Technologies
Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Aug. 6
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Aug. 6
Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.
I struggled with a few of today’s Mini Crossword clues. 3-Down, with the clue «Fab!» really stumped me. I eventually got it, thanks to the other clues filling in some letters. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.
The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in The Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.
Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword
Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.
Mini across clues and answers
1A clue: Stylish
Answer: HIP
4A clue: Something a beach umbrella provides
Answer: SHADE
6A clue: ___ Banks, North Carolina
Answer: OUTER
7A clue: Unlikely to keep you up at night, in a way
Answer: DECAF
8A clue: The eruption of Mount St. Helens released 520 million tons of it
Answer: ASH
Mini down clues and answers
1D clue: Come out of one’s shell
Answer: HATCH
2D clue: Bright ___
Answer: IDEA
3D clue: «Fab!»
Answer: PERF
4D clue: Starry or Squirt
Answer: SODA
5D clue: Color tones
Answer: HUES
Technologies
OpenAI Has a New AI Model Built for Biology and Science
GPT-Rosalind is intended to help scientists streamline their research and drug discovery.
OpenAI’s latest AI model is built to do far more than offer cooking advice or create a spreadsheet. GPT-Rosalind, the company’s first model specifically built for life science, is meant to help scientists with drug discovery, biology and translational medicine.
The model is named after Rosalind Franklin, whose research revealed the structure of DNA and formed the foundations for modern molecular biology. Scientific research relies heavily on data, and GPT-Rosalind is designed to help sort through it, while also helping reduce the time it takes to develop and get new drugs approved and out on the market.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
It can take 10 to 15 years for a new drug to be developed and approved in the US, OpenAI said in a blog post Thursday. GPT-Rosalind is intended to improve the selection of research targets and create stronger hypotheses for higher-quality experiments.
The model has been tested on topics such as its understanding of organic chemistry, proteins and genetics. Researchers can use it to find relevant scientific literature for their work or design experiments.
This isn’t the first time an AI model has been developed with medical advancements in mind. Google DeepMind has developed many AI models for scientific research, such as AlphaFold, which earned its creators a share of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
«For me, the best use case for AI was to improve human health and accelerate scientific discovery,» Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said in a recent interview. Anthropic introduced Claude for Life Sciences in January with the same purpose.
Some scientists have expressed concerns in the past about how quickly AI has infiltrated the science space and have warned of vulnerabilities, potential misuse and issues with data representation.
OpenAI said GPT-Rosalind has safeguards to protect it from misuse — like the creation of a biological weapon — and has teamed up with various biotechnology, pharmaceutical and life sciences technology organizations to support research and scientific discovery.
Sean Bruich, senior vice president of artificial intelligence and data at the biopharmaceutical company Amgen, said in a statement that scientific work requires precision: «Our unique collaboration with OpenAI enables us to apply their most advanced capabilities and tools in new and innovative ways with the potential to accelerate how we deliver medicines to patients.»
GPT-Rosalind is available only through OpenAI’s trusted-access system as a research preview.
Technologies
Was This Game Just On Sale? Steam May Show Price Shifts Over the Past 30 Days
A price tracker would make it easy to tell if you’re getting a good deal on a game or not.
Steam is the largest video game platform with more than 129,000 games and counting. With so many games and the company offering frequent sales, it’s hard to keep track of whether a game has is at its lowest price or if its been discounted further in the past, but that may change.
Lines of code found in the Steam platform seemingly refer to the recent price history for a game, according to a post on Wednesday from the X account for the Half-Life fan site Lambda Generation. The code was discovered by data miner SigaTbh, who found it on SteamDB, a database and tracking site for the gaming platform. While price history is already a feature on Steam in the European Union, this update could be the first sign that it will become the norm for the platform over in the U.S.
In the image posted by Lambda Generation, there are six lines of code referencing «Price_History» and each line reflects a certain detail that could show up on a game’s page to give some context about its price. The price history would show the normal price for the game, the current price, whether the current price is a 30-day low or if the game was at a lower cost sometime within the past 30 days.
