August 2026
All columns and Brief analyses.
10 results
Cheaper token prices, heavier cooling loads
A Gartner model expects agentic inference spending to rise with use; TrendForce sees liquid cooling spreading, while NVIDIA unveiled a smaller model format. Efficiency gains are shifting AI infrastructure costs across software, compute and cooling.
Chen Zhu's team found liver cancer incidence about 69 per cent lower after early-life sugar rationing
In Chen Zhu's PNAS study of more than 64,000 people born between 1951 and 1956, liver cancer incidence was about 69 per cent lower. The exposure window is early life, not adulthood.
Cursor adds code hosting as GitHub's outage exposes platform dependence
Cursor opened its own repository layer while a seven-and-a-half-hour GitHub outage disrupted development worldwide and highlighted the two platforms' place in developer workflows.
Datagrid and Mitsui add capacity as Virgin wins access to the Channel Tunnel
Datagrid began work on a 49-hectare data-centre site, Mitsui Kinzoku announced a Malaysian copper-foil plant, and Britain's regulator opened Channel Tunnel tracks to Virgin.
Each extra degree adds a heat month as Powell, Mead and Kandersteg hit new limits
A modelling study adds about one extra month of intolerable heat for 1 billion people per added degree. Lake Powell and Lake Mead sit at historic lows, and Kandersteg waits under 15 to 20 million cubic metres of loosening rock.
Gas tips a young star’s rings and shreds an old star’s remains
ALMA observations made a gas streamer feeding GW Orionis the leading explanation for its tilted rings. MOTHRA’s first calibration image caught clumps from the Helix Nebula breaking apart in interstellar gas, revealing matter flows at opposite ends of stellar life.
Gaza talks leave withdrawal open as violence tightens life in Lebanon and the West Bank
Israel and the Board of Peace opened working groups without a withdrawal pledge, while projectile fire displaced families in southern Lebanon and aid reached besieged households in Qusra.
Genes, tissue stiffness and magnetic fields redirect how cells behave
Rare PLCG2 variants raised Alzheimer's risk, stiff collagen steered T cells toward long-lived memory, and a magnetic-field switch turned gene expression on and off in mice.
Global bond yields reach multi-year highs as capital shifts to emerging-market debt
Global government borrowing costs reached multi-year highs on Tuesday, with Japanese, German and French yields climbing. The market shifts accompany strong inflows into emerging-market debt and warnings about euro area exposure to US technology shares.
Home Depot sales, Baidu's cloud growth and a defence chief's exit mark corporate updates
Recent corporate filings revealed shifts in revenue and control, as Home Depot reported steady sales on larger baskets, Baidu's artificial intelligence cloud revenue surged while advertising fell, and defence contractor L3Harris removed its chief executive.