The Download: CRISPR’s climate promises, and protecting forests with tech

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

How a breakthrough gene-editing tool will help the world cope with climate change

Jennifer Doudna, one of the inventors of the breakthrough gene-editing tool CRISPR, says the technology will help the world grapple with the growing risks of climate change by delivering crops and animals better suited to hotter, drier, wetter, or weirder conditions.

The grand hope is that CRISPR’s ability to precisely remove specific parts of the DNA within the existing genomes of plants and animals will help avoid many of the pitfalls of earlier adaptation techniques. But there are still considerable obstacles.

Last month, Doudna sat down with MIT Technology Review on the sidelines of the Climate & Agriculture Summit at the University of California, Berkeley. Read what she has to say about the future of genetic editing.

—James Temple

Job title of the future: Digital forest ranger

When Martin Roth began his career as a forest ranger in the 1980s, his job was to care for the forest in a way that would ensure continuity for decades, even centuries. Now, with climate change, it’s more about planning for an uncertain future.

Roth uses the 3,000 acres of forest along the northeastern shore of Lake Constance in Germany as a testing ground for high-tech solutions to protect nature, earning him the moniker “digital forest ranger” (Digitalförster) in the German forestry community. Read the full story.

—Kaja Šeruga

This piece is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review, which is all about the weird and wonderful world of food. If you don’t already, subscribe to receive future copies once they land.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Election deniers are already mobilizing on Telegram
Poll watchers are poised to dispute votes in Democratic areas, no evidence required. (NYT $)
+ TikTok is revealing a major gender divide between the candidates’ campaigns. (WP $)
+ Elon Musk is acting like he’s on the ballot himself. (WSJ $)

2 Vote-counting staffers are preparing for violent attacks
They’ve been trained on how to de-escalate potentially dangerous situations. (The Atlantic $)
+ It could be a long, agonizing wait for the final results to be declared. (NY Mag $)
+ Elon Musk’s PAC canvassers are speaking up about their time doorknocking. (Wired $)

3 Perplexity wants to prove it’s trustworthy enough to track election results
It’s a major test for the AI search engine, to say the least. (TechCrunch)
+ AI-generated search results are often unreliable and open to manipulation. (The Guardian)
+ AI search could break the web. (MIT Technology Review)

4 The 2024 Presidential campaign has been super surreal
From falling out of a coconut tree, to unfounded claims of pet eating. (New Yorker $) 

5 This AI supercomputer is funded by Ozempic
The financial success of the weight-loss drug made it possible to build Gefion, Denmark’s colossal new machine. (WSJ $)
+ Quantum computing is taking on its biggest challenge: noise. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Big Tech is doubling down on its AI spending
Tech giants are continuing to sink huge sums into AI development, even if it’s not making returns yet. (Bloomberg $)
+ How to fine-tune AI for prosperity. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Meta’s nuclear-powered data center has a bee in its bonnet
A rare species of bee is living on the proposed building site. (FT $)

8 Touchscreens are out, physical controls are back in
Buttons and conventional knobs just get the job done. (IEEE Spectrum)

9 Have you checked your privilege lately?
Social media’s latest wheeze is reminding you how lucky you are. (The Guardian)

10 This simple tool will fix your leaky privacy settings
Unfortunately, it also comes with a price. (WP $)

Quote of the day

“I’d rather work and risk my life to work than stay at home.”

—Waleed Iky, a marketing entrepreneur living in Gaza, explains to the Guardian why he continues to travel to a coworking space with fellow freelancers amid warfare.

The big story

Whatever happened to DNA computing?

October 2021

For more than five decades, engineers have shrunk silicon-­based transistors over and over again, creating progressively smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient computers in the process. But the long technological winning streak—and the miniaturization that has enabled it —can’t last forever.

What could this successor technology be? There has been no shortage of alternative computing approaches proposed over the last 50 years. Read about five of the most memorable ones.

—Lakshmi Chandrasekaran

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ May these travel posters brighten up your Monday. 
+ Think you haven’t got time to exercise? Think again—these workouts take two minutes, no equipment or gym membership needed.
+ Uh oh, this Hobbit-o-meter seems to be broken. 
+ Would you live inside a wind turbine?