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Updated 2025-04-05 00:17
Why a Chip That’s Bad at Math Can Help Computers Tackle Harder Problems
DARPA funded the development of a new computer chip that’s hardwired to make simple mistakes but can help computers understand the world.
The Extinction Invention
A genetic technology that can kill off mosquito species could eradicate malaria. But is it too risky to ever use?
The Drug-Making Process Is Slow and Wasteful—This Machine Could Fix That
A portable assembly line for medicines offers a better way to respond to outbreaks and shortages.
This Machine Hints at the Future of Drug Making
A portable assembly line for medicines offers a better way to respond to outbreaks and shortages.
How Computers Can Tell What They’re Looking At
Images from inside an artificial neural network help explain why a technique called deep learning is enabling software to see.
The Scientific Swap Meet Behind the Gene-Editing Boom
How one nonprofit’s mailroom is making tinkering with genomes as easy as shopping at Amazon.
What If Apple Is Wrong?
Phones that lock away everything they hold could inhibit law enforcement more than we really want.
Tech Slowdown Threatens the American Dream
Despite the allure of apps and social media, today’s digital technologies are doing little to generate the kind of prosperity that previous generations enjoyed, a prominent economist argues. But that doesn’t mean we should give up on innovation.
HoloLens Starts to Show How Augmented Reality Can Be Social
A simple gaming demo makes it clear that augmented reality is a lot more fun with others.
The Rogue Immune Cells That Wreck the Brain
Beth Stevens thinks she has solved a mystery behind brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia.
How Google Plans to Solve Artificial Intelligence
Mastering Go is just the beginning for Google DeepMind, which hopes to create human-like AI.
How Google DeepMind Plans to Solve Intelligence
Mastering Go is just the beginning for Google DeepMind, which hopes to create human-like artificial intelligence.
Sorry, Shoppers: Delivery Drones Might Not Fly for a While
Despite legislative momentum behind projects like those being developed by Google, Amazon, and others, big technology challenges stand in the way of delivery drones.
Man and Machine
Despite many advances, AI still works best when paired with humans.
How AI Is Feeding China’s Internet Dragon
China’s biggest Internet company, Baidu, is pushing an ambitious effort to add artificial intelligence to its products.
AI Hits the Mainstream
More industries are looking for ways to use artificial intelligence. What will that mean for the technology’s future?
Alphabet and Facebook’s Stratospheric Internet Plans Get Tangled in High-Altitude Red Tape
Plans to use drones and balloons to provide wireless Internet will need considerable help from regulators overseeing airspace and communications satellites.
App Spots Objects for the Visually Impaired
A new iPhone app uses machine learning to identify objects for people with poor eyesight, and it doesn’t need an Internet connection.
Ivanpah’s Problems Could Signal the End of Concentrated Solar in the U.S.
Canceled solar thermal projects are likely to mean the technology’s future is dim in the U.S., so companies are looking overseas.
The Race for the Ultra-Efficient Jet Engine of the Future
Two radically different engine designs aim to make flying cleaner and quieter. Which one will win?
Controlling Diabetes with a Skin Patch
A flexible tattoo senses glucose levels in sweat and delivers a drug as needed.
Brain-Zapping Headphones Could Make You a Better Athlete
But some researchers think it’s irresponsible to market them to consumers.
This Factory Robot Learns a New Job Overnight
The world’s largest industrial robot maker, Fanuc, is developing robots that use reinforcement learning to figure out how to do things.
The Feds Are Wrong to Warn of “Warrant-Proof” Phones
Throughout history, communications have mainly been ephemeral. We need to be sure we can preserve that freedom.
Fun (and Some Nausea) with the First Games for the Oculus Rift Headset
The first games for Oculus Rift are pretty sweet, though some can cause motion sickness.
Health-Tracking Startup Fails to Deliver on Its Ambitions
Quanttus spent several years trying to track blood pressure at the wrist, but doing so appears to be even more difficult than the company thought.
Startup Quanttus Shows Just How Hard It Is to Accurately Track Health on Your Wrist
Quanttus spent several years trying to track blood pressure at the wrist, but doing so appears to be even more difficult than the company thought.
People in Virtual Reality Are About to Look a Lot More Realistic
8i is trying to bring real people into virtual reality for more immersive experiences, from films to yoga classes.
How Apple Could Fed-Proof Its Software Update System
The FBI’s demands on Apple have got security experts thinking about how to make it harder for the government to secretly coerce software companies.
A Robotic Home That Knows When You’re Hungover
A company is developing apartment buildings with sensors, automated appliances, and the ability to learn an owner’s habits.
A Bitcoin-Style Currency for Central Banks
The Bank of England asked researchers to invent a digital currency with a more centralized design.
The Artificially Intelligent Doctor Will Hear You Now
U.K.-based startup Babylon will launch an app later this year that will listen to your symptoms and provide medical advice. Will it help or hinder the health-care system?
How WeChat Is Extending China’s School Days Well into the Night
New homework assignments at 7 p.m., corrections due by midnight: how teachers, parents, and students in some schools in China are using WeChat to perpetuate round-the-clock pressure.
Daredevil Drone Flies through the Trees Like an Ace
Startup Skydio has developed a more sophisticated autopilot for drones. Beyond obstacle avoidance, it lets an aircraft orient itself and navigate through busy areas.
In Apple vs. the FBI, There Is No Technical Middle Ground
Either you let law enforcement get into encrypted devices and run the risk of letting others find a similar way in, or you don’t.
Apple’s “Code = Speech” Mistake
A law professor who backs Apple in its case against the FBI says it would be dangerous for the company to win on First Amendment grounds.
Flexible Glass Could Bring Back the Flip Phone
Schott can make a sheet of glass thinner than your hair and half a kilometer long that bends, but doesn’t yet fold.
Bacteria-Laden Mosquitoes May Be the Cheapest Way to Stop Dengue and Zika
Some Latin American cities could soon begin releasing millions of mosquitoes developed with funding from Bill Gates.
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2016: Precise Gene Editing in Plants
CRISPR offers an easy, exact way to alter genes to create traits such as disease resistance and drought tolerance.
When Biology Meets Ideology
A new book reopens a notorious case of bungled science in the Soviet Union.
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2016: Immune Engineering
Genetically engineered immune cells are saving the lives of cancer patients. That may be just the start.
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2016: DNA App Store
An online store for information about your genes will make it cheap and easy to learn more about your health risks and predispositions.
Conversational Interfaces
Powerful speech technology from China’s leading Internet company makes it much easier to use a smartphone.
DNA App Store
An online store for information about your genes will make it cheap and easy to learn more about your health risks and predispositions.
What Role Should Silicon Valley Play in Fighting Terrorism?
Politicians are trying to recruit technology companies to help fight ISIS. Does it make sense?
Should Silicon Valley Go to War?
Politicians are trying to recruit technology companies to help fight ISIS. Does it make sense?
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2016
Rockets that land. T Cells that crush cancer. A gigafactory for solar power. See our picks for the technologies solving big problems in 2016.
Bring Your Feet into Virtual Reality
Tactonic is making pressure-sensing mats that can tell how you move your toes, which could make for more immersive VR exploration.
In First Human Test of Optogenetics, Doctors Aim to Restore Sight to the Blind
A breakthrough technology from neuroscience might allow blind people to see a monochromatic world.
The Missing Link of Artificial Intelligence
We don’t know how to make software that learns without explicit instruction—but we need to if dreams of humanlike AI are to come true.
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