Tabla de contenidos para Sep/Oct 2019 en WIRED UK

INTELLIGENT SPACE Jason Madara donned a hard-hat, safety boots and hi-viz to get this shot of DeepMind staffers Praveen Srinivasan, Drew Purves and Raia Hadsell standing in what will, eventually, be the AI firm’s new King’s Cross HQ: “I love the ‘organised chaos’ of construction sites, so I wanted to make the photography dramatic and graphic, but also super simple, with a focus on the subjects. I used Helmut Newton as my muse–create drama with a single, hard key-light and no ambient lighting,” says Madara, who also shot the cover image of DeepMind co-founder, Demis Hassabis. “I had seen a lot of portraits of Demis, but nothing that felt iconic. I wanted him to look like a giant in his field.” BALANCING ACT Photographer Joe McGorty showed off some serious…

The lexicon of life is so limited. If only scientists could expand its repertoire of building blocks, they could revolutionise our ability to build huge, complex proteins that could lead to a new generation of drugs. All living things on Earth are built from proteins created from the same 20 amino acids. Now, scientists at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, are getting closer to developing polymers composed of new amino acids. Of the 400-plus scientists currently working in the laboratory, the largest space is reserved for a team run by Jason Chin, which has assembled tools to synthesise polymers far beyond the complexity of anything currently made by chemists. Chin’s team has done this by redesigning the ribosome – a molecular factory found in all living…

“I love what the Maven Clinic is doing to give women and families access to health and social services that might otherwise be out of reach. The Maven app utilises video chat to give users prescription services and real-time appointments with clinicians and doctors.” “Our business has grown by over 13,000 per cent in four years, which means you have to scale design tools quickly. Canva makes translating and templating a cinch when you’re tight on budget and design resource. It helps us build a consistent brand at scale.” “I am loving the vertical take-off air transport concept from Lilium – a thoughtful, affordable solution (backed by an extremely capable team) that could easily lead to mass appeal with a small carbon footprint. This is a product that envisages the…

Cutting-edge technology and data analytics enable Ailsa Bay to push the limits of making whisky to create a perfectly balanced sweet and smoky flavour that’s 22 parts per million peat and 19 parts per million in sweetness. But the innovation doesn’t end once the bottles of Ailsa Bay 1.2 Sweet Smoke are on shelves – thanks to the blockchain. Sprung from a “hackadram” event held in 2017, the Ailsa Bay blockchain was bui lt by exper ts at arc-net, including its general manager Drew Lyall. “It was clear Ai lsa Bay was doing innovative work, and this was another clear path for some interesting innovation,” he says. Blockchain is the distributed ledger at the heart of bitcoin, but while the digital cryptocurrency has its ups and downs, the tech platform…

Finding and retaining good employees can be tricky and expensive. One solution lies in mentorships, which encourage workers to stick around for longer: evidence from a 2013 study of Sun Microsystems’ mentor scheme suggests retention rates are higher for both mentees and mentors (72 and 69 per cent, respectively) than for employees who do not participate (49 per cent). Today, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies run some sort of mentorship programme. But setting them up isn’t easy, as there is no one-size-fits-all template to follow. Mentorloop is a Melbourne-based startup that takes the administrative burden from businesses, and matches mentors with employees from different companies and diverse backgrounds according to their experience, interests and desired outcomes. In a way, its software acts like a dating site for mentoring…

1. MEMRISE Launched in 2010 in London by Ben Whately, Ed Cooke and Greg Detre, Memrise gameifies language learning – and the courses are free. The platform uses AI to adapt to users’ needs as they progress, and works on iOS, Android and online. It offers more than 150 language courses across 25 languages, and has more than 40 million registered users. 2. DUOMLY Founded in Prague by developers Anna Danilec and Radoslaw Fabisiak in 2018, this e-learning platform offers programming courses around blockchain, cryptocurrency, machine learning and web development. The introductory blockchain module is offered for free, and many beginner courses do not require programming experience. 3. SIGNA Set up in 2016 as a “Netflix of sign language courses” by Fabíola da Rocha Borba, this Brazilian platform offers online…

