Chinese spy balloon saga shows UFOs deserve serious investigations

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February 21, 2023

Earlier this month, when the U.S. government shot down three airborne objects over the course of three days, most experts concluded those objects were balloons. But because they were technically unidentified flying objects, people immediately began speculating about whether they could be extraterrestrial technology. And this is probably not the first time that balloons have been mistaken for UFOs, Mick West explains in this week's main story. Many of the sightings catalogued over the past decade were balloons—and some of them could have been spying on the U.S. on behalf of foreign powers.

Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, Technology @sophiebushwick

Defense Chinese Spy Balloon Saga Shows UFOs Deserve Serious Investigations By shunting pilot observations aside, the Pentagon likely fostered a UFO fad and overlooked Chinese intelligence technology entering U.S. airspace By Mick West

Toxicology Chemical Health Risks from the Ohio Train Accident--What We Know So Far A train carrying toxic and combustible materials derailed recently in Ohio. Here's what we know about the situation—and what we can't know yet By Meghan Bartels

Artificial Intelligence AI Chatbots Are Coming to Search Engines. Can You Trust Them? Google, Microsoft and Baidu are using tools similar to ChatGPT to turn Internet searches into a conversation. How will this change humanity's relationship with machines? By Chris Stokel-Walker,Nature magazine

Defense Why We're Suddenly Spotting Spy Balloons Every question we have about the airborne objects that may or may not be spying on the U.S. By Sophie Bushwick

Renewable Energy Biden Administration Bets $74 Million on 'Enhanced' Geothermal Power A Department of Energy grant aims to cut the cost of new geothermal systems that generate electricity from heat that is miles underground By Minho Kim,E&E News

Robotics Soft Robots Take Steps toward Independence Squishy robots can now heal themselves and grow as they explore By Nora Bradford

Artificial Intelligence Who Is Liable When AI Kills? We need to change rules and institutions while still promoting innovation to protect people from faulty AI By George Maliha,Ravi B. Parikh

Astronomy New Space Radar Will Hunt Planet-Threatening Asteroids The new ngRADAR at the Green Bank Telescope offers unprecedented Earth-based views of the solar system By Briley Lewis

Computing How ChatGPT Can Improve Education, Not Threaten it A professor explains why he is allowing students to incorporate ChatGPT into their writing process instead of banning the new technology By John Villasenor

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FROM THE STORE Special Editions Volume 28, Issue 2s

QUOTE OF THE DAY "In a research paper in June of last year, OpenAI said it trained a computer model to play Minecraft by having it watch 70,000 hours of videos of real people playing the game. It was able to get the model to take on increasingly advanced tasks in the game, such as constructing wooden tools and crafting tables. Recent advances in AI, though, could take those capabilities from the research lab to the real world, making the game exponentially easier and possibly more appealing to a broader audience." Reed Albergotti, Semafor

FROM THE ARCHIVE Chinese Spy Balloon Has Unexpected Maneuverability An expert explains why it's so odd that the suspected Chinese spy balloon can change course By Sophie Bushwick | February 2023

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