A few weeks ago, I interviewed the owner of a Chick-fil-A franchise who had decided to offer his employees a 3-day work week.

Verdict: They loved it, they were more productive and less likely to leave, and when word got out about the program, job applications went through the roof.

I'm glad it worked out for them, but squeezing a full week's worth of work into three days seems a bit extreme. And for that matter, what ever happened to the idea of a four day work week?

At the dawn of the Renaissance there was a strong sense of living in the end of days. Obscured by the shadow of the Middle Ages, the desire for a renewed identity, shaped by both humanitarian and scientific learning, was in its infancy. Artists and scientists began the work of dismantling of everything that for centuries had been taken for granted. The Italian Renaissance contributed significantly to breaking down the boundaries – those of ideas as well as those of geography or demarcated by political power. The new entrepreneurship coming into force in Medicis Florence, in Venice under the Dodges and in Milan dominated by Ludovico il Moro, taking place as a result of advances in the textile industry and in the wake of the Italian Renaissance, extended beyond the geographic and political borders and found profitable links with Flanders and, therefore, with the Renaissance in the Low Countries (corresponding roughly to the present-day Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg).

Scientists working at Yale and the University of Rhode Island (URI) have discovered a new molecular cancer treatment that can hone in on cancer cells and eradicate tumors in mice. The tests so far have proven to offer exceptionally grand results, and even a single dose was enough to destroy some of the most advanced tumors.

The new molecular cancer treatment relies on a specific molecule, which can seek out the acidic environments that surround cancer cells. But, in order for the cells to be acidic enough, they cannot be “cold” tumors, which have little immune activity.

Image: Image: Tatiana Shepeleva

Lilium, which is developing an all-electric vertical take-off and landing jet, has closed on a funding round of $119 million.

Participants included Honeywell Aerospace and Aciturri, as well as LGT and affiliated impact investor Lightrock, Tencent, B. Riley Securities, and others. Lilium’s new CEO, Klaus Roewe, as well as three board members also participated.

Image: https://skift.com

It's been a cloudy season for Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

Titan is a strange world — a little bit Earthlike, if land were made of water ice, rivers and seas were filled with liquid methane and other hydrocarbons, and the atmosphere were thick and hazy, dotted with methane clouds. And now, the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb or JWST) has observed two of those clouds during observations on Nov. 4 that have thrilled scientists, according to a NASA statement.

Image: Two views of Saturn's moon Titan captured by the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam instrument. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Webb Titan GTO Team/Alyssa Pagan (STScI))

The new year will see AI tools for chip design, video streams with ad support, and a crowd of satellites in space, according to the annual tech, media and telecom predictions from accounting and consulting firm Deloitte.

In its predictions, Deloitte said it expects we will see the major formerly ad-free streaming services shift to offering cheaper or free options with advertising. The firm also sees a lot of M&A activity continuing across the tech, media, gaming, and telecom markets in 2023.

Image: Deloitte pulled out its crystal ball again for 2023 predictions. Image Credit: Deloitte

With renewable energy becoming cheaper, there's a growing impetus to find ways to store it economically. Batteries can handle short-term fluxes in production but may not be able to handle longer-term shortfalls or seasonal changes in power output. Hydrogen is one of several options being considered that has the potential to serve as a longer-term bridge between periods of high renewable productivity.

As artificial intelligence continues to disrupt industries, the demand for systems that can interact more naturally with people has greatly increased. Problem is, creating such a system is no easy feat. During a keynote presentation at 2022's Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, Juho Kim, an associate professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) laid out the four main challenges facing the development of new A.I.-powered tools. In doing so, he explained how incorporating robust opportunities for feedback will allow developers to create systems that are even friendlier to us humans.

Over the past four fiscal years, there have been 1,977 initial public offerings (IPOs) completed by companies headquartered in the U.S., according to PitchBook, yielding more than $549 billion in capital invested. These companies are located in 45 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Almost 20% of those companies are no longer publicly held, having been returned to private ownership, been acquired, merged or gone out of business.

Elon Musk’s health tech venture Neuralink shared updates to its brain-implant technology during a “show and tell” recruitment event Wednesday night. Musk said during the event that he plans to get one of the implants when they’re ready.