All that glitters is not plastic. Rachel Clowes, a London-based designer, is developing a type of sequin that biodegrades at the end of its fashion lifetime. She calls them “bio-sequins”. Sequins are typically made from non-biodegradable plastic such as PVC – which contains persistent, toxic and bioaccumulative chemicals known to be carcinogenic and disrupt hormone balance. As a result, sequins are polluting and unsustainable: they can stay in the environment for hundreds of years, clogging up oceans, rivers and soils with chemical pollution. “Plastic sequins shimmer for a few hours on the dancefloor, then languish at the back of the wardrobe for a few years, before lying intact in a landfill for a few centuries or more,” Clowes says. Her interest in bio-sequins stems from her MA at the London…

When Dennis Timand Clemmensen’s 14-year-old daughter, Silke, became withdrawn and stopped wanting to go to school, he did what many parents in his circumstances would do, and went online. Pulling up Google, he searched for his daughter’s name. “I don’t remember exactly what the guys from her school were saying,” he tells me. “But it was something like, ‘She’s a hooker, she’ll go to bed with everybody’.” Abusive messages appeared on Facebook and Instagram. He was instantly alarmed. “I’d seen some girls had committed suicide because of the bad things that had been written about them on the internet, and I thought, ‘This isn’t good. I want to prevent this’.” So Clemmensen, who is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, called his childhood friend, William Atak, who runs Atak A/S – a…

If Martin Kullik invites you to dinner, expect a challenge. You may be faced with a spoon covered in tiny thorns, or a plate made from organic soil. Dessert could be served on strips of bare metal. “We try to trigger our guests, the diners, the chefs – triggering everyone through undergoing a challenge,” Kullik says. “Sometimes we have guests asking, ‘why do we have to make it difficult? Why do we have to eat from this strange cutlery?’” Kullik, with partner Jouw Wijnsma, runs Amsterdam-based Experimental Gastronomy, which allows fine dining chefs to create unique menus of plant-based dishes, served on tableware custom-designed by artists and artisans. By disrupting the relationship between what we eat and the implements we eat it with, the aim is to find new ways…

OFF-ROAD TECH_ 2019 Land Rover Discovery Sport Land Rover’s latest does not scrimp on the toys: inside, the seating has been redesigned, LR’s Touch Pro infotainment system comes as standard – and now works with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – and the smart rear-view mirror can, at the flick of a switch, become an HD screen displaying feed from a rear-facing camera. Borrowing architecture from the Evoque results in electrified powertrains, including a 48V mild-hybrid system. Top of the line is the P250 MHE, with 246bhp giving 0-100kph in 7.1 seconds – a plug-in hybrid is planned. From £31,575 landrover.co.uk ROOM WITH A VIEW_ Tent-Box Hard Shell Roof Tent This sleeping pod has space for two, while the super-strong fibreglass and aluminium shell weighs a mere 64.5kg, meaning…

Raymond Weil Limited Edition The Beatles Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Maestro watch £1,195 raymond-weil.com Raymond Weil’s collaboration with The Beatles continues with its third maestro watch – limited to just 3,000 pieces, it features a Sergeant Pepper drum on the dial, and a gold PVD-coated steel case. Rémy Martin XO Steaven Richard cognac £195 for 700ml, exclusively at selfridges.com Rémy Martin has collaborated with metal design workshop Atelier Steaven Richard to reinvent its classic bottle with a bespoke design that’s inspired by the cognac’s complex tasting notes – which include summer fruits, hazelnut and cinnamon. GANT Tech Prep Herringbone Solid button-down shirt £100 gant.co.uk Part of GANT’s range engineered with Tech Prep, this shirt keeps you comfy from am to pm, thanks to special fibres that wick moisture away from…

US Intel, NVIDIA and AMD enjoy a strong position in the global market – their GPUs are key to data centres, self-driving cars and cryptocurrency mining – but startups such as Cerebras Systems are challenging with more specialised chips. Cerebras is still in stealth mode, but has raised $112 million in three rounds. EUROPE The continent is striving to keep hold of its talent. Germany is committed to a £2.7 billion AI strategy, and the UK has pledged £18.5 million to train people from diverse backgrounds. Meanwhile, French chip design firm Kalray and Dutch manufacturer NXP are partnering to develop a computing platform for autonomous cars. CHINA Since 2017, China has outpaced the US in terms of AI investment, but the US still strikes more deals, according to ABI Research.…

