The most widely used technique for optimizing values of a math function turns out to be a fundamentally difficult computational problem.

You don’t have to be tied down to multiple costly services month after month.

Plus: The T-Mobile hacker, another big bad Microsoft bug, and more of the week’s top security news.

Preemptively familiarizing people with centuries-old anti-vaccine narratives may be more effective than retroactive fact-checking.

The company's new smartwatches breathe new life into Google's Wear OS 3, and a dose of hope for the future.

Scientists have attached dosimeters to the reptiles so they can serve as living “bioindicators” to gauge contamination levels near the shuttered nuclear power plant.

Get ready for fall with the best discounts on everything from home entertainment to fitness tracking.

The title’s three codirectors discuss bringing their TV-show-meets-adventure-game project to life.

New figures from Google show a tenfold increase in the requests from law enforcement, which target anyone who happened to be in a given location at a specified time.

More people in the hospital means more people need oxygen. But treatment plants also need the gas to purify water.

Catch up on the most important updates from this week.

Plus: Ten years of Apple without Steve Jobs, thoughts on the Apple Watch, and a baby bird’s worst nightmare.

Also: The latest Matrix sequel has a title, and that’s all I want to know about it.

In the movie’s video game world, a whole-body airbag protects Ryan Reynolds as he falls off of a building and onto a car. Would that … work?

Make a barista-worthy cup on the road, back at camp, or anywhere else, with these handheld machines.

This week, we step into the social network’s vision of the metaverse, where reality and the simulated world become one. Kinda.

Here's what you need to know about walking simulators and the psychological benefits of how games can offer a much-needed escape.

A research chemist mixed nitrogen, methane, and other molecules to recreate the conditions that might harbor life on one of Saturn’s moons.

This Zojirushi's limited ability to cook large quantities of anything other than rice and grains makes it hard to justify its higher-than-average price tag.

The undersea cables that connect much of the world would be hit especially hard by a coronal mass ejection.

Requiring people to get their shots can stop Covid-19, but those rules have to be doable and equitable.

The 25-year-old Twitch star has built her life into the optimal internet content machine. Now she just wants to enjoy it.

As the nation battles the Delta variant, contact tracing seems to have disappeared from the arsenal of defenses—right when it could help the most.

These are the new standard in midrange wireless earbuds.

Researchers are coming around to the idea that there isn't a one-size-fits-all diet. Some companies are going further to find out what fits you, specifically.

Performers of sexually explicit content are relieved but still worried about their futures on the subscription site.

After another “zero-click” attack, security experts say it's time for more extreme measures to keep iMessage users safe.

The automaker is recalling the electric vehicle after investigating two manufacturing defects linked to car fires.

What happens to a loved one's account after they pass—and how does their digital afterlife affect the ones who survive them?

The Galaxy Z Flip3 and Galaxy Z Fold3 are more polished than ever, and surprisingly purpose-driven.

It’s a heart-stopping moment for health officials, who reported only a single case this year—and whose campaigns may end up paused.

Cerebras says its technology can run a neural network with 120 trillion connections—a hundred times what's achievable today.

How the tech world’s unique brand of politics is shaping the fight over who governs California.

It would take a determined hacker to break into the vulnerable B. Braun products, but the impact could be devastating.

The restaurant industry was hit hard by the pandemic, but some pros went online to share skills, recipes, and just stay connected. Here’s how you can too.

This moderately priced TV looks great and has every app you will ever need.

The paste sticks onto wet tissue firmly by repelling blood. Surgeons hope it can save time—and lives.

Whether players come to chat, organize activities, buy and sell items, or just to log out, hubs have a language all their own.

Perhaps, if we put bots together the right way, consciousness will simply emerge.

Last week, Texas health care policymakers discussed taking vaccination status into account for Covid triage. It’s a larger conversation ethicists are bracing for.

How does one of the slowest animals on Earth manage to chase down a bird? Have a look for yourself.

Misconfigured Power Apps from Microsoft led to more than a thousand web apps accessible to anyone who found them.

Invoxia's LongFi Tracker can report the location of your car, backpack, or teenager by pinging community-operated Helium wireless devices.

These firms could track whether you've visited your therapist's office or your ex's house. And without regulation, they're a threat to democracy.

To start, forgive yourself and help each other.

Startups in Germany, China, Israel, and elsewhere are following the path blazed by GPT-3—with local twists.

Pindrop, which makes software to identify synthetic audio, found three clips totaling 50 seconds in the nearly 2-hour movie.

An experimental textile called metafabric is designed to cool down the wearer and reduce the need for air-conditioning.

This cephalopod is the only known animal that doesn’t exhibit age-related deterioration when recalling specific events.

Name discrimination is still alive and well in 2021—and I can’t help but wonder how it’s shaped others’ perceptions of me.