In a recent interview with Wired, Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan discusses his book Why We Die, in which he argues that death is not genetically programmed but rather a consequence of evolution favoring reproduction over longevity. Here are some of the most thought-provoking excerpts:
WIRED: Professor Ramakrishnan, the crucial question in your book is why we die. But exactly what is death?
Venki Ramakrishnan: By death, we mean the irreversible loss of the ability to function as a coherent individual. It is the result of the failure of a critical system or apparatus, for example, heart, brain, lung, or kidney failure. In this sense there is an apparent paradox: When our organism, as a whole, is alive, millions of cells within us are constantly dying, and we do not even realize it. On the other hand, at the time of death, most of the cells in our bodies are still alive, and entire organs are still functioning and can be donated to people in need of transplantation. But at that point the body has lost the ability to function as a whole. In this sense, it is therefore important to distinguish between cell death and death of the individual.

Speaking of death and aging, you say in your most recent book that you “wanted to offer an objective look at our current understanding of the two phenomena.” What was the biggest surprise or most deeply held belief that you had to reconsider while writing and researching this work?

There have been several surprises, actually. One is that death, contrary to what one might think, is not programmed by our genes. Evolution does not care how long we live, but merely selects the ability to pass on our genes, a process known as “fitness” in evolutionary biology. Thus, the traits that are selected are those that help us survive childhood and reproduce. And it is these traits, later in life, that cause aging and decline. Another curious finding was the fact that aging is not simply due to wear and tear on cells. Wear and tear happens constantly in all living things, yet different species have very different lifespans. Instead, lifespan is the result of a balance between the expenditure of resources needed to keep the organism functioning and repairing it and those needed to make it grow, mature, and keep it healthy until it reproduces and nurtures offspring.

Do you think there is an aspect of the biology of aging that is still deeply misunderstood by the general public?
Certainly the indefinite extension of life. Although in principle there are no laws or constraints that prevent us from living much longer than we do currently, great longevity or “eternal youth” are still far off, and very significant obstacles to increasing our maximum life expectancy remain. We must also beware of the pseudoscience — and business — around the concepts of “anti-aging” or the “reversal of aging.” These are often baseless concepts, unsupported by hard evidence, even though they may use language that sounds scientific. Unfortunately, we are all afraid of growing old and dying, so we are very sensitive to any claim that promises to help us avoid it. […]

What do you think are the social and ethical implications of our desire to live longer?
Ever since we became aware of our mortality, we have desired to defeat aging and death. However, our individual desires may conflict with what is best for society. A society in which fertility rates are very low and lifespans are very high will be a stagnant society, with very slow generational turnover, and probably much less dynamic and creative. The Nobel Prize-winning South American novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, who recently passed away, expressed it best: “Old age on the one hand terrifies us, but when we feel anxious, it is important to remember how terrible it would be to live forever. If eternity were guaranteed, all the incentives and illusions of life would vanish. This thought can help us live old age in a better way.”

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Microsoft has acknowledged that Classic Outlook can mysteriously transform into a system resource hog, causing CPU usage spikes between 30-50% and significantly increasing power consumption on both Windows 10 and 11 systems.

Users first reported the issue in November 2024, but Microsoft only confirmed the problem this week, offering little resolution beyond stating that “the Outlook Team is investigating this issue.” The company’s sole workaround involves forcing a switch to the Semi-Annual Channel update through registry edits — an approach many enterprise environments will likely avoid. Microsoft hasn’t announced a definitive end date for Classic Outlook, but the company continues pushing users toward its New Outlook client despite its incomplete feature set.

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After more than a decade of development, Harvard’s insect-sized flying robot, RoboBee, has successfully learned to land using dragonfly-inspired legs and improved flight controls. The researchers see RoboBee as a potential substitute for endangered bees, assisting in the pollination of plants. From a report: RoboBee is a micro flying robot that Harvard has been developing since 2013. As the name suggests, it is the size of a bee, capable of flying like a bee and hovering in mid-air. Its wings are 3 cm long and it weighs only 0.08 g. The weight was reduced by using light piezoelectric elements instead of motors. Piezoelectric elements change shape when an electric current flows through them. The researchers were able to make RoboBee flap its wings 120 times per second by turning the current on and off, which is similar to actual insects.

While RoboBee exhibited flight capabilities comparable to those of a bee, the real problem was landing. Being too light and having short wings, it could not withstand the air turbulence generated during landing. It is easy to understand if you think about the strong winds generated when a helicopter approaches the ground. Christian Chan, a graduate student at Harvard who participated in the research, said, “Until now, it was a matter of shutting off the robot while it attempted to land and praying for a proper touchdown.”

