How lightning strikes could explain the origin of life—on Earth and elsewhere
The search for life on other planets is a lot like cooking. (Bear with me…
Facebook is making a bracelet that lets you control computers with your brain
Facebook says it has created a wristband that translates motor signals from your brain so…
Mars’s lost water may be buried beneath the planet’s crust
Billions of years ago, Mars was a warm home to lakes and oceans. That is, until…
Distant jets are giving us clues to how supermassive black holes get so big
At the center of every galaxy is a supermassive black hole—a monster that keeps the…
Scientists plan to drop the 14-day embryo rule, a key limit on stem cell research
In 2016, Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz grew human embryos in a lab dish for longer than anyone…
Why is it so hard to build government technology?
It’s been a long, challenging year for government technologies. Some have failed massively, requiring endless…
Why European vaccine suspensions could have unintended consequences
Europe’s difficult rollout of covid-19 shots took another blow over the weekend, as several countries…
Making better decisions with big data personas
A persona is an imaginary figure representing a segment of real people, and it is…
Building a better data economy
It’s “time to wake up and do a better job,” says publisher Tim O’Reilly—from getting…
First he held a superspreader event. Then he recommended fake cures.
In late January, tech impresario Peter Diamandis hosted an exclusive, indoor conference for a group…