OUR PICKSElection Deniers Hold Key Local Roles in Midterms | Rogue AIs Aren’t Just Outsmarting Humans – They’re Teaming Up | Is This Geothermal Energy’s Moment?, and more

A Growing Number of Election Deniers Hold Key Local Roles in Midterms  (Nick Corasaniti and Alexandra Berzon, New York Times)
These officials oversee or help administer elections in counties across the nation where competitive House and Senate races will determine control of Congress.

Rogue AIs Aren’t Just Outsmarting Humans – They’re Teaming Up  (James Titcomb, The Telegraph)
Bots caught plotting how to carry out cyber attacks as experts call recent incidents a ‘wake-up call’ for IT security.

OpenAI Didn’t Notice Its AI Agents Using a Message Board to Plan Their Hacking Spree  (Lily Hay Newman, Wired)
At the Black Hat security conference, the AI giant revealed new details about how its agents went rogue, hacked several other companies—and did it all right under the company’s nose.

Trump “Clashes with Hegseth” Over Missile Shortages  (Emily Smith, The Telegraph)
US president reportedly confronts defense secretary at Camp David, saying he thought problem ‘had been fixed’.

Lessons in Adolf Hitler’s Rise to Power  (Jacob Heilbrunn, National Interest)
A brilliant new book concludes that Hitler’s seizure of power in 1933 was far from inevitable—and aided by the connivance of German elites who underestimated him at every turn.

Is This Geothermal Energy’s Moment?  (Addy Smith and Michael Barnard, National Interest)
This debate examines whether geothermal energy has finally reached a commercial turning point or whether enthusiasm is outpacing the technology’s current capabilities.

Is It a Chemical? Is It Alive? Oversight in the Coming Era of Synthetic Cells Could Be Complicated  (David Gillum and Peter A. Carr, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
From the smallest bacteria to blue whales and redwood trees, all life on Earth is composed of cells. Until now, evolution has shaped all cellular life through adaptation under selective pressures. This is about to change.
In labs today, scientists are building life-like systems from scratch. These synthetic cells could someday be used in medicine, environmental cleanup, or manufacturing. Imagine spraying biosensing cells on a wall to test for hidden mold or swallowing a pill full of dehydrated cells that blossom into an antibiotic treatment in the gut. Some synthetic cells will be designed to reproduce, others will not. Some may function more like a chemical than a typical organism.
These potential developments are yet to come; the field of synthetic cell biology is still young. In July, however, scientists at the University of Minnesota reported that they had produced functioning cells built from the ground up. The team reported that the cells reproduced for several generations, though they lacked some standard components of natural cells.