IEEE Spectrum

Optical fibers made from silk could detect chemicals

An MIT engineer and historian argues that self-driving cars and other robotic systems should still keep humans in the loop

An MIT engineer and historian argues that self-driving cars and other robotic systems should still keep humans in the loop

Try to match failures and glitches with their reported causes

Can computers be creative?

Development makes it possible to encode information that is not based on binary logic

This robot harvests energy from water using a microbial fuel cell as an artificial stomach

Four titles for the thinking space pilot

It may not save the future, but it could save your life

When even more money and more time can’t prevent project disasters

Sophisticated weather simulations are making wind power more grid friendly

An ailing electric motorcycle startup files for bankruptcy after losing key engineers to Apple

New SQUID arrays take advantage of strength in numbers

A robot made of cables and tubes can get all up in your ducts

Just a handful of wireless ‘sniffing stations’ can pinpoint V2V and V2I cars

For the first time, solar thermal can compete with natural gas during nighttime peak demand

Experiments prove the theory: black phosphorous has opposite anisotropy in thermal and electrical conductivities

As technology evolves at warp speed, so must engineers

Will metamaterials improve optical chips?

Kamigami is a fast, durable, and easy-to-build hexapod that you can buy for under $50

Software that has proven itself as capable as many human data scientists could speed up the Big Data revolution

Biocompatible optical fibers could deliver light inside human tissue

The new laser center will house the most powerful laser on Earth

Jason Matheny, former leader of the Office for Anticipating Surprise, hopes to cast a wide net to help solve spy-agency problems

Utility-scale solar projects are poorly sited from an environmental perspective, say scientists

Getting a drone for the holidays? You may have to register it with the government

Deep blue lights could make smartphones, flat panel displays more energy effficient

Automated crowd-counting software can reduce the time needed from up to a week to just half an hour

Why and how we're looking back at a decade's worth of IT debacles

Trying to replace multiple systems with one can lead to none

Explore the many ways in which IT failures have squandered money, wasted time, and generally disrupted people’s lives

Reality takes a back seat to designers' imaginings in the 2015 Electrolux Challenge

It has to, now that its diesels are dead. Maybe it can make good on its claims of an impending battery breakthrough

The best robot videos of the week are here!

A small reversible gas generator could solve soft robotics' actuation problem

Unique geometry of carbon nanotubes provides basis for a flexible pressure sensor

Most mental health apps aren't clinically validated

Flexible graphene-coated fabric is more sensitive to gas molecules than those built on a solid substrate

Robots falling over is an inevitability, so let's teach them how to do it without smashing themselves into pieces

Terahertz pulses could help compact devices out-accelerate building-size machines

Another diversity push starts at Pinterest

You can't hide from MIT's microwaves, which will spot you on the other side of a wall while slowly cooking you

A specialized processor analyzes entire genomes of desperately ill babies in record time

New insights into how metal ions move could make better resistive RAM

Engineers explain Qualcomm’s SceneDetect ahead of the release of the smartphone processor that runs it

Three separate research teams offer novel ways of producing skyrmions that bring them closer to real-world applications

QRoSS can bounce around and then extend four legs to walk over rough terrain

Australian scientists will look for industry partners to help move toward a million-qubit processor

All autonomous vehicle makers will be on the hook for mistakes, not just Volvo