and a new fusion power deal

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

1 There’s scant evidence tylenol use during pregnancy causes autism
The biggest cause of autism is genetic—that’s why it often runs in families. (Scientific American $)
+ Anti-vaxxers are furious the White House didn’t link autism to vaccines. (Ars Technica)
+ The company that sells Tylenol is being forced to defend the medicine’s safety. (Axios)

2 Nvidia is investing up to $100 billion in OpenAI
OpenAI is already a major customer, but this will bind the two even more closely together. (Reuters $)
+ America’s top companies keep talking about AI—but they can’t explain its upsides. (FT $)

3 Denmark’s biggest airport was shut down by drones
Its prime minister refused to rule out Russian involvement. (FT $)
+ Poland and Estonia have been speaking up at the UN about Russian incursions into their airspace. (The Guardian)

4 Google is facing another antitrust trial in the US
This one will focus on remedies to its dominance of the advertising tech market. (Ars Technica)
+ The FTC is also taking Amazon to court over accusations the company tricks people into paying for Prime. (NPR)
+ The Supreme Court has ruled to allow Trump’s firing of a Democrat FTC commissioner. (NYT $)

5 Here’s the potential impact of Trump’s H-1B crackdown on tech
It’s likely to push a lot of skilled workers elsewhere. (Rest of World)

6 How TikTok’s deal to stay in the US will work
Oracle will manage its algorithm for US users and oversee security operations. (ABC)
+ It’s a giant prize for Trump’s friend Larry Ellison, Oracle’s cofounder. (NYT $)
+ Trump and his allies are now likely to exert a lot of political influence over TikTok. (WP $)

7 Record labels are escalating their lawsuit against an AI music startup
They claim it knowingly pirated songs from YouTube to train its generative AI models. (The Verge $)
+ AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review) 

8 There’s a big fight in the US over who pays for weight loss drugs
Although they’ll save insurers money long-term, they cost a lot upfront. (WP $)
+ We’re learning more about what weight-loss drugs do to the body. (MIT Technology Review)

9 How a lone vigilante ended up blowing up 5G towers
A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. (Wired $)

10 The moon is rusting 🌕
And it’s our fault. Awkward! (Nature)

Quote of the day

“At the heart of this is people trying to look for simple answers to complex problems.”

—James Cusack, chief executive of an autism charity called Autistica, tells Nature what he thinks is driving Trump and others to incorrectly link the condition with Tylenol use during pregnancy. 

The quest to figure out farming on Mars

Once upon a time, water flowed across the surface of Mars. Waves lapped against shorelines, strong winds gusted and howled, and driving rain fell from thick, cloudy skies. It wasn’t really so different from our own planet 4 billion years ago, except for one crucial detail—its size. Mars is about half the diameter of Earth, and that’s where things went wrong.

The Martian core cooled quickly, soon leaving the planet without a magnetic field. This, in turn, left it vulnerable to the solar wind, which swept away much of its atmosphere. Without a critical shield from the sun’s ultraviolet rays, Mars could not retain its heat. Some of the oceans evaporated, and the subsurface absorbed the rest, with only a bit of water left behind and frozen at its poles. If ever a blade of grass grew on Mars, those days are over.

But could they begin again? And what would it take to grow plants to feed future astronauts on Mars? Read the full story.

—David W. Brown

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 skeet ’em at me.)

+  These abandoned blogs are a relic of the bygone internet (bring them back!)
+ How to strengthen your bond with your reluctant cat 😾
+ How Metal Gear Solid inspired the video to one of the greatest hits of the late 90s.
+ If I had to explain British culture to someone, I’d just send them this video.