{"id":884819,"date":"2026-01-13T23:11:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T05:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/13\/the-download-sodium-ion-batteries-and-chinas-bright-tech-future\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T23:11:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T05:11:52","slug":"the-download-sodium-ion-batteries-and-chinas-bright-tech-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/13\/the-download-sodium-ion-batteries-and-chinas-bright-tech-future\/","title":{"rendered":"The Download: sodium-ion batteries and China\u2019s bright tech future"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Plus: This company is developing gene therapies for muscle growth, erectile dysfunction, and \u201cradical longevity\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n

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This is today’s edition of\u00a0The Download<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sodium-ion batteries are making their way into cars\u2014and the grid<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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For decades, lithium-ion batteries have powered our phones, laptops, and electric vehicles. But lithium\u2019s limited supply and volatile price have led the industry to seek more resilient alternatives. Enter: sodium-ion batteries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They work much like lithium-ion ones: they store and release energy by shuttling ions between two electrodes. But unlike lithium, a somewhat rare element that is currently mined in only a handful of countries, sodium is cheap and found everywhere.\u00a0Read why it\u2019s poised to become more important to our energy future.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014Caiwei Chen<\/em><\/p>\n

Sodium-ion batteries are one of\u00a0MIT Technology Review\u2019s<\/em>\u00a010 Breakthrough Technologies this year.\u00a0Take a look at what else made the list<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

CES showed me why Chinese tech companies feel so optimistic<\/h4>\n

\u2014Caiwei Chen<\/em><\/p>\n

I decided to go to CES kind of at the last minute. Over the holiday break, contacts from China kept messaging me about their travel plans. After the umpteenth \u201cSee you in Vegas?\u201d I caved. As a China tech writer based in the US, I have one week a year when my entire beat seems to come to me\u2014no 20-hour flights required.<\/p>\n

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CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, is the world\u2019s biggest tech show, where companies launch new gadgets and announce new developments, and it happens every January. China has long had a presence at CES, but this year it showed up in a big way. Chinese companies showcased everything from AI gadgets to household appliances to robots, and the overall mood among them was upbeat.\u00a0Here\u2019s why.<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was first featured in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside story of what\u2019s going on in AI.\u00a0Sign up<\/a>\u00a0to receive it in your inbox every Monday.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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This company is developing gene therapies for muscle growth, erectile dysfunction, and \u201cradical longevity\u201d \u00a0<\/h4>\n

At some point this month, a handful of volunteers will be injected with experimental gene therapies as part of an unusual clinical trial. The drugs are potential longevity therapies, says Ivan Morgunov, the CEO of Unlimited Bio, the company behind the trial.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The volunteers\u2014who are covering their own travel and treatment costs\u2014will receive a series of injections in their arms and legs. One of the therapies is designed to increase the blood supply to those muscles. The other is designed to support muscle growth. The company hopes to see improvements in strength, endurance, and recovery. It also plans to eventually trial similar therapies in the scalp (for baldness) and penis (for erectile dysfunction).\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, some experts warn the trial is too small, and likely won\u2019t reveal anything useful.\u00a0Read the full story<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014Jessica Hamzelou<\/em><\/p>\n

The must-reads<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve combed the internet to find you today\u2019s most fun\/important\/scary\/fascinating stories about technology.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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1 Apple is teaming up with Google to give Siri an AI revamp\u00a0<\/strong>
That\u2019s a giant win for Google, and a blow for OpenAI. (CNBC<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2 Trump wants Elon Musk to help break Iran\u2019s internet blackout<\/strong>
He\u2019s appealing to Musk to let Iranians circumvent it with Starlink. (WP<\/a>\u00a0$)
+\u00a0Smuggled tech is Iran\u2019s last link to the outside world.<\/em>\u00a0(The Guardian<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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3 Right-wing influencers have flocked to Minneapolis\u00a0<\/strong>
Their goal is to paint it as a lawless city, and justify ICE\u2019s shooting of Renee Nicole Good. (Wired<\/a>\u00a0$)<\/p>\n

