All Articles

Pervasive computing is all about interaction between the billions – soon to be trillions – of microprocessors that have infiltrated virtually every aspect of our lives.  A new book,”Trillions”, argues that we have to design an entire living environment where those devices communicate with each other and with us. 

Depending on your relationship to the powers that be, Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange rank among either the brightest angels or the darkest demons of contemporary life. Harnessing the […]

It’s just a few weeks until the U.S. presidential election, and while nothing is set in stone, Mitt Romney’s hopes are looking increasingly dim. Despite the depressed economy, which would […]

Those windshields with embedded displays may be here sooner than you think: A team of Rice University researchers has come up with flexible high-capacity memory chips made of silicon oxide and graphene.

Two proteins found in the deadly snake’s venom kept mice pain-free longer, raising hopes for a medication that manages pain with fewer side effects.

Fashion, like art, knocks the dust off of life.

Engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have created a handheld scanner that will give primary care physicians the same kind of 3D imaging that surgeons have had for years.

Forget fingerprints: Technology is now available that can identify a person by their unique heartbeat. The one major challenge is getting people used to the idea.

John Silber just passed away. He accomplished many things…made Boston University into an internationally recognized academic institution, served as Chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education…but he also taught an […]

Did I really see that last night? The debate was a bad horror movie for liberals and progressives such as myself, who support Obama. It was Attack of the 50-Foot […]

For many Americans, Columbus Day no longer fits the litmus test of credibility and relevance. The true American character is about attaining the impossible through exploration, scientific research, innovation and creativity. Let’s rename the holiday “Exploration Day.” 

Business journalism powerhouse Leigh Gallagher has some tough advice for her own, younger self: Be more aggressive. Pay attention to your career, not just your to-do list. And ask for what you want. 

New Zealand researchers announce the existence of a cow, Daisy, that has been genetically engineered to produce milk that has very little whey, a common allergen.

Edward Brantmeier and I recently published an article focused on how modern digital technologies can be used to catalyze peace. In it we argue that: Information communication technologies (ICTs) play […]

The Short Answer Fairy needs to visit President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney before the next debate. For awhile there last night, I wondered if President Obama […]

Well, if all you had to go by is tonight’s debate, you’d have to say yes. Romney’s presentations were clearer, tighter, more incisive, more eloquent, more factually detailed, and more […]

The votes are in: Mitt Romney won Wednesday night’s debate. A CBS poll showed 46 percent of uncommitted voters pegging Romney as the winner, versus 22 percent choosing Obama. Even the analysts at […]

Today, a UK team presented a system designed to address the need to remove the many objects currently in orbit around the Earth.

It’s been 800,000 years since the last one, and the field’s been thinning for the last 150 years, so one space agency is launching measurement satellites.

Body weights of many marine fish are expected to shrink by up to 24 percent if greenhouse gas emissions rise, according to a new study.

Considering that it’s still late winter in the rover’s neck of the woods, discovering (relatively) warm temperatures boosts scientists’ hopes of finding evidence of microbial life.

The most comprehensive survey yet of a coral reef system shows that Australia’s famous Great Barrier has lost half its cover since 1985.

‘Normality’ or ‘normalcy’, as a concept, is long due for the crematorium of bad ideas, alongside racism and homophobia. Indeed, it is precisely these kinds of ideas the defence of normalcy encourages and gave birth to: it is both kingmaker and mother.  

Although Zbigniew Brzezinski “talks in paragraphs, virtually without pause,” according to a recent profile of him in the Financial Times, those paragraphs don’t meander; he gets to the point—fast.  When […]

Elizabeth Bernstein has a thoughtful and interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal about the troubling incivility, cruelty, and rudeness that many people unleash online, in Comments sections, on Twitter, […]

[Editor’s Note: It’s happening again. I hadn’t gotten any of these messages since last year, and I was starting to hope that the wormhole, or whatever strange conduit it was, […]

In case other social media platforms aren’t providing the conflict you want, Deeyoon gives you the ability to participate in live, real-time, structured video debates.

A “nosy” smartphone app asks users 50 questions and displays results in real time.

Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon can take off at a moment’s notice and escape from pursuers into space. And can land on almost any patch of ground. Why can’t we do that in 2012? The problem is the puny power of the chemical rocket.

Could the unforgiving Taklamakan Desert once have been the location of the Garden of Earthly Delights?