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Today’s Pulse rundown
Pirate Shipwrecks
Transcript: What if you found the hidden base of real-life pirates? In the Bahamas, archaeologists from the New Providence Pirates Expedition discovered six shipwrecks in Nassau harbor! They found a charred wooden hull, iron cannons, and twenty-five lead musket balls. Experts say pirates destroyed evidence of their crimes by setting fire to the ships they had seized. This amazing discovery gives us a rare look at how these famous sailors really lived back in the 1690s. If you could explore a sunken ship, what would you hope to find?
WildObs Australia
Transcript: How do you count millions of wild animals without ever stepping outside? In Australia, researchers at the University of Queensland launched the Wildlife Observatory of Australia. This new platform uses artificial intelligence to process millions of camera trap images from across the country! The computer vision system speeds up the work by identifying hundreds of different species automatically, working ten times faster than human scientists. This helps experts track biodiversity and protect threatened animals much earlier. What kind of wild animal would you want to catch on a hidden camera?
Light-Powered Chip
Transcript: Imagine if your computer ran on pure light instead of electricity! Scientists at Monash University just created a tiny new chip that generates, steers, and reads light-based information. The team successfully encoded and processed two separate images at the exact same time! The device uses ultra-thin materials and special nanostructures to control light at room temperature. This breakthrough could lead to much faster computing systems that use way less energy than the ones we have today. What would you build with a super-fast, light-powered computer?
FIRSTxMIT Robotics Club
Transcript: Could you build a working robot in just three days? A new student club at MIT called FIRSTxMIT did exactly that! The group is made up of alumni from FIRST Robotics, and they built a robot named Timbot in only seventy-two hours. They took their creation to Washington, D.C., to show high school students how fun engineering can be. The club fosters connections among students and provides a way to channel their passion into public service and teaching. If you had three days to build a robot, what would you program it to do?
Microsoft Scout
Transcript: What if your newest coworker was actually a computer program? Microsoft just announced Scout, an always-on artificial intelligence agent designed to help office workers. Built on the OpenClaw system, Scout lives inside the Teams app and acts just like a human assistant! Scout accesses your work messages, calendars, and emails to proactively assign tasks and suggest rescheduling options for meetings. It can even draft responses while you are away from your desk. If you had a digital assistant to help with your homework, what would you name it?
NASA Space Roboticist Challenge
Transcript: How would you like to run an experiment in outer space? NASA is inviting researchers to propose ideas for the Fly Foundational Robots mission. This project will launch a highly advanced robotic arm with seven degrees of freedom into low Earth orbit! Teams will submit white papers, and up to fifteen groups will advance to conduct simulation testing at the Goddard Space Flight Center. The winners will get actual on-orbit experiment time using the robotic arm! What kind of space tool would you want to test in zero gravity?
OceanWell Desalination
Transcript: What if the heavy weight of the ocean could help us make drinking water? A startup called OceanWell successfully tested a deep-sea desalination pod in a California reservoir. Later this year, they plan to test it off the coast of Malibu at a depth of one thousand four hundred feet! The system uses the natural pressure of the deep ocean to push seawater through reverse-osmosis membranes, creating fresh water while cutting electricity use by up to forty percent. Next time you drink a glass of water, imagine it coming from the bottom of the sea!
Gitaroo Man
Transcript: Are you ready to play a legendary video game that was lost to time? During the State Of Play event, PlayStation announced new titles for its Classics Catalog. One of the biggest surprises is Gitaroo Man, a cult classic rhythm game that has been out of reach for over two decades! Developed by the studio iNiS, this musical adventure is finally returning so a whole new generation of players can experience its wild story and catchy beats. If you could bring back any old video game, which one would you choose to play?
Olivia Rodrigo BBC Radio 1
Transcript: Have you ever heard your favorite singer perform a song by someone else? Pop star Olivia Rodrigo recently visited the BBC Radio 1 studio in London. While she was there, she performed a beautiful cover of a song by the artist CMAT! CMAT was thrilled, joking on Instagram that Rodrigo sang it better than she did. During the same visit, Rodrigo also debuted a live version of her brand new single, backed by a full string section. If you were a famous singer, whose song would you want to cover on the radio?
Bank of England Banknotes
Transcript: If you could put any animal on your money, what would you pick? The Bank of England is asking the public to help choose which wildlife will appear on its new banknotes! They have shortlisted eighteen animals, including the puffin, the bottlenose dolphin, and the red fox. The Bank is replacing historical figures with wildlife to stop counterfeiting by updating all the images over time. People have until July 3 to vote for up to six of their favorites! Which wild animal do you think deserves to be on a fifty-pound note?