4 The Pentagon is adopting Musk\u2019s Grok AI chatbot\u00a0<\/strong>
Just as it faces a backlash across the world for making non-consensual deepfakes. (NPR<\/a>)
+\u00a0The UK is launching a formal probe into X.<\/em>\u00a0(The Guardian<\/a>)
+\u00a0It\u2019s also bringing in a new law which will make it illegal to make these sorts of images.<\/em>\u00a0(BBC<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

5 The push to power AI is devastating coastal villages in Taiwan<\/strong>
A rapid expansion of wind energy is hurting farmers and fishers. (Rest of World<\/a>)
+\u00a0Stop worrying about your AI footprint. Look at the big picture instead.<\/em>\u00a0(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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6 Don\u2019t hold your breath for robots\u2019 ChatGPT moment<\/strong>
AI has unlocked impressive advances in robotics, but we\u2019re a very long way from human-level capabilities. (FT<\/a>\u00a0$)
+\u00a0Will we ever trust humanoid robots in our homes?<\/em>\u00a0(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

7 Meta is about to lay off hundreds of metaverse employees<\/strong>
Reality Labs is yesterday\u2019s news\u2014now it\u2019s all about AI. (NYT<\/a>\u00a0$)<\/p>\n

8 We could eradicate flu\u00a0<\/strong>
A \u201cuniversal\u201d flu vaccine could be far better at protecting us than any existing option. (Vox<\/a>\u00a0$)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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9 You can now reserve a hotel room on the moon<\/strong>
It\u2019s all yours, for just $250,000. (Ars Technica<\/a>)
+\u00a0This astronaut is training tourists to fly in the world\u2019s first commercial space station.<\/em>\u00a0(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

10 AI images are complicating efforts to find some monkeys in Missouri\u00a0<\/strong>
For real. \ud83d\ude48 (AP<\/a>)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Quote of the day<\/strong><\/p>\n

“In big cities, everyone is an isolated, atomized individual. People live in soundproof apartments, not knowing the surname of their neighbors.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u2014A user on social media platform RedNote explains why a new app called \u2018Are you dead\u2019 has become popular in China,\u00a0Business Insider<\/a>\u00a0reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One more thing<\/strong><\/p>\n

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STUART BRADFORD<\/p>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

AI is coming for music, too<\/strong><\/p>\n

While large language models that generate text have exploded in the last three years, a different type of AI, based on what are called diffusion models, is having an unprecedented impact on creative domains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By transforming random noise into coherent patterns, diffusion models can generate new images, videos, or speech, guided by text prompts or other input data. The best ones can create outputs indistinguishable from the work of people.<\/p>\n

Now these models are marching into a creative field that is arguably more vulnerable to disruption than any other: music. And their output encapsulates how difficult it\u2019s becoming to define authorship and originality in the age of AI.\u00a0Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014James O’Donnell<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We can still have nice things<\/strong><\/p>\n

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? <\/em>Drop me a line<\/em><\/a> or <\/em>skeet ’em at me<\/em><\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

+ Bricking\u00a0your phone<\/a>\u00a0is the new Dry January.\u00a0
+ If you\u2019re hankering for an adventure this year, check out this\u00a0National Geographic<\/a>\u00a0list.
+ There are few people more furiously punk than women going through the menopause, as this\u00a0new TV show<\/a>\u00a0demonstrates ($).
+ Aww, look how\u00a0Pallas cats<\/a> keep their paws warm in winter.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Charlotte Jee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plus: This company is developing gene therapies for muscle growth, erectile dysfunction, and \u201cradical longevity\u201d This is today’s edition of\u00a0The Download ,\u00a0our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Sodium-ion batteries are making their way into cars\u2014and the grid For decades, lithium-ion batteries have powered our<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":884820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24097,100041,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-884819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-download","8":"category-sodium-ion","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}