Courts are meant to rectify society’s imbalances, and offer redress against abuses of power. Yet many governments use the judiciary to silence critics and minorities. “Illegitimate judicial proceedings are increasingly used as a ‘rule of law’ shield to fend off legitimate criticism,” says David Pressman, executive director of the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) and a former US special ambassador to the UN. Rogue states are using courts to have rivals prosecuted on spurious grounds and imprisoned arbitrarily. No system exists to monitor the fairness of trials around the world: some receive media attention, others are followed only by local activists. To bridge this gap, the CFJ (founded by George and Amal Clooney in June 2016) set up TrialWatch in April 2019, to train individuals in the basics of trial-monitoring,…

We’ve come to loathe the gigantic companies and wealthy people that build Big Tech, just as deeply as we love the products and services that they’ve built. It’s easy to see why. Over the last decade, child abusers and terrorists have exploited social media. We’ve witnessed the facilitation of fake news, conspiracy theories and electoral interference. And don’t forget the widespread intellectual property theft, the undermining of creative industries, and the effective creation of data and platform monopolies. There is a broad public, intellectual and political consensus that executives at the tech giants haven’t taken these problems seriously, or addressed them effectively. In February 2019, Facebook was labelled “digital gangsters” by a British parliamentary committee. Three months later, US presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren erected a billboard – in the middle…

Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson) all have something in common – they have used the online campaigning platform NationBuilder to run for office. The Los Angeles-based company’s technology has become the go-to for politicians hoping to start a grassroots movement Launched in 2009 by developer Jim Gilliam, NationBuilder offers a simple proposition. Starting at $29 (£23) a month, it enables anyone to start a campaign website with a donation interface, bulk-email software, and tools to compile and harness a supporter database. CEO Lea Endres – who took over from Gilliam in 2017, one year before he died at age 41, after a long battle with cancer – says: “The reason everyone was like, ‘Oh, thank God! We’re going to use NationBuilder’, was because…

A well thought-out work bag means a more comfortable commute and greater protection for vital kit. The intelligently designed Harpsden (£89 from Knomo, previous page) combines a padded 14in laptop sleeve, 20 litres of gym-kit swallowing capacity and an ultrasonically welded, water-resistant nylon skin. And now you’ve got a bag worth being seen with, here’s our list of essentials to put inside it. Chris Haslam _Powerbeats Pro, £219.95 All the seamless functionality of Apple’s AirPods, with the added security of ear hooks – plus it’s sweat and water resistant. apple.com _S’well Scarlet, $35 (£27) A stainless steel, triple-walled flask that keeps water cold for 24 hours and coffee warm for 12. swellbottle.com _Fine Stationery Notebook #146 Croco Print Poppy Red, £75 Ninety-six sheets of gilt-edged paper, wrapped in leather. montblanc.com…

Feeling sluggish in the office? Chugging back coffee or Red Bull is not the answer. The easiest way to stay alert, according to nutritional therapist Fiona Lawson, is keeping your blood sugar level stable, otherwise you risk “getting into hormonal chaos”. The way to do this is eating fibre, protein, healthy fat and complex carbohydrates – AKA a balanced meal. But when should we eat? This is where “chrononutrition”, devoted to perfect eating times, comes in. Drink water This is the easiest way to shake off drowsiness, Lawson believes. Brain foods are a myth… …but blueberries and dark chocolate may aid memory. Easy on the coffee If you’re feeling stressed, it’s best not to drink more than one cup a day. One recommendation is to make sure you eat breakfast…

How do you take an app that’s doing well, and make it ultra-popular? For James Quarles, the chief executive of San Francisco-based activity-tracking company Strava, achieving scale was the priority. He joined from Instagram in 2017, where, as vice-president of Instagram Business, he had overseen the growth of monthly users from 300 million to 800 million in just three years. (Additionally, from 2011 to 2014, he was Facebook’s regional director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.) This is what Strava wanted for its own social network. Strava is a fitness app that styles itself as a social network for people serious about sport. But market competition is fierce: brands such as adidas, Under Armour and Asics have acquired popular apps like Runtastic, MapMyRun and Runkeeper, while makers of wearable…