Valve is planning to add a 30 day price history for Steam games.
Found by @SigaTbh on SteamDB pic.twitter.com/BtQNpcAfIF— LambdaGeneration (@LambdaGen) April 15, 2026
Valve didn’t immediately respond to a request for confirmation about the new feature.
Back in 2023, Valve added the price history feature to Steam in the EU as part of the Omnibus Directive. The directive is a series of rules set by the EU focusing on consumer protection. Companies with digital storefronts were required to institute a price tracker on their platforms to display the lowest price of an item for the past 30 days. Even though the Omnibus Directive is in full effect, however, it’s not available in every member state of the EU, as individual countries have to adopt the directive.
Certain rules in the EU that require certain changes to be made to a product or service eventually find their way to the U.S. Apple was forced to add USB-C to its iPhone 15 lineup due to EU legislation requiring standardization of charging ports.
It’s unclear why Valve would make the move to add a price tracker to Steam in the U.S. The company is reportedly working on an AI bot for the platform dubbed «SteamGPT,» and the price history could be part of its features.
Technologies
Casely Is Recalling Wireless Power Pods Over Fire and Burn Risks, Again
The Consumer Product Safety Board warns that lithium-ion batteries in the recalled power banks can overheat, posing fire and burn hazards.
Casely, a company that makes phone cases and other mobile accessories, is again recalling its 5,000-mAh MagSafe Power Pods with the model number E33A, a year after an initial recall. The Power Pods, sold between March 2022 and September 2024, pose a serious risk of fire and burns and resulted in the death of a 75-year-old woman in 2024.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said that since the initial recall in April 2025, an additional 28 incidents of overheating and fires have been reported, including one on a plane. Overall, it’s estimated that as many as 429,200 of these Power Pods, manufactured in China, are potentially affected.
The Power Pods contain lithium-ion batteries, which can overheat and combust. Other companies, such as Anker, have had similar recalls in the last few years over portable battery products.
Following numerous incidents of power banks and portable chargers overheating, Southwest Airlines has changed its policies and will implement restrictions on April 20. The airline is allowing customers to carry only one portable battery pack per flight and restricting where the pack can be stored and how it can be charged during the flight.
Casely and the CPSC are asking those who still own the Power Pods to stop using them immediately and submit a claim for a free replacement at Casely’s website.
The science of why this keeps happening
Lithium-ion batteries, the kind used in the Casely power pods, are the most commonly used rechargeable battery type. They’re used in phones, EVs, electric bikes and scooters, smartwatches, laptops, portable speakers, even toys and vaping devices. They became popular because they’re cheap, energy-dense and have a fairly long lifecycle.
However, they can go wrong when they overheat and combust, and that can be caused by a number of factors. If they short-circuit, that can generate high temperatures and, when coupled with high pressure in some types of cells or devices, can even trigger an explosion.
Some of those precipitating factors include problems at the manufacturing stage, such as inconsistencies or imperfections in the cells’ construction, especially if components are faulty or not reinforced.
Burcu Gurkan, a professor of chemistry at Case Western Reserve University’s Case School of Engineering, said that lithium-ion batteries have «several layers of complications» that can lead to problems.
When, say, components in a lithium-ion cell come into contact because the separators are too thin or damaged, it can cause a short circuit and lead to overheating. The overheating can lead to combustion.
«These batteries have flammable organic components such as carbonate electrolytes, and they can catch on fire in the presence of high temperatures,» Gurkan said.
Solutions to overheating lithium-ion batteries
One way to avoid the danger of fiery batteries is to avoid products that have been recalled. You should also keep an eye on battery-powered devices when they’re in potentially unsafe environments, such as airplanes or extreme climates. But some are hoping improved materials or entirely different types of batteries will help mitigate risks in the future.
Gurkan’s research aims to eliminate hazardous materials from these and other types of batteries. Two of her research projects «have the common goal of developing alternative electrolytes that are not flammable.»
The battery industry is interested in developing better predictive and diagnostic tools to prevent fires and explosions, Gurkan said.
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