Today, 785 million people lack access to clean drinking water. Waterborne diseases are the number one killer on Earth, claiming 3.4 million lives a year,...
Nuclear power’s role in combating climate change is a contentious topic, but a Silicon Valley entrepreneur thinks he can sway the debate by releasing...
When it comes to economic development, positive change is typically gradual and only noticeable over long periods of time; by contrast negative developments—economic crises—are...
COMPUTING
Inside the Race to Build the Best Quantum Computer on Earth
Gideon Lichfield | MIT Technology Review
"Regardless of whether you agree with Google’s position ...
A nightmarish scene was burnt into my memory nearly two decades ago: Changainjie, Beijing’s normally chaotic “fifth avenue,” desolate without a sign of life....
Penicillin, one of the greatest discoveries in the history of medicine, was a product of chance.
After returning from summer vacation in September 1928, bacteriologist...
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The Messy, Secretive Reality Behind OpenAI's Bid to Save the World
Karen Hao | MIT Technology Review
"The AI moonshot was founded in the spirit...
While quantum computing tends to garner all the headlines, quantum technology also has huge promise for the communication networks of the future. That’s why...
Comparing today’s computers to their famous ancestors is a popular pastime.
As we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the moon landing last year, the Apollo...
3D PRINTING
3D Printers Are Finally Starting to Work More Like Star Trek's Replicators
Andrew Liszewski | Gizmodo
"...researchers from EPFL’s Laboratory of Applied Photonics Devices have developed...
Today, less than two decades after the arrival of the internet, Google and Facebook together command more advertising dollars than all print media on the...
As obstinate and frustrating as we are sometimes, humans in general are pretty flexible when it comes to learning—especially compared to AI.
Our ability to...
It’s been over a decade since artificial retinas first began helping the blind see. But for many people, whose blindness originates beyond the retina,...
GENE EDITING
CRISPR'd Cells Show Promise in First US Human Safety Trial
Megan Molteni | Wired
"The highly anticipated results showed that the procedure is both safe...
Depression is a shifting, amorphous beast that silently haunts millions. It’s also difficult to pinpoint.
Psychiatry has formulated well-tested questionnaires to diagnose depression. But these...
COMPUTING
Alphabet Has a Second Secretive Quantum Computing Team
Tom Simonite | Wired
" small group of quantum researchers is not building its own quantum computing hardware. The...
Some of the most potent innovation taking place today does not involve breakthrough technologies, but rather the creation of fundamentally new business models. For...
Roads criss-cross the landscape, but while they provide vital transport links, in many ways they represent a huge amount of wasted space. Advances in...
NEUROSCIENCE
The Most Complete Brain Map Ever Is Here: A Fly's 'Connectome'
Gregory Barber | Wired
"Researchers like Rubin believe a physical blueprint of the brain could...
The alarming headlines about Australia’s bush fires over the last couple weeks have heightened the global outcry over climate change, and companies, NGOs, and...
In the beginning, there was Satoshi. It’s been a little over a decade since the pseudonymous founder of Bitcoin introduced the blockchain-based cryptocurrency that...
A remarkable combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and biology has produced the world’s first “living robots.”
This week, a research team of roboticists and scientists...
Renewable energy statistics just keep topping each other. Solar power is getting cheaper. Battery storage capacity is getting better. And wind farms are getting...
Concerns around the environmental impact of modern farming are causing us to reassess our relationship with food. But are claims that lab-grown food will...
BIOTECH
Meet Xenobot, an Eerie New Kind of Programmable Organism
Matt Simon | Wired
"A xenobot is a one-of-a-kind organism: It’s both a living thing made of...
