account has been hacked."⁠ ⁠ In short, having Donald Trump Jr.'s account compromised isn't exactly surprising, especially given the sheer chaos following Musk's disastrous takeover of X-formerly-Twitter last year.⁠ ⁠ Head to the link in our bio to read more about the Trump family's past lax tech security⁠ ⁠ 📷 Douglas P. Defelice / Getty Images

Mysterious flashing lights on Venus that scientists initially thought were from lightning, may be something else entirely.⁠ ⁠ As detailed in a new study, researchers out of Arizona State University have suggested that flashes of light detected during missions to Venus may instead be tens of thousands of meteors burning up in its ultra-hot atmosphere.⁠ ⁠ It's unlikely lightning is the culprit because its clouds are made up almost entirely of sulfuric acid rather than water vapor — a necessary ingredient for lightning to form at least here on Earth.⁠ ⁠ Instead, those signals may indicate that meteors are burning up in the planet's "hellish" atmosphere, a finding that underlines how little we know about the mysterious rocky giant.⁠ ⁠ Head to the link in our bio to read more⁠ ⁠ 📷 NASA / Futurism

If you've found yourself mourning the ability to see stars in the night sky, you aren't alone.⁠ ⁠ As Flatiron Institute astrophysicist Paul Sutter writes for Space.com, this feeling is so prevalent that astronomers have come up with a name for it.⁠ ⁠ Presented back in June in both a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed paper and a letter published in the journal Science, the term represents a distinct form of "sky grief," or the feeling of a deep sense of loss for the nighttime smattering of stars and constellations that humans in urban environments rarely get a glimpse of.⁠ ⁠ The astronomers have dubbed this phenomenon "noctalgia" — and yes, it has us in our feels, too.⁠ ⁠ Head to the link in our bio to read more⁠ ⁠ 📷 Getty Images

NASA and SpaceX notched an important milestone for their upcoming crewed lunar mission: test-firing a SpaceX engine from a cold start in order to simulate conditions in the extremely ice-cold vacuum of space.⁠ ⁠ SpaceX released video footage of the test on X-formerly-Twitter, showing the cold engine start of its Raptor engine last month. While lying face down, the engine successfully blasted a controlled jet of fire.⁠ ⁠ NASA is planning to use a lunar variant of SpaceX's Starship spacecraft for the agency's crewed Artemis missions to the lunar surface, slated for 2025. The lunar lander needs to operate from a cold start because NASA envisions that the spacecraft may have to sit in the frigid temperatures of outer space for a relatively long time compared to a mission orbiting the Earth, according to NASA.⁠ ⁠ The test sets the stage for SpaceX's long-awaited, second orbital launch attempt. With a green light from the Federal Aviation Administration, the test flight could occur as soon as next month.⁠ ⁠ Head to the link in our bio to read more⁠ ⁠ 📷 SpaceX

NOAA's ongoing Alaska Seascape 5 mission is the latest installment of the agency's efforts to fully map the Gulf of Alaska's seafloor. The massive undersea landscape is new to human eyes — as is the sunlight-free ecosystem that flourishes within it.⁠ ⁠ "We picked it because we thought it was going to be a weird place," NOAA physical scientist Sam Candio, the expedition's coordinator, told us over a video call. "And then we see weird stuff down there."⁠ ⁠ Back on August 30, toward the beginning of the mission, the researchers happened upon an especially strange sight: a mysterious golden "orb" of sorts, resting on the side of an unexplored underwater volcano, a hole ripped in the specimen's fleshy side.⁠ ⁠ The object — it was widely described as an orb in the media, but might more accurately be termed a fleshy lump — was puzzling then, and remains so now.⁠ ⁠ We chatted with the NOAA scientists about what they think the orb is and what other weird things they've seen down in the depths. Head to the link in our bio to read more⁠ ⁠ 📷 NOAA Ocean Exploration / Futurism

Way back in 2015, Tesla CEO Elon Musk would frequently give his engineers an earful after his car company's infamous Autopilot driver assistance tech nearly got him killed during test drives on multiple occasions — though there's a chance its dangerous behavior may have been due to Musk's stubbornness on how the technology should be built.⁠ ⁠ The scoop comes from Walter Isaacson's new biography of the tech magnate, simply titled "Elon Musk." Per its chapter on the launch of the driver assistance tech, Musk would learn firsthand that a curve on Interstate 405 caused Autopilot, thrown off by the road's faded lane lines, to steer into and "almost hit" oncoming traffic.⁠ ⁠ Whenever this happened, Musk would "furiously" storm into the Tesla office and proceed to chew out his engineers.⁠ ⁠ "Do something to program this right," he repeatedly demanded, as quoted in the biography.⁠ ⁠ But if Musk wanted safer software, he perhaps should've listened to his engineers, who have frequently petitioned over the years to incorporate what's known as light detection and ranging technology, or LiDAR.⁠ ⁠ Head to the link in our bio to read more about LiDAR⁠ ⁠ 📷 Getty / Futurism

