The French Competition Agency has hit the company with $855 million in fines this year. The money is meaningless—but the changes could be profound.

Back in 1909, figuring out the charge of a single electron was a Nobel-worthy pursuit. Today, it’s a good lesson in understanding four key forces.

The National Radio Quiet Zone limits wireless communications. But a journey to its center in Green Bank, West Virginia, reveals a town at odds with itself.

Nauka’s errant firings were likely the result of human error—and they raise concerns about the future of the country’s space program and its partnership with NASA.

A new model explains the forces and body design features that limit maximum sprinting speed.

While a number of recent announcements highlighted accessibility in games, or offered great options for viewers, there's more work to be done.

Not everyone loves the streaming service’s coverage of the 2020 Games, but its highlight show is perfect just the way it is.

Following the industry trend of tech giants manufacturing their own processors, the company will start putting bespoke silicon in its mobile hardware.

Sea level rise will soon combine with a host of other environmental factors to produce dozens of floods each fall in US coastal cities.

Sony’s noise-canceling earbuds are the best you can buy, so long as your ears are big enough.

Small distilleries like Empirical Spirits are working on uncategorizable drinks made of stuff like plum pits, for the resilient quaff of tomorrow.

The tech may seem antiquated, but it poses very modern cybersecurity problems.

The question is surprisingly complicated—and involves a lot of sifting through marketing.

Theorists are in a frenzy over these bizarre, but potentially useful, hypothetical particles that can only move in combination with one another.

Plus: A sneaky iOS app, a wiper attack in Iran, and more of the week’s top security news.

With a new train line threatening its habitat, the big cat may be the key to protecting this Mexican reserve—and everything else in it.

Hunker down at home and block out the real world with these deals on Chromebooks, headphones, and more.

The brain's default mode is set to mind-wandering. Your meditation app can bring you back into the now.

William Gibson's classic 1984 novel is still the gold standard for cyberpunk.

Plus: Round one with Mark Zuckerberg, the appointment of Lina Khan, and a new type of weather nightmare.

The confluence of the Apple TV+ comedy, the sports world, and social media is leading to a much needed dialog.

Using CT scans and 3D modeling, researchers found the fish’s spiral digestive system is analogous to Nikola Tesla’s ingenious check valve design.

This week, Jason Parham takes us inside one of the most influential communities on the internet and shares their stories in their own words.

California has begun enforcing a browser-level privacy setting, but you still can’t find that option in Safari or iOS.

Wolf puppies can’t understand human gestures as well as their dog cousins. The difference could help explain what makes dogs so special.

Hopes for a “normal” fall have been dashed by variants and low vaccine uptake. Businesses and the White House think requiring shots can turn things around.

The Tokyo Games have taken a unique psychological toll on all of the athletes.

My favorite force belittles me—literally—but also inspires new ways to get high.

The latest weapons in the global information war are fake vessels behaving badly.

Once home to vibrant live competitions, gaming centers have been bleeding out since before the pandemic. Lockdowns could leave them KO'd for good.

Companies like Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent were once regarded with national pride. Now they’re being slapped with fines and other penalties.

Joy and pain, harmony and discord, organization and chaos—there’s no single way to define Black Twitter’s complex, ongoing legacy.

A new formula measures the “mortality cost of carbon” and how much would have to be removed from the atmosphere to save a single life.

“We love our jobs, but our jobs don’t love us back,” one worker told WIRED. “So we’re trying to change that.”

In a bid to protect its investments in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cells, the carmaker is lobbying against the transition to electric vehicles.

The head of design at Nothing explains how their product could take on Apple's all-conquering wireless earbuds, at a fraction of the cost.

The HW-Q950A is spendy, but the setup is dead simple, and it won't fail to immerse you in your favorite movies and shows.

Social media is not the reason the pandemic hasn’t been conquered.

An extraordinary drought in the West, plus dry lakes and reservoirs, mean there will be less water for farms, hydroelectric energy, and home users.

PunkSpider is back, and crawling hundreds of millions of sites for vulnerabilities.

For decades, VR has failed to live up to expectations. Yet somehow, it keeps receiving more chances and more resources.

Face-morphing adult content creator Coconut Kitty is ushering in the unsettling future of the medium, one where nothing is as it seems.

A handful of companies have outsize influence on the world’s artificial intelligence. Policymakers must act now to stem the rise of powerful monopolies.

The TCL 20 Pro 5G, 20S, and 20 SE are perfectly capable and affordable handsets, but you can do better.

Just a few days after ditching its invite-only status, the audio chat app had fewer than 500,000 new downloads.

Huge pyrocumulonimbus clouds just formed over fires in the West. Here’s why they could become more common on a warmer planet.

You want to be productive. Software wants to help. But even with a glut of tools claiming to make us all into taskmasters, we almost never master our tasks.

The company announced a strategy that involves new machinery and new technologies. It may get a boost from the US government.

The iconic action RPG introduced a world of gamers to Japanese fashion. Now with a sequel on the way, its influence has only grown.

One of the best gaming chairs just got better, but it's not for everyone.