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What It's Like to Fly Into the Eye of a Hurricane
Satellite imagery shows Hurricane Joaquin approaching the Bahamas. NOAA Half a century ago, the journalist Edward R. Murrow climbed into a modified bomber aircraft and rode it straight into the eye of...
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Why Japanese Kids Can Walk to School Alone
ReutersIt’s a common sight on Japanese mass transit: Children troop through train cars, singly or in small groups, looking for seats.They wear knee socks, polished patent-leather shoes, and plaid...
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Mini Object Lesson: 'Uber for X'
It’s 1999. Perry Wang’s eyes are bugged out, like he’s seen a ghost. He’s just returned to the conference room holding a Cherry Garcia Ben & Jerry’s ice cream bar. In a meeting that had started 45...
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How a Selfie Got Car Thieves Arrested
Mike Blake / ReutersThe words “selfie” and “arrest,” combined in one Google search, already yield a pretty astonishing batch of results. There are people who took photos of themselves while getting...
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How Quickly Will Your Email Get A Response?
Valentijn Tempels / ShutterstockIn 2013, 183 billion emails were sent every day, according to the technology-research firm Radicati. The firm predicts that by 2017, it will be nearly 207 billion. This...
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Larry, No
Lawrence Lessig speaks at Stanford University in 2008. Robert Scoble / FlickrFor a time, Lawrence Lessig wasn’t just a famous law professor at Harvard University. He was the Internet’s lawyer.Lessig,...
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The Crazy Hammer They're Sending to Mars
An artist's rendering of the InSight lander, which is set for a March launch to Mars. NASA / JPLSpace missions evoke some of the biggest questions humans can ask. How did we get here? Are we alone in...
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Facebook Isn't Just Getting a Dislike Button
The “heart” button in Facebook’s Android app FacebookIn September, Mark Zuckerberg announced at a corporate town hall that users’ wishes would finally be granted: Facebook would get a dislike button.“I...
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Which TV Show First Referenced the Internet?
In “The One with Barry and Mindy's Wedding,” a Friends episode that aired in 1996, Chandler falls for a woman online. NBCIf the sitcom Doogie Howser, M.D. hadn’t been canceled in 1993, the show’s...
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Would You Pull the Trolley Switch? Does it Matter?
gvictoria / ShutterstockA runaway streetcar is hurtling towards five unsuspecting workers. Do you pull a switch to divert the trolley onto another track, where only one man works alone? Or do you do...
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When Humans and Robots Share the Roads
New cars parked at a General Motors lot in Shenyang, China, in June 2015. ReutersThe four deadliest days on American roadways have been the same, mostly in this order, for decades: July 4, July 3,...
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How the USGS Detects Earthquakes Using Twitter
The aftermath of the August 2014 quake in southern Napa, California Robert Galbraith / ReutersThe world is covered in sensors. Thermometers, barometers, seismometers. When joined together, they have...
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The New Emoji Coming in 2016
A doner kebab emoji might even be on its way. Alex Kehr / FlickrEarlier this year, a British linguist called emoji the isle’s “fastest-growing language.” Later reports went even further, calling the...
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How Has Technology Changed the Concept of Community?
Harrison McClary / Reuters At a time when Americans can flick a keyboard or swipe a touchscreen to connect with products, people, and information from anywhere in the world, are they in danger of...
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Can Campus Networks Ever Be Secure?
katatonia82 / ShutterstockThe Internet was built on university campuses. It was built by academics for academics, and without any notion of the new kinds of commerce, crime, and espionage it would...
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Getting Ready to Move to Mars
Alvaro DominguezOne day, when earth is destroyed by war or rising seas or a wayward asteroid, humanity will be extinguished—and along with it reality television, baseball stadiums, and thousands of...
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What Science-Fiction Gadget Would Be Most Valuable in Real Life?
Graham RoumieuNicole Perlman, screenwriter, Guardians of the GalaxyAs someone who’s both accident-prone and constantly putting her foot in her mouth, my first thought is the Omega 13 from Galaxy Quest....
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If You’re Not Paranoid, You’re Crazy
Phil ToledanoI knew we’d bought walnuts at the store that week, and I wanted to add some to my oatmeal. I called to my wife and asked her where she’d put them. She was washing her face in the bathroom,...
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Kansas City, Powerhouse of American Architecture
A rendering of the Petersen Automative Museum in Los Angeles Kohn Pedersen Fox AssociatesEven if they wind up somewhere else, the most-interesting American buildings are constructed in Kansas...
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