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- Your phone is dirtier than you think, the Sun has weather, and AI is bringing back the dead
Your phone is dirtier than you think, the Sun has weather, and AI is bringing back the dead
The Point by Modern Sciences - May 13, 2026
Don Smith
May 13, 2026
By The Modern Sciences Team | May 13, 2026 |
Happy Wednesday, Cultivators of Curiosity!
Welcome to the Volume 18 of The Point by Modern Sciences! This week, we're covering three stories that sit at the intersection of science, technology, and the bigger questions they quietly raise.
First, a closer look at something you're probably holding right now: your phone, and why it may be far less clean than you think. Then, we zoom out to the Sun to break down the charged plasma storms that can knock out power grids and paint the sky in color. Finally, we step into one of the most emotionally and ethically charged questions in AI today: should the dead be allowed to live on as chatbots—and if so, who gets to decide?
TECH
Your phone is covered in germs: a tech expert explains how to clean it without doing damage
Your smartphone is touched dozens of times daily and harbors hundreds of bacteria and virus species, yet most people never clean it properly. Using the wrong products can strip protective coatings, damage waterproof seals, and reduce touch sensitivity. Here's what tech experts and major manufacturers like Apple and Samsung recommend for safe, effective phone hygiene.
The Point:
Smartphones are germ hotspots that most people never properly clean: Studies consistently find hundreds of bacterial and viral species on phone surfaces, and unlike hands, these devices are rarely sanitized despite being touched constantly and taken everywhere.
The wrong cleaning products can quietly ruin your device: Harsh agents including bleach, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, and high-alcohol wipes can strip the oleophobic coating, degrade rubber seals, and make screens more prone to smudging and reduced responsiveness.
Safe cleaning is simple and manufacturer-approved: Both Apple and Samsung recommend 70% isopropyl alcohol wipes and soft microfibre cloths, applied gently and never directly into ports, with a weekly cleaning schedule sufficient for most users.
EARTH
What are solar storms and the solar wind? 3 astrophysicists explain how particles coming from the Sun interact with Earth
The Sun doesn't just give off light and heat; it constantly blasts charged plasma into our solar system through solar wind and explosive coronal mass ejections. These solar storms interact with Earth's magnetic field, triggering space weather that can disrupt power grids, damage satellites, and produce the dazzling auroras visible near the poles.
The Point:
Solar wind is a constant, invisible stream pouring from the Sun: The Sun's superheated corona releases a continuous flow of charged plasma that engulfs the entire solar system, traveling at up to two million miles per hour and measured directly by missions like the Parker Solar Probe.
Solar storms are powerful magnetic eruptions on top of the steady solar wind: Coronal mass ejections launch massive clouds of magnetized plasma toward Earth, where their tangled magnetic fields can interact with our planet's own field and trigger widespread space weather disturbances.
Space weather carries both hazards and beauty for life on Earth: When solar plasma breaches Earth's protective magnetosphere, it can cause power blackouts, satellite failure, and communication outages; however, it also generates the glowing auroras visible near the North and South Poles.
TECH
Should AI be allowed to resurrect the dead?
AI-powered "deathbots" can now simulate deceased loved ones using personal messages, voice notes, and social media data, offering some grieving people comfort while raising serious ethical concerns. Who has the right to digitally resurrect the dead? And as commercial platforms profit from grief, should there be legal limits on how posthumous data is used?
The Point:
AI "deathbots" are offering a new and controversial frontier for grief: Platforms like Xingye allow users to build chatbot versions of deceased loved ones using personal history and behavioral patterns, with some users reporting genuine therapeutic healing while others find the simulations distressing and hollow.
Commercial incentives create a troubling conflict of interest in grief technology: The companies building these tools are profit-driven platforms with incentives around engagement and data harvesting, meaning a deathbot that users become compulsively dependent on may be a business success but a psychological trap.
The question is not just whether AI resurrection is possible but who controls it: Unresolved issues around consent, family disagreements, public display of deathbots, and the rights of the deceased point to an urgent need for regulation, ethical design standards, and limits on posthumous data use.