{
  "id": 10418348,
  "title": "Growing AI energy demands, the search for subatomic particles and the hottest amoeba",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/28/growing-ai-energy-demands-the-search-for-subatomic-particles-and-the",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-28T10:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Scientific American",
    "slug": "scientific-american",
    "url": "https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/growing-ai-energy-demands-the-search-for-subatomic-particles-and-the-hottest-amoeba/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Fire amoebas, plesiosaur vomit, and sea turtle eggs are the latest discoveries in the world of science. From the smallest building blocks of life to prehistoric remnants, the scientific community continues to make remarkable breakthroughs.\n\nRachel Feltman starts off the week with a focus on artificial intelligence and energy demands. A study predicts that AI data centers could consume about 1% of all electricity by 2030, with six major tech companies responsible for most of the increase. This surge in energy usage comes primarily from the US, where data centers are concentrated in several states. The environmental impact of these data centers is significant, consuming large amounts of water and contributing to noise pollution from cooling systems and generators.\n\nNext, the search for subatomic particles takes center stage. Andrea Gawrylewski discusses the challenges in understanding the fundamental building blocks of reality. Researchers are exploring whether particles can be broken down even further, possibly revealing previously unknown fragments of nature. One idea involves tiny vibrating strings, while another suggests that spacetime itself may be composed of tiny loops. Testing these hypotheses would require extremely advanced technology, such as a particle collider the size of Neptune's orbit.\n\nFinally, the miracle of life is celebrated with the discovery of a high-temperature amoeba. Incendiamoeba cascadensis, found in Lassen Volcanic National Park, is a eukaryote that thrives in conditions once thought impossible for its type of organism. Its ability to survive at extremely high temperatures is attributed to its complex biology, which includes a nucleus and specialized proteins that generally shouldn't function under such conditions.",
  "summary": "From the smallest building blocks of life to prehistoric vomit and a newly discovered amoeba that can really take the heat.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}