We’re delighted to bring you our eighth annual guide to the 100 European startups that those in our network judge to be the champions of the future. Over the years it’s proved an authoritative arbiter of what has become a vibrant ecosystem that has produced ground-breaking companies going on to succeed on the global stage. One area, however, where European tech has a poor record is diversity and inclusion. According to the 2018 State of European Tech report, of all funds raised by European VC-backed companies in 2018, 93 per cent went to all-male founding teams. While the seeds of today’s thriving European tech industry were planted a decade ago, we can’t wait that long to drive real change in an industry that can only benefit from opening up to…

Demis Hassabis – former child chess-prodigy, recipient of a double first at the University of Cambridge, five times World Mind Sports Olympiad champion, MIT and Harvard alumnus, games designer, teenage entrepreneur, and co-founder of the artificial intelligence startup DeepMind – is dressed in a yellow helmet, a hi-viz jacket and work boots. Raising his hand to shield his eyes, he gazes across London from a rooftop in King’s Cross. The view is largely uninterrupted in every direction across the capital, which is bathed in spring sunshine. Hassabis crosses the paved roof and, having used his phone to determine the direction, scans his eyes northwards to see if he can see Finchley, where he spent his childhood. The suburb is lost behind trees on Hampstead Heath, but he is able to…

Describing itself as the primary knowledge-intensive agrifood ecosystem in the Netherlands, FOOD VALLEY, as it's known, promises food-related solutions "in the region and far beyond", via co-operation between companies, knowledge institutions, innovation centres, education and government. And the base for these global ambitions is the quiet university town of Wageningen. This is a modest place, seemingly at odds with its reputation as a world capital of innovation in food and agriculture, where the whole chain of research is usually covered in-house-by the locality's more than 6,500 specialists and experts, from biochemical engineers to seaweed policy makers to tasting panellists who determine the deliciousness of experimental tomatoes. Wageningen, an hour's drive from Amsterdam, was nicknamed Food Valley (referencing the Gelderse Valley, where the town nestles) in the early 2000s. At this time,…

ONE WEDNESDAY IN MARCH, 2019, a small group of ocean experts gathered in a conference room in Panama City’s Waldorf Astoria, ready to take the stage. Outside, the weather was hot and muggy and the streets dirty with rubble from nearby roadworks. Inside the cool, marbled interior of one of the city’s glitziest hotels, officials from Panama, Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica sat on cream chairs in neat rows, listening intently. First came the usual formalities: welcome addresses and statements of intentions to collaborate. About halfway through the morning’s proceedings, it was Bjorn Bergman’s turn. He was sharply dressed, and looked serious as he addressed delegates in effortless Spanish. Bergman was a data analyst at Global Fishing Watch (GFW), an environmental non-profit that, in 2016, started using satellites to track vessels…

PARIS Alice Zagury Bryce Keane Toby Coppel Yann Lechelle Cedric Giorgi Nicolas Dessaigne Samantha Jerusalem Martin Mignot Renaud Visage Jennifer Kite-Powell DUBLIN Tracy Keogh John Kennedy Elaine Burke Niall McEvoy Imran Ghory Gonzalo Sanchez TEL AVIV Gigi Levy Weiss Ido Pollak Ilanit Tseyrefman Amit Gilon LISBON Jaime Jorge Pedro Carmo Costa Cristina Fonseca Inês Santos Silva Hugo Gonçalves Pereira Miguel Fontes Miguel Santo Amaro Pedro Rocha Vieira Ricardo Marvão Ana Lehmann AMSTERDAM George Fisher-Wilson Jeroen van Duffelen BERLIN Bodo Braunmuehl Daniel Richard Dominik Rosenkranz Ferry Heilemann Julien Fredonie HELSINKI Antti Sunnari Mike Solomon Sami Marttinen STOCKHOLM Natalia Brzezinski Anna Gissler Tyler Crowley Ted Persson Anette Nordvall Marwan Ayache Mattias Miksche LONDON Niklas Zennström Nathan Benaich Reshma Sohoni Rob Kniaz Sarah Wood Dharmash Mistry Toby Coppel Julien Bek Jan Hammer Brent…

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