To ensure RoboBee’s safe landing, it was important to dissipate energy just before touchdown. Hyun Nak-Seung, a professor at Purdue University who participated in the development of RoboBee, explained, “For any flying object, the success of landing depends on minimizing speed just before impact and rapidly dissipating energy afterward. Even for tiny flapping like RoboBee’s, the ground effect cannot be ignored, and after landing, the risk of bouncing or rolling makes the situation more complex.” The findings have been published in the journal Science Robotics.

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Researchers at the University of Tokyo have created what they believe is the largest single piece of lab-grown meat to date: a chicken nugget-sized chunk measuring 7 centimeters long, 4 centimeters wide, and 2.25 centimeters thick, weighing 11 grams. The breakthrough, reported today in Trends in Biotechnology, uses an artificial circulatory system to overcome a fundamental limitation in cultured meat production.

The team, led by biohybrid system engineer Shoji Takeuchi, grew cells around a network of semipermeable hollow fibers — similar to those used in water filters and dialysis machines — that deliver nutrients and oxygen throughout the tissue. Unlike most commercial approaches that produce tiny meat fragments later assembled with binders or scaffolds, this method creates a single coherent piece with more natural structure and texture.

This is the first working model using tubes to grow muscle tissue into a thick slab, according to Mark Post, chief science officer at Mosa Meat, who created the world’s first lab-grown hamburger in 2013. Significant hurdles remain before commercialization. The hollow fibers aren’t edible and must be manually removed. Researchers are exploring automating this process or creating edible alternatives using cellulose.

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Discord has begun testing age verification via facial scans or ID uploads for users in the UK and Australia seeking access to sensitive content. “The chat app’s new process has been described as an ‘experiment,’ and comes in response to laws passed in those countries that place guardrails on youth access to online platforms,” reports Gizmodo. From the report: Users may be asked to verify their age when encountering content that has been flagged by Discord’s systems as being sensitive in nature, or when they change their settings to enable access to sensitive content. The app will ask users to scan their face through a computer or smartphone webcam; alternatively, they can scan a driver’s license or other form of ID. “We’re currently running tests in select regions to age-gate access to certain spaces or user settings,” a spokesperson for Discord said in a statement. “The information shared to power the age verification method is only used for the one-time age verification process and is not stored by Discord or our vendor. For Face Scan, the solution our vendor uses operates on-device, which means there is no collection of any biometric information when you scan your face. For ID verification, the scan of your ID is deleted upon verification.”

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: As part of the company’s months-long obsession with catching employees leaking internal developments to the press, staff at WordPress parent company Automattic recently noticed individually-unique watermarks on internal sites, according to employees who spoke to 404 Media. Automattic added the watermarks to an internal employee communications platform called P2. P2 is a WordPress product other workplaces can also use. There are hundreds of P2 sites across teams at Automattic alone; many are team-specific, but some are company-wide for announcements. The watermarks in Automattic’s P2 instance are nearly invisible, rendered as a pattern overlaid on the site’s white page backgrounds. Zooming in or manually changing the background color reveals the pattern. If, for example, a journalist published a screenshot leaked to them that was taken from P2, Automattic could theoretically identify the employee who shared it.

In October, as part of a series of buyout offers meant to test employee’s loyalty to his leadership, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg issued a threat for anyone speaking to the press, saying they should “exit gracefully, or be fired tomorrow with no severance.” Earlier this month, the company laid off nearly 300 people. […] It’s not clear when the watermarks started appearing on P2, and Automattic has not responded to a request for comment. But Mullenweg has been warring with web hosting platform WP Engine — and as the story has developed, seemingly with his own staff — since last year. […] One Automattic employee told me they don’t think anyone is shocked by the watermarking, considering Mullenweg’s ongoing campaign to find leakers, but that it’s still adding to the uncertain, demoralized environment at the company. “Can’t help but feel even more paranoid now,” they said.

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For the first time — and despite fears that it might never happen — nations have agreed a series of measures to prevent, prepare for and respond to pandemics. Nature: The terms of the first global pandemic accord were still being hashed out at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, up until the early hours of 16 April. “This is a definitive moment in the history of global health,” says Lawrence Gostin, a specialist in health law and policy at Georgetown University in Washington DC, who followed the negotiations closely. The accord “sets out some very important norms to keep the world safe,” he says.

The accord was agreed without the United States, which withdrew from the pandemic treaty the day that President Trump was inaugurated. This reduces its power, says Gostin, but is also a source of strength. “Instead of collapsing in the face of President Trump’s assault on global health, the world came together.” The treaty is not perfect but represents a major achievement, says Michelle Childs, policy advocacy director at the non-profit organization Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative in Geneva. “People didn’t think that they’d get to this stage of agreeing at all.”

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After over 40 years in operation, the last RadioShack store in Maryland is closing. Store manager Cindy Henning, who worked there for three decades, reflected on the joy of helping customers and the legacy left by late owner Michael King: Henning told WTOP she’s going to miss it dearly. She’s worked there for three decades. “We would have a lot of fun. That was half of our day was to have fun with people and show them how electronics work,” Henning said. It was owned and operated by longtime local resident Michael King, who passed away at the end of January at the age of 79. His son Edward has taken over as owner. “It’s the end of an era,” he said.

