As robots evolve, society’s collective imagination forever ponders what else robots can do, with recent fascinations coming to life as self-driving cars or robots that can walk and interact with objects as humans do. These sophisticated systems are powered by advances in deep learning that triggered breakthroughs in robotic perception, so that robots today have […]
Engineered bacteria could help protect “good” gut microbes from antibiotics
Antibiotics are life-saving drugs, but they can also harm the beneficial microbes that live in the human gut. Following antibiotic treatment, some patients are at risk of developing inflammation or opportunistic infections such as Clostridiodes difficile. Indiscriminate use of antibiotics on gut microbes can also contribute to the spread of resistance to the drugs. In […]
The Essentials: Persuading People
Establish your authority, find out who values what, and use curiosity to win over holdouts.
How Cofounders Can Prevent Their Relationship from Derailing
Five strategies to sustain a healthy partnership.
When Crisis Management Becomes Conflict Management
We’re in a new psychological phase of the pandemic, which is manifesting in increased confrontation on many teams.
Wahoo Gives the Roller Bike Trainer a Smarter, Safer Update
A new twist on the traditional indoor cycling trainer combines computerized control with simple safety improvements.
Analysts Warn Anti-Satellite Weapons Have Evolved Beyond Missiles
A pair of new reports point to a proliferating array of technologies that could be used to attack spacecraft.
Tech Bans Hurt Russian Dissidents More than They Help Ukraine
To win PR points, Western tech companies are indiscriminately endangering people’s health and livelihoods.
Sources: China has approved the first batch of video game licenses since its freeze in July; it is unclear if games from Tencent and NetEase were approved (Zheping Huang/Bloomberg)
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg: Sources: China has approved the first batch of video game licenses since its freeze in July; it is unclear if games from Tencent and NetEase were approved — China has approved the first batch of new video game licenses since July, people familiar with the matter said …
Source: Apple will face an additional EU antitrust charge in the coming weeks, in an investigation into music streaming triggered by a complaint from Spotify (Foo Yun Chee/Reuters)
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters: Source: Apple will face an additional EU antitrust charge in the coming weeks, in an investigation into music streaming triggered by a complaint from Spotify — Apple (AAPL.O) faces an additional EU antitrust charge in the coming weeks in an investigation triggered by a complaint from Spotify …
Sources and leaked docs: senior EU officials were targeted last year with Israeli spyware, including Belgian statesman Didier Reynders; NSO denies involvement (Reuters)
Reuters: Sources and leaked docs: senior EU officials were targeted last year with Israeli spyware, including Belgian statesman Didier Reynders; NSO denies involvement — Senior officials at the European Commission were targeted last year with spy software designed by an Israeli surveillance firm …
Origami-inspired robot can deliver drugs at the site they are needed
A robot with thin magnetic plates at each end can be steered and compressed using external magnetic fields so it releases an accurate dose of medicine
Russia and Ukraine are both weaponising mobile phones to track troops
Mobile phones ping signals to nearby communications towers, allowing both Ukrainian and Russian soldiers to track the movement of opposition forces
MIT announces five flagship projects in first-ever Climate Grand Challenges competition
MIT today announced the five flagship projects selected in its first-ever Climate Grand Challenges competition. These multiyear projects will define a dynamic research agenda focused on unraveling some of the toughest unsolved climate problems and bringing high-impact, science-based solutions to the world on an accelerated basis. Representing the most promising concepts to emerge from the […]
Why Employers Should Fund Debt-Free Education Programs
Traditional tuition-reimbursement policies often don’t work for the employees who could benefit the most — hurting employers and employees alike.
Want a Better PC? Try Building Your Own
Assembling a computer yourself is a good way to learn how they work.
A look at the regulations cities like New York, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Helsinki, and others are adopting as they increasingly use AI to provide public services (Jackie Snow/Wall Street Journal)
Jackie Snow / Wall Street Journal: A look at the regulations cities like New York, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Helsinki, and others are adopting as they increasingly use AI to provide public services — A look at what New York, London, Barcelona and other places are doing to establish regulations that other cities—and countries—may want to copy
Sources: beta versions of iOS 16, codenamed Sydney, are “chock-full” of references to Apple’s mixed-reality headset and its interactions with the iPhone (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Sources: beta versions of iOS 16, codenamed Sydney, are “chock-full” of references to Apple’s mixed-reality headset and its interactions with the iPhone — Apple is set to hold its developers conference virtually for the third year in a row. Expect major iOS and watchOS upgrades, and perhaps some new Macs.
