How soon until we can get robots to tend our gardens?
For garden enthusiasts, spring means planting, fertilizing, watering and possibly researching to what extent, and when, to do all of those things. But there’s a growing market of sensors, smart hose...
View ArticleWildlife in Chernobyl is thriving 30 years after the nuclear accident
Is it possible that radiation isn’t as bad as we think it is — at least for insects and animals?James Smith, professor of environmental science at Portsmouth University in the UK, has been documenting...
View ArticleIs DNA the future of digital data storage?
Digital data is usually stored on CDs, hard drives or massive servers. This storage takes up a lot of space, it's expensive and it isn’t very durable.The hunt has been underway to find a new way to...
View ArticleReasons to hate Facebook
I hate Facebook.I've never been comfortable with the idea of the social media behemoth all up in my business. I realize this puts me in a very tiny category. Facebook is ever more central to people’s...
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How a Kindle's e-ink system works
When Amazon introduced its first Kindle back in 2007, it raved about the e-reader’s “crisp, high-resolution electronic paper display that looks and reads like real paper, even in bright sunlight.”The...
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Search underway for EgyptAir flight that crashed with 66 people aboard
There are still many unknowns, but the bottom line is grim. It's become increasingly clear that EgyptAir flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo crashed into the Mediterranean early Thursday with 66 people on...
View ArticleThe advancement of A.I. has the potential to fundamentally change how we...
"If you control the code, you control the world," security adviser Marc Goodman said in a 2012 a TED Talk. But what happens when humans no longer control the code?Today, coding is being disrupted by...
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He'd never seen jukeboxes before. Now he is a master at repairing them.
It’s easy to think of how technology has left some products behind. After all, when’s the last time you used a pocket calculator or made a call from a pay phone?And then there’s the jukebox.But if you...
View ArticleRio’s filthy water is already making pro athletes sick. Just ask the surfers.
Rio de Janeiro’s main Olympic neighborhood stinks. Literally.For the last few weeks, residents of Barra da Tijuca, home to the main Olympic park and Olympic village, have woken to the fetid smell of...
View ArticleWhere do Facebook 'likes' come from? Often, it's Bangladesh.
You can like pretty much anything on Facebook.You can like your detergent, you can like a weird horror movie, you can even like your favorite radio show.But, outside of fans, where do likes come...
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An NGO focused on water poverty turns its attention from Africa back to the US
On the windswept Navajo Nation in northern Arizona, water often comes from unexpected places miles from people's homes. Outside the community of Bird Springs, for instance, that place is a big pipe...
View ArticleTwo environmental groups sue on behalf of the monarch butterfly
Two environmental groups have sued the US Fish and Wildlife Service in an attempt to compel it to formalize monarch butterfly protections.In March, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center...
View ArticleThe secret life of animals, captured on camera
Scientists trying to learn about the lifestyles of elusive critters (tigers and cougars come to mind) have their work cut out for them.Many animals will smell or hear a researcher long before the...
View ArticleDoubling renewable energy by 2030 could save the global economy trillions of...
Doubling the world's renewable energy capacity by 2030 could save the global economy between $1.2 and $4.2 trillion each year.That's according to a report from the International Renewable Energy Agency...
View ArticleSolving the monarch butterfly's decline will take more than just milkweed
A new study questions the conventional wisdom about the roles of pesticides and milkweed in the decline of the monarch butterfly population.The past decade has seen a steep decline in the monarch...
View ArticleWhat’s the best way to lose weight and keep it off?
Contestants on the reality TV show "The Biggest Loser" put in a gargantuan effort to lose weight: They diet rigorously, exercise for hours a day, and compete with each other to completely change their...
View ArticleDo we rely too much on GPS?
So many parts of our modern world rely on GPS, or the Global Positioning System: driving, timekeeping military operations, crop harvesting, financial deals. Even, author Greg Milner argues, the way we...
View ArticleWould you trust a robot to perform your surgery?
Researchers have now developed a robot that can make sutures and other delicate operations completely autonomously. Physician Peter Kim and his colleagues recently detailed their invention, which they...
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A Miami port dredging project may have damaged the city's offshore coral reef
In 2013, when the Army Corps of Engineers dredged sediment out of the Port of Miami and transported it out to sea, they said the process would have minimal impacts on the reef around the port. But new...
View ArticleWhat if robots take our jobs? Switzerland considers giving people a...
In the 1970s, a small town in Canada tried something radical: families who earned below a certain amount were given money that they could use for anything. Essentially, it was money for nothing.It was...
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