How bacteria from Earth may help us colonize space The trick is fitting bacteria with little miner’s hats Researchers at the University of Edinburgh spent 10 years developing biomining reactors. In July 2019, eighteen of these matchbox-sized devices were launched to the International Space Station aboard aSpaceXrocket. Each of these minuscule reactors was loaded with basalt rocks (similar to those on Mars and The Moon), immersed in a bacterial solution....

Amongst the young companies building apps and services at theStartup Bootcampaccelerator in Copenhagen is something you rarely see in such schemes – a startup focused on content. BalconyTVis devoted to the idea of music being performed on balconies. It sounds like a simple, if oddly specific, concept, but its one that has become a franchise that sees volunteers in cities around the world filming performances and sharing them with the world via a central website, clocking up over 20 million views of over 5000 videos in the process....

How Bangkok’s 40,000-kilometer transport network was mapped for the first time Mapping emerging cities In February, WhereIsMyTransport raised US$7.5 million in a Series A funding round, with investment from companies including Google and Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC). The startup first began mapping cities in Africa in 2015, before expanding to India, Southeast Asia , and Latin America. It is currently focused on bridging the information gap around informal modes of transport like minibusses and rickshaws, which account for a high proportion of urban travel in developing cities globally....

How banks use AI to catch criminals and detect bias Catching the criminals Fighting financial crime involves monitoring a lot of transactions. For instance, the Netherlands-based ABN AMRO currently hasaround 3400employees involved in screening and monitoring transactions. Traditional monitoring relies on rule-based systems that are rigid and leave out many emerging financial threats such as terrorism finance, illegal trafficking, and wildlife and health care fraud. Meanwhile, they create a lot of false positives, legitimate transactions that are flagged as suspicious....

Following Red Dress Day on May 5, a day aimed to raise awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), Indigenous activists and supporters of the campaign foundposts about MMIWG had disappearedfrom their Instagram accounts. In response, Instagram released a tweet saying that this was “a widespread global technical issue not related to any particular topic,” followed by an apology explaining that the platform “experienced a technical bug, which impacted millions of people’s stories, highlights and archives around the world....