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has spotted an early yet tantalizing piece of evidence that an exoplanet some 120 light years away could be covered in a massive ocean — that's possibly harboring life.⁠ ⁠ The telescope detected a molecule called dimethyl sulfide (DMS) — which only living organisms can produce, at least here on Earth — on the planet, which is dubbed K2-18 b.⁠ ⁠ Researchers also identified methane and carbon dioxide in the planet's atmosphere, indicating it could be a "Hycean" planet, one which is covered in an ocean and has a hydrogen-rich atmosphere.⁠ ⁠ It was first discovered by NASA's K2 mission back in 2015, but only thanks to the James Webb's detailed observations have researchers been able to reveal the presence of these molecules — and the excitement surrounding the discovery is palpable.⁠ ⁠ Head to the link in our bio to read more⁠ ⁠ 📷 NASA

Elon Musk: billionaire, CEO, and master of spin.⁠ ⁠ The SpaceX and Tesla CEO took to Twitter-formerly-X to defend his brain chip company, Neuralink, against animal abuse claims.⁠ ⁠ Neuralink first came under fire in February of last year when a medical nonprofit filed a complaint alleging that the company had performed "invasive and deadly brain experiments" on 23 rhesus macaques monkeys. Fifteen of these monkeys, the nonprofit claimed, ultimately died as a result of the testing.⁠ ⁠ Ever the logician, Musk is now claiming that contrary to media reporting and a federal investigation, Neuralink's brain implants didn't actually kill any monkeys; according to him, the animals were on the edge of death already.⁠ ⁠ Of course, this claim directly contradicts the fact that Neuralink has already admitted that several of its monkeys were euthanized after developing infections and other side effects. ⁠ ⁠ Head to the link in our bio to read more on this sad story⁠ ⁠ 📷 Getty Images

As far as we're aware, a hubcap flying off while driving is not part of the Cybertruck's tech specs — and yet, as new video shows, that seems to be what happened to one not-so-lucky beta driver in California.⁠ ⁠ The video in question shows a Tesla Cybertruck prototype moseying down what appears to be a San Francisco-area freeway when out of nowhere, the electric pickup's wheel cover shoots almost vertically into the air.⁠ ⁠ The, er, interestingly designed hubcap, which The Verge referred to as looking like a "ninja death star," then shoots back down to the ground directly in front of another car ahead of the dashcam.⁠ ⁠ Don't you just hate it when your very expensive new car turns out to be a lemon as soon as your drive it off the lot?⁠ ⁠ Head to the link in our bio to read more ⁠ ⁠ 📷 Leletym3 via YouTube

Last fall, Meta-formerly-Facebook unveiled its Meta Quest Pro, a long-rumored, higher-end follow-up to the company's best-selling Quest 2 VR headset.⁠ ⁠ The sleek device, which initially went on sale for an eye-watering $1,500, has really struggled to catch on since then, just as we predicted at the time.⁠ ⁠ And now, as Mixed Reality News reports, Meta is literally resorting to giving them away for free: Attendees of this year's developer conference for the global gaming platform Roblox each got a free Meta Quest Pro. While it's unclear how many people attended the event, it's a clear indication that the device isn't exactly flying off the shelves.⁠ ⁠ WOMP WOMP⁠ ⁠ 📷 Meta

Mexico's Congress was presented with a bizarre presentation this week when a self-proclaimed UFOlogist unboxed what he claimed to be the bodies of two mummified extraterrestrials found in Peru.⁠ ⁠ "These are nonhuman beings who are not part of our terrestrial evolution," journalist Jaime Maussan told lawmakers.⁠ ⁠ But wait until you see what these alleged alien mummies look like. Their shrunken heads and tiny bodies, with three fingers on each hand, look so incredibly fake that they might as well be part of a display at a Disney World ride.⁠ ⁠ Naturally, the internet had a field day with the presentation.⁠ ⁠ "It's covered in elote seasoning," one Bluesky user posted, referring to an iconic Mexican condiment.⁠ ⁠ Head to the link in our bio to read more about Maussan's outlandish "theories"⁠ ⁠ 📷 Press Office of Mexican Parliament / Handout / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images