Coinbase “temporarily” disables the option to buy cryptocurrencies with the Unified Payments Interface in India; source: the issue is crypto is not legal tender (Apoorva Mittal/The Economic Times)
Apoorva Mittal / The Economic Times: Coinbase “temporarily” disables the option to buy cryptocurrencies with the Unified Payments Interface in India; source: the issue is crypto is not legal tender — US Co reached out to NPCI following regulator’s clarification on no UPI for cryptocurrencies in India …
How to Adjust the Text Size on Your Smartphone
Give your eyes a break and make sure you can actually see what you’re reading.
How to Use Universal Control With Your Mac and iPad
You can finally use MacOS and iPadOS simultaneously with one keyboard and mouse.
The Best Coffee Grinders to Amp Up Your Morning Brew
Get more joy from your java. These conical-burr, flat-burr, and bladed machines let you enjoy freshly ground whole beans in every cup.
A hacking group called NB65 claims it is using modified versions of Conti’s leaked ransomware to attack Russian entities, including the space agency Roscosmos (Lawrence Abrams/BleepingComputer)
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer: A hacking group called NB65 claims it is using modified versions of Conti’s leaked ransomware to attack Russian entities, including the space agency Roscosmos — A hacking group used the Conti’s leaked ransomware source code to create their own ransomware to use in cyberattacks against Russian organizations.
A profile of Father Paolo Benanti, an engineer and ethicist who advises theologians and priests, including Pope Francis, on moral and ethical issues in AI (Madhumita Murgia/Financial Times)
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times: A profile of Father Paolo Benanti, an engineer and ethicist who advises theologians and priests, including Pope Francis, on moral and ethical issues in AI — On February 26, two days after war broke out in Europe for the first time in decades, Father Paolo Benanti walked briskly through the […]
Elon Musk tweets that all Twitter Blue subscribers “should get an authentication checkmark” and suggests the service should be ad-free with a lower price (Axios)
Axios: Elon Musk tweets that all Twitter Blue subscribers “should get an authentication checkmark” and suggests the service should be ad-free with a lower price — Elon Musk suggested in a series of tweets Saturday night changes to the premium Twitter Blue service …
Architecture isn’t just for humans anymore
In a rural valley of northwestern Nevada, home to stretches of wetlands, sagebrush-grassland, and dozens of natural springs, is a 3,800-acre parcel of off-grid land known as Fly Ranch. Owned by Burning Man, the community that yearly transforms the neighboring playa into a colorful free-wheeling temporary city, Fly Ranch is part of a long-term project […]
Our 6 Favorite Electric Kick Scooters
These WIRED-tested escooters will help you scoot scoot scoot around town.
Twitter reverts a change that left blank spaces in place of deleted embedded tweets and says it is exploring “different options” (Emma Roth/The Verge)
Emma Roth / The Verge: Twitter reverts a change that left blank spaces in place of deleted embedded tweets and says it is exploring “different options” — Twitter says it’s exploring ‘different options’ — Twitter has confirmed it reversed a change that altered the appearance of deleted tweets embedded …
Meta’s civil rights team made progress in its first year, including removing sensitive ad targeting categories, but experts say it needs to be empowered to act (Issie Lapowsky/Protocol)
Issie Lapowsky / Protocol: Meta’s civil rights team made progress in its first year, including removing sensitive ad targeting categories, but experts say it needs to be empowered to act — Like everyone, Roy Austin Jr. saw President Trump’s Facebook post that went up in the summer of 2020 — the one where he threatened […]
Sources: Meta chose a Qualcomm chip for the second version of its Ray-Ban smartglasses, after struggling to develop its own custom chip codenamed Brasilia (The Information)
The Information: Sources: Meta chose a Qualcomm chip for the second version of its Ray-Ban smartglasses, after struggling to develop its own custom chip codenamed Brasilia — In late 2021, a team of Meta Platforms employees building a key chip for the second version of Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses was notified …
As Climate Fears Mount, Some Are Relocating Within the US
A small but growing number of Americans are moving to New England or the Appalachian Mountains, which are seen as safe havens from climate change.
Pokémon Crystal Unlocked My Trans Girl Heart
When the world wishes you didn’t exist, sometimes you find your true self in the most unassuming places.
How to Spot Content Marketing in Search Results
When you search for reviews and guides, you want to make sure you’re not reading someone with a vested interest in you buying their product.
How Brazilian singer Anitta’s fans gamed Spotify’s algorithm to make her song top the charts by switching accounts after 20 streams, creating playlists, more (Marília Marasciulo/Rest of World)
Marília Marasciulo / Rest of World: How Brazilian singer Anitta’s fans gamed Spotify’s algorithm to make her song top the charts by switching accounts after 20 streams, creating playlists, more — Fans skirted terms and conditions, but a strategy from the singer’s team came close to the streaming platform’s limit.
