YouTube will now ban content with vaccine misinformation

YouTube expanded its medical misinformation policies today to include new guidelines that ban vaccine misinformation. The Google-owned video platform had previously banned over 1 million videos spreading dangerous COVID-19 misinformation. Now, YouTube says it will also remove content that spreads m

Indian food delivery giant Swiggy in talks to raise funds at over $10 billion valuation

Indian food delivery startup Swiggy is in talks to raise over $500 million in a new financing round that could value it at over $10 billion, two sources familiar with the matter told technewss. Atlanta-headquartered Invesco is in talks to lead — or co-lead — the new financing round in

Synthetic data set of human trafficking victims could allow big data work without privacy compromises

In order to combat human trafficking effectively, those combating it must understand it — and these days, that means data. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons there is no convenient index of trafficking victims, though this confidential information is in some ways abundant. Microsoft and the Inter

Nosh uses AI to help people and businesses cut down on their food waste

When founder Somdip Dey was a computer science masters student at the University of Manchester, his parents got in a terrible car accident. He sent all of his money back to his parents in India to help with their medical bills, but then he faced a problem familiar to too many: If he wasn’t go

‘Flying’ microchips could ride the wind to track air pollution

Researchers have created a winged microchip around the size of a sand grain that may be the smallest flying device yet made, Vice has reported. They’re designed to be carried around by the wind and could be used in numerous applications including disease and air pollution tracking, according

Peloton's CEO John Foley on the changing face of connected fitness

“Unprecedented” only begins to scratch the surface of this past year-and-a-half. Entire industries have been made and broken as the global population struggled to adapt to the largest pandemic in a century. Connected fitness falls firmly in the category that made it. It's fair to sa

How technology is transforming organ procurement

Every year, more than 100,000 people in the United States wait for an organ donation. More than a dozen people will die each day still waiting. Such is the brutal math and the necessary optimism required to work in the organ procurement world. For the past several decades, a private network of now

AeroFarms is supplying the hops for Goose Island's latest IPA

The world of vertical farming has seen a massive uptick in interest over the past decade, as the world grapples with concerns over resource use, farmable area and exploding population growth. While promising, there are still plenty of question marks surrounding the technology, including the diversi

Cellino is using AI and machine learning to scale production of stem cell therapies

Cellino, a company developing a platform to automate stem cell production, presented today at technewss Disrupt 2021’s Startup Battlefield to detail how its system, which combines AI technology, machine learning, hardware, software — and yes, lasers! — could eventually democratiz

The Blue Box is betting on the future of at-home breast cancer tests

You can take a pregnancy test or colon cancer test from your bathroom, or, these days, a COVID-19 test from the comfort of your living room. You might one day be able to get a breast cancer screening at home, too, if you have a urine sample and an artificial nose.  That's the vision behind The

Apple Wallet is getting verifiable COVID-19 vaccination cards

There’s a real chance you’ll need proof of a COVID-19 vaccination to enter certain venues, and Apple is hoping it can save you the hassle of digging up an email or carrying a physical card in your pocket. The company is bringing verifiable COVID-19 vaccination cards to Wallet as part of

Verdi aims to give farmers granular control over crop irrigation

Verdi, which launched today at technewss’s Startup Battlefield, refers to its smart valve clusters as “swarms.” The term denotes the kind of high-density implementation the company is looking to roll out in farms across North America. Retrofitted with existing irrigation technology, the

For BioNTech, the COVID-19 vaccine was simply the opening act

BioNTech’s founding story dates back to the late 1990s, when CEO and co-founder U?ur ?ahin, his wife and co-founder Özlem Türeci, and the rest of the seven-person founding team began their research. Focused specifically on an area dubbed “New Technologies,” mRNA stood out as o

African genomics startup 54gene raises $25M to expand precision medicine capabilities

Less than 3% of genetic material used in global pharmaceutical research is from Africa. The staggering gap is quite surprising because Africans and people of African descent are reported to be more genetically diverse than any other population. Since launching in 2019, African genomics startup 54ge