To Protect Genetic Privacy, Encrypt Your DNA
In 2007, DNA pioneer James Watson became the first person to have his entire genome sequenced—making all of his 6 billion base pairs publicly available for research. Well, almost all of them. He left one spot blank, on the long arm of chromosome 19, where a gene called APOE lives. Certain variations in APOE increase…
The Case for Giving Robots an Identity
The first time Stephanie Dinkins met Bina48, in 2014, she worried the thing was dead. “She was turned off,” Dinkins says. Switched on, Bina48 whirred to life, 32 motors animating its facial expressions behind a layer of frubber. Dinkins caught the robot’s stare and knew she’d found her muse. Bina48 had been conceived several years…
Helix’s Bold Plan to Be Your One Stop Personal Genomics Shop
Every day you make thousands of decisions, from the imperceptibly quotidian to those that will change your life forever. But what if instead of listening to the little voice inside your head, you listened to your genes? Your DNA makes you who you are, so theoretically, it could help dictate your daily workout or pick…
Steam's Platform Dominance Takes an Epic Hit
This week, we've got four big stories for you, from Steam's weaknesses and challenges to Facebook's weird ad policies and some huge news for Destiny fans. Eyes up, Guardian. (That's a Destiny reference. Sorry, everyone else.) Division 2 Will Skip Steam—and Head Straight to Epic Game Store That's right, Epic's ongoing attempts to horn in…
SpaceX's Top Secret Zuma Mission Set to Launch
Update: On January 7, 2018 at 8pm EST, SpaceX successfully launched the Zuma mission and landed its Falcon 9 rocket back on Earth. The launch marks the company's first mission of 2018, and its 21st successful rocket landing. Usually, when a SpaceX thing unexpectedly goes boom, it grounds the company for months and raises questions…
The Testosterone Myth
In 1889, at a meeting of the Société de Biologie of Paris, a physiologist named Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard described the results of an experiment he had recently performed on himself. He had painstakingly mixed an elixir of blood, semen, water, and “juice extracted from a testicle, crushed immediately after it has been taken from a dog…
Do Standalone Episodes Hurt or Help Their Shows?
When Amazon’s Forever debuted earlier this month, it announced itself with a kernel of discord hidden within. Viewers reaching the show’s sixth episode found it stripped of its main characters—June (Maya Rudolph) and Oscar (Fred Armisen), a married couple trapped in unchanging circumstances—and instead angling its view in a different direction. “Andre and Sarah,” directed…
The Subtle Nudges That Could Unhook Us From Our Phones
Enough. It's time. You've decided to reclaim your morning commute by spending it on something substantive. No more bottomless Instagram feeds and auto-playing YouTube videos for you! So out the door you stride with that week's New Yorker wedged beneath your arm, a new episode of Flash Forward playing in your ear, or the latest…
Black Panther's Oscar Wins Made History
Good morning, and welcome to a special post-Oscars edition of The Monitor. Yes, in this latest edition we have news about Marvel's big wins, Netflix's one big loss, and the dedication Carrie Fisher probably could've done without. Stick with us, kid—we promise you'll be as shocked as Olivia Colman winning an Academy Award. Black Panther…
Why Symmetry Continues to Beguile Mathematicians
You could forgive mathematicians for being drawn to the monster group, an algebraic object so enormous and mysterious that it took them nearly a decade to prove it exists. Now, 30 years later, string theorists—physicists studying how all fundamental forces and particles might be explained by tiny strings vibrating in hidden dimensions—are looking to connect…