Book Excerpt
The Prisoner Who Revolutionized Language With a Teacup
While imprisoned for being a “reactionary,” physicist and engineer Zhi Bingyi began devising a system to help computing machines read Chinese characters.
How Bloghouse’s Sweaty, Neon Reign United the Internet
For a brief, weird moment in the Myspace-fueled early 2000s, dance music felt truly alternative.
Natural History, Not Technology, Will Dictate Our Destiny
Humans—convinced of our own power and control—tend to ignore the laws of nature. But that is a mistake.
The Future of Robot Nannies
A machine can't love our children, but our children might love them.
The Office Is an Efficiency Trap
As office design evolved over the last century, one feature remained: the goal of filling your life with even more work.
Who Are We If Not Our Faces?
Undergoing dozens of operations to treat Crouzon syndrome made me look more “normal.” It also made me question my identity.
How Apps Commandeered the Age-Old Idea of Takeout
Third-party delivery services have convinced us they are an essential part of our busy lives. But humans have managed to order food to-go for centuries.
Why Can’t People Teleport?
Set your phasers on stun, because we are going to beam you up on the physics of teleportation.
The Missing Teen Who Fueled ‘Cult Panic’ Over D&D
When a college student vanished, one overzealous detective convinced the press that he might have been been trapped in a series of tunnels by fellow gamers.
Why Skincare That Burns Is So Satisfying
A couple times a month, I reach for a face mask that causes me pain—and makes me feel better. The science of masochism helps explain why.
In a Tiny Arctic Town, Food Is Getting Harder to Come By
For her new book, Devi Lockwood traveled around the world gathering stories of how people are being directly affected by a warming planet.
Pigeons, Curves, and the Traveling Salesperson Problem
Mathematician Ian Stewart explains the twisty history of combinatorial optimization.
Artificial Intelligence and the ‘Gods Behind the Masks’
In an excerpt from AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future, Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan explore what happens when deepfakers attack the deepfakes.
So … What If Aliens’ Quantum Computers Explain Dark Energy?
A wild thought experiment by Jaron Lanier and physicist Stephon Alexander concerning gravitons, virtual reality, and Incan khipu.
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Can Robots Evolve Into Machines of Loving Grace?
Perhaps, if we put bots together the right way, consciousness will simply emerge.
The Truth About the Quietest Town in America
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.
When the Next Animal Plague Hits, Can This Lab Stop It?
A new federal facility in Kansas will house the deadliest agricultural pathogens in the world—and researchers working tirelessly to contain them.
How Humans Think When They Think As Part of a Group
The fancy word for it is "entitativity," and it’s produced when people act and feel together in close proximity. We need it more, but we’re getting it less.
Inside Silicon Valley’s Mayo Marketing Madness
The war on eggs started back in the ’70s, not with the company formerly known as Hampton Creek but with a little café-grocery store in Los Angeles.
Awesome, Hypnotic Photos of Swirling, Crystal Chemistry
A new book goes micro to show the wonderful world of close-up chemical reactions.
How a Geeky Superhero Fan Revived a Failing Comic Con
And how he used that great knowledge to help nudge Marvel back from bankruptcy.
The Secret Origins of Amazon’s Alexa
In 2011, Jeff Bezos dreamt up a talking device. But making the virtual assistant sound intelligent proved far more difficult than anyone could have imagined.
The Wolf Tree and the World Wide Web
In this essay from Finding the Mother Tree, Suzanne Simard reflects on parenting, climate change, and the networks at the heart of the forest.
A Brief History of Transformers (Not the Robot Kind)
This simple electrical device does much of the fundamental work of modern civilization, and it does so modestly and invisibly.