Startups are pushing a pragmatic answer to the climate problem of red-meat consumption: rather than persuading people to give up beef entirely, they are mixing plant proteins into real meat products. The approach, known as blended meat, is gaining traction as a way to shrink the environmental footprint of everyday foods without asking consumers to change their diets overnight.
A school taste test points to consumer acceptance
One of the companies pursuing this strategy is Joyn, which has developed a product called 50/Cut. Available as meatballs, burgers, and ground meat, 50/Cut combines simple ingredients, including mushrooms, with real meat. In the fall of 2025, Jeff Dodge served the product to students in a marinara sauce with meatballs. The response was striking: 92% of students who tried the dish said they wanted it added to the menu, and few guessed that mushrooms had been mixed into the meat.
The logic behind the category is straightforward. Instead of trying to build a perfect plant-based substitute, companies like Joyn are making conventional meat products more sustainable by partially replacing the meat with plants. The result is still recognizable food, but with a lower environmental cost.
An implant offers sight to patients with geographic atrophy
For more than 5 million people living with an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration called geographic atrophy, retinal cells die off and create a blind spot in the center of their vision. Until now, no treatment has been able to restore that lost sight. A system called PRIMA is changing that.
PRIMA pairs a retinal implant with camera-equipped eyeglasses to improve vision for patients who have developed this central blind spot. After training sessions, more than 80% of recipients were able to read, do crosswords, and use their phones. The system represents a significant step forward for a condition that previously had no restorative options.
The agentic web moves from vision to reality
In 2001, a decade after inventing the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee described a new vision for the internet: a network navigated by autonomous software agents that address our needs directly, without requiring people to manage browsers and search engines themselves. At the time, the idea seemed far-fetched.
A quarter-century later, AI agents are beginning to make that vision real. They can triage inboxes, handle grocery shopping, and even access bank accounts. This emerging era is being called the agentic web, and it is poised to transform how the internet works. Whether the human-centered web survives this transition is an open question.
Other developments worth noting
- Democrats delivered a midterm setback to tech billionaires, with results that could bring tougher scrutiny of AI and data centers. Several winners promised to restrict data center construction, and stock futures slid as Democrats won big.
- Google is shutting off Search for schools that reject AI, saying AI and Search can no longer be untwined. Critics accused the company of pressuring schools to adopt AI.
- Hackers behind a record Binance heist used fake job interviews to target an engineer through LinkedIn, a tactic researchers had repeatedly warned about.
- Materials maker 3M agreed to pay $7.35 billion to settle lawsuits involving PFAS in firefighting foam.
- Finland is opening a nuclear waste vault built to last 100,000 years, burying spent fuel 400 meters underground.
- Russia is pursuing underground data centers after Ukrainian drone strikes disrupted services used by millions.
- Anthropic is working on a system called FlashProve that uses cryptography to verify an AI model’s outputs.
- Old jet engines are being scavenged to power data centers, though environmentalists warn of increased pollution.
- Dinosaur blood has been found in fossils for the first time, advancing research into ancient biomolecules.
- Chernobyl’s dogs appear to be evolving, with scientists finding differences linked to DNA repair and immunity.
The Stanford 2026 AI Index, the field’s annual report card, offers a data-driven look at the state of AI, cutting through competing narratives of gold rush, bubble, and job displacement. Its findings cover the China-US rivalry, model breakthroughs, public sentiment, and the impact on jobs.
