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Why an Email Hack Feels So Personal
Mario Anzuoni / ReutersOne June morning, my virtual world ended.My web searches had been going oddly for days. When I entered a common phrase I saw only six results, and those interspersed with Asian...
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The Trick to Finding Life on Distant Planets
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope NASAHuddled in a coffee shop one drizzly Seattle morning six years ago, the astrobiologist Shawn Domagal-Goldman stared blankly at his laptop screen, paralyzed. He had...
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A Blow to Facebook in India
Motorists ride past a billboard displaying Facebook's Free Basics initiative in Mumbai, India, on December 30, 2015. Danish Siddiqui / ReutersIs limited Internet access for hundreds of millions of...
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Gun Deaths May Not Eclipse Traffic Fatalities Just Yet
A customer tests a Glock at Guns-R-Us in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2012. Ralph D. Freso / ReutersA grim turning point, long expected, may not have arrived in 2015 after all.Public-health officials and...
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Why You Can't Keep Cockroaches Out of Your Home
Tom Libby, Kaushik Jayaram & Pauline Jennings / PolyPEDAL Lab / UC BerkeleyCockroaches get everywhere. There they are, somehow, against all odds, in that room that looked to be totally sealed from...
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The Future of Fraud-Busting
Alvaro DominguezHumans are startlingly bad at detecting fraud. Even when we’re on the lookout for signs of deception, studies show, our accuracy is hardly better than chance.Technology has opened the...
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The Research Pirates of the Dark Web
loughboroughuniversitylibrary / FlickrThere’s a battle raging over whether academic research should be free, and it’s overflowing into the dark web.Most modern scholarly work remains locked behind...
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Not Another Net-Neutrality Story
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appear at a town hall at Facebook's headquarters, in September 2015. Stephen Lam / ReutersThe web may be lovely, dark, and deep, but...
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Edgar Mitchell's Revelation
One of the astronauts on the Apollo 14 mission salutes before ascent. NASAOn an autumn evening in 1957, a 27-year-old American named Edgar Mitchell stood on the deck of a U.S. Navy carrier and looked...
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A Site Where Women Can Review Their Employers' Female-Friendliness
Romy Newman and Georgene Huang, co-founders of "Yelp for maternity leave benefits" website Fairygodboss. Cosmina Paparita / FairygodbossCorporate websites can do a good job indicating the way companies...
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The Playboy Centerfold That Helped Create the JPEG
Hulton-Deutsch Collection / CorbisWhen a 21-year-old Swede named Lena Söderberg became Playboy magazine’s Miss November in 1972 under the name Lenna Sjööblom, there was little to set her apart from...
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The Archaeologist Who Studies Mardi Gras Beads
Women wearing unicorn masks scream for beads during the weekend before Mardi Gras in New Orleans, in 2013. Sean Gardner / ReutersBefore humans wrote their histories in words, many of them told stories...
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The Supreme Court's Devastating Decision on Climate
Joshua Roberts / ReutersHowever worrying Tuesday was for the success of xenophobic politics in America, it might have been more worrying for the planet’s climate.In the early evening, the Supreme Court...
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Stop Calling the Babylonians Scientists
An engraving of Babylon Michael Nicholson / CorbisWe’ve never escaped the influence of the Babylonians. That there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 360 degrees in a full circle,...
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When Computers Started Beating Chess Champions
ShutterstockThere was a time, not long ago, when computers—mere assemblages of silicon and wire and plastic that can fly planes, drive cars, translate languages, and keep failing hearts beating—could...
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How OKCupid Users' Views of Sex Have Changed Since 2005
Gregorio Borgia / APIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was Carrie Underwood’s time. It was the age of wisdom, but also of low-rise jeans. It was only just over a decade ago, but...
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The Black Market for Netflix Accounts
helgethomas / FlickrWhether you’re using your parents’ password, you share an account with a spouse, or you somehow still have your freshman-year roommate’s uncle’s login information, sharing Netflix...
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How the Microscope Redefined the Fact
Jason Reed / ReutersA picture may be worth a thousand words, but the inverse is also true: A word is worth a thousand pictures. If I say “bear,” you might picture a grizzly or a black bear, a polar...
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College-Aged Adults Are Now the Most Likely Online Daters
In April 2014, Melissa Erard told the Associated Press that she had recently been dating only using the app Hinge. Charles Krupa / APIt’s too simple to say that, once, college students met each other...
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Facebook and the New Colonialism
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook Robert Galbraith / ReutersMark Zuckerberg hasn’t had the best week.First, Facebook’s Free Basics platform was effectively banned in India. Then, a...
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