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Cuba's Stark Technology Gap, Charted
With the first phone call between U.S. and Cuban presidents since the Cuban revolution, the process for normalizing the relationship between the two nations began this week. Harold Trinkunas, a...
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Against 'Garbage'
I understand what drives it, I really do. I think of the Ninja Turtles. In English, we need a general affirmation of goodness, a word that says, “that’s awesome!” Like, for instance, awesome. Hammocks...
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Songbirds Can Hear Tornadoes Long Before They Form
In April, a massive thunderstorm unleashed a series of tornadoes that tore through the central and southern United States. The 84 twisters decimated homes and buildings, causing more than $1 billion in...
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Could a Computer Think Up as Many Unique Snowflakes as Nature?
No one can prove that no two snowflakes are alike. Sure, each one starts off the same way—as hexagonal crystals form out of water molecules—but changing temperatures and humidity levels cause them to...
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The Intense Competition to Be the World's Most-Decorated House
This is a story about family. It is a story about home. It is a story about striving and progress and competition and collaboration and the triumph of the human spirit. Mostly, though, it is a story...
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How to Restore a Rothko: With Light
In 1989, I was a conservation student at the Courtauld Institute in London. During a class on varnish removal, my professor, Gerry Hedley, demonstrated how shining blue light on a picture with yellowed...
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The Anti-Plagiarism Machine
Every day, researchers add hundreds of new papers to ArXiv, the massive public database of scientific writing and research. And with each new work, a special detection system goes hunting through ArXiv...
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Antarctica Tourism Could Be Making Penguins Sick
Antarctica remained largely untouched until roughly 200 years ago, and now, more than 10,000 people travel there every year. But tourists bring more than cameras. Scientists are warning that pathogens...
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Free Access to Science Research Doesn't Benefit Everyone
Open is better than closed. That rule applies for a lot of things: presents, beer, restaurants. And, many argue, science. The open-science movement has a lot of interlocking parts. Open-access...
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You Can Be Endorsed for 'Time Travel' and 'WMDs' on LinkedIn
Likely more popular than Twitter, LinkedIn may be the most anomalous of the modern social networks. It’s not for friends or family or fellow fans—like Facebook, Instagram, and even Pinterest—but for...
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The Ethics of Sarcastic Science
Every holiday season, the British Medical Journal puts out a special Christmas issue. It’s full of papers, as usual, but they’re all a little bit different. They’re jokes. Not fake—the data presented...
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The Web Is the Real World
In the hollow universe of corporate jargon, tech clichés inspire a particular kind of madness. Invoked broadly, they become absurd. Behold the disruption! The innovation! The surprise and delight! If...
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The Webcam Hacking Epidemic
In 2009, when Susan Clements-Jeffrey purchased a used laptop from a student at the high school where she substitute taught, chances are she didn’t expect that the transaction would conclude with local...
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Internet Ugly and the Aesthetic of Failing on Purpose
On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog, and nobody cares if you can’t draw one. This is, essentially, the focus of a recent paper by Nick Douglas, the former editor of Valleywag who now runs the...
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The Case for Squared Pie
Whether your pie of choice contains fruit or nuts or mousse—whether it's sweet or savory, lattice-topped or crumble-covered—one thing unites the treat that you could convincingly argue is the world's...
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The iPhone Is a Musical Instrument to the Human Brain
A musician's brain is stimulated just by picking up an instrument. Now, scientists have found that people who use smartphones activate and strengthen specific regions of their brains just like a...
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A Christmas Tree That Puts Out Its Own Fires
As long as there have been Christmas trees, there have been Christmas tree fires. No matter the decade, there are horrific stories. In 1858, six buildings burned and three were totally destroyed in New...
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How to Create a Tech Start-Up Scene If You're Not in Silicon Valley
If you work in the tech sector or are otherwise attentive to it, you probably already know something that I didn’t learn until recently: Pittsburgh has one of the liveliest technology ecosystems in the...
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Need to Detect Santa Claus? This Patent Can Help
Humans solve intractable problems with incredible technology. When faced with a river, we build a dam. When faced with rotting meat, we build a refrigerator. When faced with long distances, we build a...
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Making Rhino Horns Out of Stem Cells
This month a northern white rhinoceros by the name of Angalifu died at the San Diego Zoo. Her death follows that of another member of her species in October, a male rhino by the name of Suni. I met...
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