The Code.org leadership team in 2013, from left: Michelle Page, Cameron Wilson, Hadi Partovi, Ali Partovi, James Gwertzman and Pat Yongpradit. (Twitter Photo via @hadip) When the Seattle-based nonprofit Code.org launched in 2013 with a mission to spread computer science knowledge, co-founders Hadi and Ali Partovi enlisted some of the most successful coders on the planet to champion their cause. In a YouTube video titled “What Most Schools Don’t Teach,” Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, ...read more

Novo Nordisk is shutting down wet lab operations in Seattle. (Novo Nordisk Photo) Danish multinational biopharma company Novo Nordisk is laying off 86 employees in Seattle, according to a new filing with the Washington state Employment Security Department. A spokesperson confirmed the cuts with GeekWire and said the company is shutting its Seattle “wet lab” operations, also known as experimental labs. Novo Nordisk currently operates a research and development center in Seattle for diabe ...read more

TechSpot is about to celebrate its 25th anniversary. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. The big picture: Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been a heavily scrutinized and criticized merger for more than a year, receiving resistance from regulators across the US, UK, and EU. Sources close to the EU's European Commission are now indicating that the agency will not require Microsoft to sell any assets to obtain acquisition approval. The decision would give Mi ...read more

Sheel Mohnot, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who co-founded the firm Better Tomorrow Ventures, was looking for love. Better Tomorrow Ventures During the pandemic, a mutual friend introduced him to Amruta Godbole, a lawyer at Instagram. Their first phone call in May 2020 was almost six hours long. Taco Bell Soon after, they had a socially distanced date in Mohnot's backyard. Cue a whirlwind romance in which they biked through Burning Man's Black Rock ...read more

Embark Trucks, the autonomous trucking company that went public in 2021 via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, is cutting 70% of its workforce and shutting down two offices. And the pain may not be over as CEO Alex Rodrigues noted in an email to employees that the remaining 30% of workers will focus on winding down operations. The company said in a regulatory filing that about 230 employees were laid off Friday. A source familiar with the plan said the cuts were announce ...read more

Universal Hydrogen’s prototype plane takes its first flight in Moses Lake, Wash. (Universal Hydrogen Photo) A prototype aircraft with a hydrogen-fueled powertrain successfully completed an initial 15-minute flight today at Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Wash., marking a significant step for zero-emission aviation. Los Angeles-based Universal Hydrogen had the 40-passenger De Havilland Dash 8-300 turboprop converted to use hydrogen to power an electric propulsion system m ...read more

from the gaming-like-it's-1927 dept On Tuesday, we announced the winners in all six categories of the fifth annual public domain game jam, Gaming Like It’s 1927 . Now, as in past years, we’ll be spending the next few weeks taking a closer look at each of the winning games (in no particular order). First up, it’s the winner of the Best Remix category: Lucia by Azzyfree. Every year, the majority of submissions to the game jam focus on a single newly-public-domain work. The Best Remix c ...read more

China leads the US in the research of 37 out of 44 key technologies tracked by an Australian think tank. These critical and emerging technologies span a range of sectors including defense, space, and energy. China has a "stunning lead" ahead of the US in high-impact research across critical and emerging technologies, according to Canberra-based independent think tank Australian Strategic Policy Institute, or ASPI. The world's second-largest economy is leading the US in researching 37 out ...read more

The lack of an engineering mentor while growing up didn’t hinder Anna Zakrzewska from having a successful career in telecommunications. She is a senior principal engineer at Dell Technologies in Dublin. But Zakrzewska wonders how different her journey would have been if she’d had a mentor to guide her when she was younger. “None of my family members or family friends were engineers,” she says. “I also didn’t have any mentors at school, and I often think about how my career wou ...read more

Earlier this week, SpaceX released more information about the new argon Hall thrusters that will power the Starlink V2 mini satellites, an innovation that likely has much to do with the company’s acquisition of Swarm Technologies in 2021. The deal, which closed in July 2021, was an extremely rare move for SpaceX. Swarm — which manufactures and operates ultra-small satellites for IoT devices — remains the company’s only acquisition in its 21-year history. It was also notable becaus ...read more