King said his grandfather owned a TV repair shop in the ’50s and then his dad worked with him. They started carrying RadioShack products and grew to franchise three stores in Maryland. The RadioShack franchise first declared bankruptcy in 2015. King said they used the RadioShack name, but they don’t have a warehouse in the U.S., so they were buying product from other wholesalers and selling it. “It was fun while it lasted, but it’s not the same anymore,” King said. “I know my dad realized that.” The store’s last day is Saturday, April 26.

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On Wednesday, OpenAI announced the release of two new models—o3 and o4-mini—that combine simulated reasoning capabilities with access to functions like web browsing and coding. These models mark the first time OpenAI’s reasoning-focused models can use every ChatGPT tool simultaneously, including visual analysis and image generation.

OpenAI announced o3 in December, and until now, only less capable derivative models named “o3-mini” and “03-mini-high” have been available. However, the new models replace their predecessors—o1 and o3-mini.

OpenAI is rolling out access today for ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team users, with Enterprise and Edu customers gaining access next week. Free users can try o4-mini by selecting the “Think” option before submitting queries. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted that “we expect to release o3-pro to the pro tier in a few weeks.”

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According to Bloomberg (paywalled), OpenAI is in talks to buy AI-assisted coding tool Windsurf for about $3 billion. “The deal would be OpenAI’s largest to date, the terms of which have not yet been finalized,” notes Reuters. From a report: Windsurf was in talks with investors such as Kleiner Perkins and General Catalyst to raise funding at a $3 billion valuation, the report added. It closed a $150 million funding round led by General Catalyst last year, valuing it at $1.25 billion.

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If you have a smartphone running Android 12 that can’t upgrade past that version, I have some bad news: Google is dropping support for your phone.

RIP Android 12

As spotted by Android Authority, Google is no longer seeding security updates for devices running Android 12 and Android 12L. The company omitted the Android version from its April 2025 Android Security Bulletin, which notes security vulnerabilities Google has identified and patched, and as well as which versions of Android receive those patches. The company highlights Android 13, 14, and 15 across a number of different vulnerabilities, but not Android 12.

The outlet isn’t basing this news off these omissions alone: Android Authority reports that Google dropped support for Android 12 and 12L as of March 31, based on a source that says the company ended security patch backports for those versions on that date. Backporting is when a developer takes a security patch from a newer version of software and adds it to an older version of that software. It seems Google had been doing that for Android 12 from newer versions of Android, but as of the end of March, has stopped.

Google hasn’t said exactly why it is ending support for Android 12 at this time, but it almost assuredly has to do with the OS’ age. The company released the version (codenamed Snow Cone) back in October of 2021. It was a relatively big update for Android, notably introducing “Material You” to devices for the first time. Material You significantly changed the look of Android, adjusting UI elements, app icons, and applying a universal theme based on the colors of your wallpaper. The update also included a number of privacy settings as well as a handful of new gesture controls. According to Android Authority, Google stops most Android OS backporting around three and a half years after release, so this timing tracks.

Is your device affected?

The biggest issue here is that there are a lot of devices out there running Android 12. Statcounter says nearly 12.5% of Android phones around the globe are running this version, while 9.14% of Android users in the United States are running it. Blacklinko claims there are more than three billion Android phones active across the world, which means there could be more than 370 million Android phones out there about to lose security updates.

If your Android phone can’t update past Android 12, it might be time to upgrade. Sure, you can live without new Android features, but security updates are vital. Inevitably, someone will discover security flaws within Android that affect Android 12, but since Google is no longer backporting patches to this version, those flaws will go unpatched. As such, bad actors can exploit those flaws in targeted attacks, leaving you vulnerable.

If you’re looking for a new Android smartphone, Lifehacker’s sister site PCMag has a list of its favorite Android phones for 2025. If you opt for a new Google or Samsung phone, know that these company guarantee seven years of software and security support. If you buy a Pixel 9a today, for example, you won’t have to worry about a similar situation until 2032.

Should the city of Houston, which proudly bills itself as “Space City,” have a prized Space Shuttle orbiter on public display?

More than a decade ago, arguably, the answer was yes. After all, the Space Shuttle program was managed from Johnson Space Center, in southeastern Houston. All the astronauts who flew on the shuttle trained there. And the vehicle was operated out of Mission Control at the Houston-based facility.

But when the final decisions were being made to distribute the shuttles 15 years ago, the Houston community dragged its feet on putting together a competitive proposal. There were also questions about the ability of Space Center Houston to raise funding to house the shuttle within a new display area, which magnified concerns that the historical vehicle, like a Saturn V rocket before it, would be left outside in the region’s humid environment. Finally, other cities offered better proposals for displaying the shuttles to the public.

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