Musk said two of the company’s applications will aim to restore vision, even for people who were born blind, and a third application will focus on the motor cortex by resto

Online automation tools always sound incredible. They’ll do all the hard work for you! They’ll cut endless steps out of your day! They’ll save you 77 minutes a week and let you focus on what really matters!

But then you actually try to use the things, and more often than not you practically need a degree in engineering to get them up and running.

Off-grid charging stations may have the power to improve EV infrastructure in the States.

By now you’re probably used to seeing parking lots equipped with solar-powered EV charging stations. The vast majority of these units are directly connected to the local power grid, allowing them to function even when the sun isn’t shining and solar power is at a minimum. This connection also means there’s no need for a large backup battery pack, something that can help keep prices down, too.

Image: Beam Global/Facebook

Scientists hoping to harness nuclear fusion—the same energy source that powers the Sun and other stars—have confirmed that magnetic fields can enhance the energy output of their experiments, reports a new study.

The results suggest that magnets may play a key role in the development of this futuristic form of power, which could theoretically provide a virtually limitless supply of clean energy. While this is an exciting prospect, most experts believe that it will take decades to engineer a working fusion reactor, assuming it is possible at all.

Even amid an ultra-tight U.S. jobs market, where unfilled positions outnumber people available to fill them by nearly 2 to 1, when it comes to the places where we toil, employers and workers appear to be moving away from each other. And remote work is the issue now marking the divide.

Seismic impacts on the function and philosophy of where we do our work, first wrought by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, continue to be felt by business owners and employees as new definitions of the workplace are still being written.

Image: Tyson Oldham works in his home office as his son Carson, 7, rattles his chair in Highland on Aug. 14, 2020. More and more U.S. workers want to work from home.Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

A fundamental breakthrough in chemistry promises to unlock ammonia as a clean fuel, and it could help decarbonize the entire chemical industry in the process. Rice University researchers have created a small, LED-powered device that converts ammonia to hydrogen on the fly. It uses a light-driven catalyst that's as efficient as expensive thermal catalysts that need thousand-degree temperatures to operate, and it's made from cheap, abundant copper and iron. And it's only the beginning of a technology that could radically reduce costs and energy use in industrial chemistry.

Image: Syzygy's LED-powered photoreactors and Rice University's extraordinarily effective nano-engineered photocatalysts promise an environmentally-critical revolution in industrial chemistryRice University

Many modern satellites use solar cells to continuously harvest the sun’s energy, allowing them to power their electrical circuits without significant battery storage. Yet in the harsh environment of outer space, unshielded by Earth’s atmosphere, these materials are also vulnerable – especially to solar radiation, in the form of high-energy protons and electrons that stream from the sun.

Image: Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

Aerospace manufacturer Rolls-Royce said Monday it had successfully tested and run the world's first hydrogen-powered aircraft engine.

The first-of-its-kind engine could prove a significant milestone in the development of eco-friendly fuel for the aviation industry.

In a press release, Rolls-Royce said it had tested an early concept engine using hydrogen from wind and tidal power. The test was performed in collaboration with British low-cost air carrier easyJet, and officials said the hydrogen engine was a "key proof point" in the decarbonization strategies of both companies.

Whether you live in the rapidly drying American West or are aboard the International Space Station for a six-month stint, having enough water to live on is a constant concern. As climate change continues to play havoc on the West’s aquifers, and as humanity pushes further into the solar system, the potable supply challenges we face today will only grow. In their efforts to ensure humanity has enough to drink, some of NASA’s cutting-edge in-orbit water recycling research is coming back down to Earth.

Image: Johnson Space Center - NASA

There are a few sources of power that are “free” here on Earth, namely wind, solar, hydro and geothermal. Humans have been tapping hydro and wind for millennia, and we’re getting pretty good at harnessing the power of the sun. But with geothermal, we’re still not expertly exploiting the heat that’s generated deep within the planet.

Workplace bullying can take many different forms. As a leader, you need to be equipped to identify and prevent it on your team. Here’s how. Start by watching for signs of hostile bullying (for example, shouting at someone in anger). Hostility is typically triggered by resource scarcity and overall stress. To address this aggressive, overt form of bullying, reduce the pressure of unrealistic deadlines, unmanageable workloads, and toxic workplace competition—and emphasize the importance of teamwork and collective goals. You might also invest in training employees in non-violent communication. Next, look out for the signals of indirect bullying (for example, spreading rumors about someone).