TLDR 2022-05-26

Amazon has opened a brick-and-mortar clothing store in Los Angeles, California. Amazon Style will feature clothing from brands like Levi's, Tommy Hilfiger, Champion, and more. Store employees will be present to help customers. Each item of clothing in the store will feature a QR code that customers can scan if they want to try on or purchase the item. Customers can pick clothes from Amazon.com and have them delivered to the store to try on. A video showing off the store concept is available in the article.

Jack Dorsey has left the board of Twitter. Dorsey resigned from his CEO position last fall. He is friendly with Elon Musk and has discussed rolling over his 2.4% ownership stake in Twitter into Musk's takeover deal. Dorsey's next move remains unclear.

Researchers at the John Innes Center have genetically engineered tomatoes to provide a new source of vitamin D. Tomato leaves contain very low levels of a vitamin D precursor. The researchers used CRISPR technology to switch off a specific enzyme that normally converts the precursor into other molecules, which allowed the precursor to accumulate in the flesh, peel, and leaves at much higher levels. This resulted in tomatoes that contained as much vitamin D as two eggs. The technique could be used in other plants, like aubergines or potatoes, as they have similar biochemical pathways.

England's Chester Zoo and a tissue bank called Nature's SAFE have partnered up to cryogenically freeze genetic material from animals that pass away at the zoo. The preserved material could save species from extinction in the future. Small tissue samples will be taken from animals and cryogenically frozen at temperatures of -320.8 Fahrenheit using liquid nitrogen. The technology will provide a safeguard for many animals that are currently going extinct.

Ultra is a web-app framework that leans into browser-native features while supporting JSX and TypeScript. It features support for React 18, tests, and more. It doesn't support dynamic imports or recursive requests. A demo app is available.

Import Tracker is a Python package for tracking and managing optional dependencies. It enables developers to track and map each module within a project to the set of dependencies it relies on. Import Tracker prevents code from crashing when uninstalled imports are imported. It can programmatically determine the install_requires and extras_require arguments for setuptools.setup.

The Future of Life Institute has organized a world-building competition where teams are asked to imagine a positive future with superintelligent AI. There is a prize of up to $140,000 that will be divided up among multiple winners. The contest aims to counter the common dystopian narrative of artificial intelligence. Many scientists in the field believe that it is essential to begin work on AI safety now before superintelligence is achieved. The winners of the contest will be announced on June 15. Examples of entries are available in the article.

This Hacker News thread contains a list of games that people wish existed. The top replies include a game that simulates being a mouse existing with regular humans, a game similar to Civilization but for countries, and a true MMORPG that simulates a real virtual world. The discussions center around similar games that already exist and the reasons why such games don't currently exist.