Inside the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, which felt confusing and disjointed, as the cultural spotlight on Ethereum left Bitcoin feeling a little stale (Ryan Broderick/Fast Company)
Ryan Broderick / Fast Company: Inside the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, which felt confusing and disjointed, as the cultural spotlight on Ethereum left Bitcoin feeling a little stale — What happens when you’re no longer the hot young cryptocurrency? That’s the question hanging over the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami this week.
Samsung’s reputation has taken a hit in South Korea, where three major carriers have halved the price of Galaxy S22, amid reports of hobbled device performance (Byungwook Kim/Reuters)
Byungwook Kim / Reuters: Samsung’s reputation has taken a hit in South Korea, where three major carriers have halved the price of Galaxy S22, amid reports of hobbled device performance — Samsung Electronics’ (005930.KS) flagship Galaxy S22 smartphone has taken a battering from reports of hobbled performance …
How Russia’s Invasion Triggered a US Crackdown on Its Hackers
The Biden White House is using “all of the levers of national power” to counter—or preempt—cyberattacks by Russia’s most dangerous hacker groups.
DJI’s Action 2 Camera and Mavic 3 Drone Are on Sale
Planning to hit the trails this spring? Now’s the time to grab a pocketable cam to document all your adventures.
Sci-Fi Needs More Mothers
Many of China Mountain Zhang author Maureen McHugh’s stories explore the relationship between moms and their children.
A view of the chip-making process at Intel’s campuses in Hillsboro, OR, and Chandler, AZ, and the infrastructure behind its two planned $10B Arizona fabs (New York Times)
New York Times: A view of the chip-making process at Intel’s campuses in Hillsboro, OR, and Chandler, AZ, and the infrastructure behind its two planned $10B Arizona fabs — As the global chip shortage continues, we take an inside look at how semiconductors are fabricated.
Despite China’s private sector crackdown in 2021, two unidentified Tencent executives still earned ~$200M each; Tencent’s shares dropped 19% in 2021 (Zheping Huang/Bloomberg)
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg: Despite China’s private sector crackdown in 2021, two unidentified Tencent executives still earned ~$200M each; Tencent’s shares dropped 19% in 2021 — Tencent Holdings Ltd. doled out more than $200 million apiece to two unidentified executives in 2021, even as it cut founder Pony Ma’s compensation …
FactSet: revenue growth for China’s tech giants is slowing; the average target for Meituan’s shares fell 20%+ in March, while Tencent and JD’s shares fell 10%+ (Clarence Leong/Wall Street Journal)
Clarence Leong / Wall Street Journal: FactSet: revenue growth for China’s tech giants is slowing; the average target for Meituan’s shares fell 20%+ in March, while Tencent and JD’s shares fell 10%+ — Beijing’s anti-Covid measures are likely to exacerbate a slowdown in revenue growth for companies including Alibaba and Meituan
An extreme form of encryption could solve big data’s privacy problem
Fully homomorphic encryption allows us to run analysis on data without ever seeing the contents. It could help us reap the full benefits of big data, from fighting financial fraud to catching diseases early
Chernobyl radiation spike may have just been electrical interference
High radiation levels seen as Russian forces captured the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in February were put down to contaminated topsoil being disturbed, but experts now believe they could have been due to interference with wireless sensors
Finding the questions that guide MIT fusion research
“One of the things I learned was, doing good science isn’t so much about finding the answers as figuring out what the important questions are.” As Martin Greenwald retires from the responsibilities of senior scientist and deputy director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), he reflects on his almost 50 years of […]
New tool reveals how immune cells find their targets
The human body has millions of unique B and T cells that roam the body, looking for microbial invaders. These immune cells’ ability to recognize harmful microbes is critical to successfully fighting off infection. MIT biological engineers have now devised an experimental tool that allows them to precisely pick out interactions between a particular immune […]
Leveraging science and technology against the world’s top problems
Looking back on nearly a half-century at MIT, Richard K. Lester, associate provost and Japan Steel Industry Professor, sees a “somewhat eccentric professional trajectory.” But while his path has been irregular, there has been a clearly defined through line, Lester says: the emergence of new science and new technologies, the potential of these developments to shake […]
A 5-Point Plan for Reducing Your Organization’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions – SPONSOR CONTENT FROM GEP
Sponsor content from GEP.
How Big Businesses Can Help Their Suppliers Cut Emissions
Smaller businesses will play a key role in halving global emissions by 2030. But they often lack the resources to succeed on their own.
Preparing for Your Company’s First Meeting with a Startup Collaborator
Three priorities to help lay the groundwork for success.