The New Toy Story 4 Trailer Will Delight You
Happy Post-Super Bowl day, sports fans! (And happy Just Monday to everyone else!) Here we are for another dose of The Monitor, WIRED's look at all that's new and news in the world of pop culture, from hot new trailers to Netflix deals. Today: Toy Story 4 gets a Big Game spot, Captain Marvel drops…
What Climate-Conscious Cities Can Learn From Each Other
This story originally appeared on CityLab and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In many ways, Essen is the envy of cities trying to move past their industrial days. Once the steel and coal center of Germany, Essen’s economic success in the early 20th century was evident in the dust blanketing the city and sulfur filling the air…
What if America Had a Detective Agency for Disasters?
The commissions are coming. Hurricane season hasn’t ended, but forensics waits for no one, so the after-action reports on Harvey and Irma have to get started. The relevant agencies—local and perhaps federal, plus maybe some national academies and disaster responders—will all no doubt look at themselves and others to see what went right or wrong.…
A Sneak Peek at Nike's New Jordans
If you want to feel old, forget the fact that WIRED is 25, and realize that Nike designed the first Air Jordan in 1984, for NBA star Michael Jordan. Thirty-four years later, the original red, black and white high tops have spawned their own sneaker subculture. This morning, at the WIRED25 festival in San Francisco,…
The IUD That Gives Women Options
In a taupe-walled exam room at the Women’s Community Clinic in San Francisco, lead clinician Lisa Mihaly plucks a small laminated card from a cabinet. Tethered to the card are three T-shaped IUDs, or intrauterine devices—forms of birth control that are, as the name implies, inserted into a woman’s uterus to prevent pregnancy for up…
Apex Legends Is a Surprising Threat to Fortnite's Dominance
The battle royale field is nothing if not crowded. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite dominate the conversation, but beyond them lies a bevy of games, big and small, that all compete for player's minds and controller-wielding time. There's Call of Duty Black Ops 4's Black Out mode, and an upcoming battle royale entry from Battlefield V;…
23andMe Is Digging Through Your Data for a Parkinson's Cure
In 2006, when personal genomics company 23andMe launched from its offices in California, it charged $1,000 for a home spit kit, and its top competitors were DeCodeMe and Navigenics. If you’ve never heard of those last two, that’s because they never made it out of the aughts. And for a while there, no one thought…
Cheat Sheet: What's the Deal With Location-Based VR
Sorry, skeptics: Virtual reality is growing faster than you thought it would. You’re just looking in the wrong place. Millions of people are leaving their homes for the visceral experience of location-based VR, which has become a billion-dollar business. What It Is Location-based entertainment encompasses theme parks, arcades, entertainment centers like Dave & Buster’s, and…
You’d Have to Click a Mouse 10 Million Times to Burn One Calorie
My daughter has spent the past week telling me, "Did you know that every time you click a mouse, you burn one calorie?" OK, this sounds pretty cool, but I'm a bit skeptical. One calorie seems like quite a bit for one mouse click. Rather than dismiss it out of hand, I will attack this…
Giant Antarctic Icebergs and Crushing Existential Dread
I went to Antarctica 20 years ago, and I didn’t care about ice shelves. I noticed one at last when the blinding white of the ice, struck up against an abidingly black ocean, made me understand at last why the penguins all around me and the orcas occasionally surfacing a few dozen feet away had…