Taylor

Why an Apple Watch with EKG matters

The FDA has approved the EKG feature, meaning the Watch can be used as a medical device<p>The Apple Watch Series 4 will include a more advanced heart-monitoring technology called electrocardiogram. This feature has received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration, meaning it can be used as …

Physicists hack the human visual system to create “ghost images”

A pioneering experiment will extend human vision to invisible wavelengths, say researchers.<p>Ghost imaging is one of the more extraordinary advances in …

A complete guide to buying ethical clothes on a budget

If you’re keen to fill your closet with inexpensive clothes you can feel good about, this list is a good place to start. Companies like Everlane, Allbirds, Rent the Runway, and American Giant are leading the way, but so are some lesser known brands like MATE, Nisolo, and Blu & Blue.<p>The world is …

The 4th Industrial Revolution: How Mining Companies Are Using AI, Machine Learning And Robots

In an industry such as mining where improving efficiency and productivity is crucial to profitability, even small improvements in yields, speed and efficiency can make an extraordinary impact. Mining companies basically produce interchangeable commodities. The mining industry employs a modest …

Denialism: what drives people to reject the truth

From vaccines to climate change to genocide, a new age of denialism is upon us. Why have we failed to understand it? By Keith Kahn-Harris<p>We are all in denial, some of the time at least. Part of being human, and living in a society with other humans, is finding clever ways to express – and conceal – …

10 of the best words in the world (that don't translate into English)

As millions head abroad on holiday, our correspondents choose the words that for them speak volumes about the countries they love and live in<p>One of the many great things about languages worldwide is the sizeable number of words for which there is no real English translation. Often they tell us …

South America's Otherworldly Seabird

To save the tiny seabird, scientists are venturing to its secret home in the Atacama Desert—and sticking their noses into a lot of stinky holes in the ground.<p>The peninsula northwest of the industrial city of Antofagasta, on Chile’s northern desert coast, is haloed with seabirds in flight. Pelicans …

Larry Page is quietly amassing a ‘flying car’ empire

Google co-founder revealed to be owner of Opener, a Canadian startup that just came out of stealth<p>One flying car seems absurd; Larry Page has three.<p>He started with Cora, a two-seater flying taxi, then added a sporty flying boat called Flyer, both developed by a company called Kitty Hawk. And last …

Python has brought computer programming to a vast new audience

IN DECEMBER 1989 Guido van Rossum, a Dutch computer scientist, set himself a Christmas project. Irked by shortcomings in other programming languages, …

‘Find Your Passion’ Is Awful Advice

A major new study questions the common wisdom about how we should choose our careers.<p>Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford University, remembers asking an undergraduate seminar recently, “How many of you are waiting to find your passion?”<p>“Almost all of them raised their hand and got …

You probably know to ask yourself, “What do I want?” Here’s a way better question

GE’s Fall Has Been Accelerated by Two Problems. Most Other Big Companies Face Them, Too.

The General Electric story, of a long-proud initial member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling out of that index — and appearing to be in competitive free fall — provides a powerful illustration of two effects we see throughout today’s corporate world: clueless, but deep-pocketed, activist …

To hit climate goals, Bill Gates and his billionaire friends are betting on energy storage

The world needs radical new energy technologies to fight climate change. In 2016, Quartz reported that a group of billionaires—including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, Mukesh Ambani, and Richard Branson—launched Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) to invest at least $1 billion in creating those …

45 Stories of Sex and Consent on Campus

We asked college students how they navigate the gray zone of sexual consent, where communication is rarely as simple as “yes” or “no.” Here are their stories.

Twitter advising all 330 million users to change passwords after bug exposed them in plain text

There’s apparently no evidence of any breach or misuse, but you should change your password anyway<p>Twitter is urging all of its more than 330 million users to immediately change their passwords after a bug exposed them in plain text. While Twitter’s investigation showed that there was no evidence …

A group of people with an amphibious life have evolved traits to match

THE Bajau, a people of the Malay Archipelago, spend almost all of their lives at sea. They live either on boats or in huts perched on stilts on …

The roaming empire

As buying a house becomes harder and remote working simpler, should we remain wedded to the idea of settling down? Jonathan Beckman meets the people …

Google’s latest AI experiments let you talk to books and test word association skills

Google’s work in natural language understanding is getting better all the time<p>Google today announced a pair of new artificial intelligence experiments from its research division that let web users dabble in semantics and natural language processing. For Google, a company that’s primary product is a …

Will We Stop Trump Before It’s Too Late?

On April 28, 1945 — 73 years ago — Italians hung the corpse of their former dictator Benito Mussolini upside down next to a gas station in Milan. Two days later, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker beneath the streets of war-ravaged Berlin. Fascism, it appeared, was dead.<p>To guard against a …

Elon Musk Urges People to Watch Chris Paine's A.I. Movie While It's Free

"Do You Trust This Computer?" is now available to stream.<p>Elon Musk is concerned about the future of humanity. The tech entrepreneur shared a link …

Trump’s Real Scandal Is Hiding in Plain Sight

The emphasis placed on whether the Trump team colluded with Russia to interfere in the election threatens to overshadow the scandal in plain sight.<p>There was a time when the White House’s frequent denials of collusion with Russia appeared largely defensive. Over time, however, their primary purpose …

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2018

Dueling neural networks. Artificial embryos. AI in the cloud. Welcome to our annual list of the 10 technology advances we think will shape the way we …

Evolutionary algorithms are the living, breathing AI of the future

AI is no longer some abstract dream for the future. It is here, now and bringing change across industries. According to the Forrester AI Readiness Study, 40 percent of the 717 businesses surveyed said they were planning to use intelligent recommendation solutions and 43 percent were planning to use …

White House reels as FBI director contradicts official claims about alleged abuser

By Ashley Parker ,<p>Ashley Parker<p>White House reporter<p>Email Bio Follow<p>Philip Rucker and<p>Philip Rucker<p>White House Bureau Chief<p>Email Bio Follow<p>Josh Dawsey<p>Josh Dawsey<p>Reporter covering the White House<p>Email Bio Follow<p>The White House struggled Tuesday to contain a widening crisis over its handling of …

Eerie photos show an abandoned Soviet spacecraft originally built for the Cold War

Photographer David de Rueda has never been afraid to venture into uncharted territory. His photography has made him explore abandoned radar stations, power plants, factories, and even two rarely seen relics of the Soviet space race.<p>The two shuttles, both a part of the Buran project (buran means …

Ancient Human Remains Document Migration From Asia To America

In Alaska, scientists have uncovered something they say is remarkable: the remains of two infants dating back more than 11,000 years.<p>Their discovery is evidence of the earliest wave of migration into the Americas.<p>"It's incredibly rare," says Ben Potter, an archaeologist at the University of Alaska …

Can A.I. Be Taught to Explain Itself?

<b>In September,</b> Michal Kosinski published a study that he feared might end his career. The Economist broke the news first, giving it a self-consciously anodyne title: “Advances in A.I. Are Used to Spot Signs of Sexuality.” But the headlines quickly grew more alarmed. By the next day, the Human Rights …

Cancer cells destroyed in just 3 days with new technique

Cancer cells are relentless, possessing the vexatious ability to develop resistance to current therapies and making the disease hugely challenging to …

Portable 'battlefield MRI' comes out of the lab

A practical, portable ultralow-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system has been unveiled by researchers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory …