Heaven Will Be Mine: In Space, No One Can Hear You Reach Out
It's 1981, in a version of reality where the Cold War was waged not human to human, but human to extraterrestrial enemy from beyond the stars. To fight, we developed robot bodies to wear in space; these Ship-Selves are advanced and almost unkillable, weapons and homes and clothes and identities all rolled into one. And,…
A Keen-Eyed Robot Goes to Work for a Paralyzed Veteran
In December of 2016, a team of researchers showed up at Romy Camargo's house with a better-than-average holiday gift. The front of the nondescript silver box lowered—like one of those spaceship doors from Star Wars, minus the dramatic clouds of vapor—to reveal a fetching robot, with cameras for eyes and a flatscreen for a hat.…
The 15 New Fall Shows We're Most Excited About
Not all that long ago, September brought with it a year's worth of small-screen novelty. Broadcast networks would refresh their lineups, the vast majority of which would run out their various shows' 22-episode orders, and then the reruns would begin. Other than a few midseason replacements come January, that was it; that's how TV worked.…
Why Men Don’t Believe the Data on Gender Bias in Science
Earlier this summer Google engineer James Damore posted a treatise about gender differences on an internal company message board and was subsequently fired. The memo ignited a firestorm of debate about sex discrimination in Silicon Valley; this followed months of reporting on accusations of harassment at Uber and elsewhere. Sex discrimination and harassment in tech,…
Fortnite's Marshmello Concert Is the Future of the Metaverse
By the standards of outdoor EDM performances, Marshmello's DJ set on Saturday came up a little short. Ten minutes isn't usually enough time for festival-goers to congregate in front of a stage, let alone build up to a good crescendo—but the Pleasant Park crowd had been waiting for the gig for days, and so everyone…
What's Inside a Magical (and Flammable) Grease-Lifting Cleaner
In 1954, Italian inventor Carlo Vanoni swelled with patriotic pride when he learned that his fellow countrymen had summited K2, the second-tallest mountain in the world. He was so proud, in fact, that he started naming all his formulas after it: K2a, K2b, K2c, and on down the alphabet. K2r turned out to be his…
Enter the Age of Borderless Memes
English-speaking YouTube has established tropes—workhorse video concepts like unboxing, shopping hauls, and microwaving things you’re not supposed to. Over the last few years (but especially in the last six months), a new second-hand delight has started gobbling up YouTube viewers’ attention. It’s called mukbang, and the rules are simple: Acquire a truly astonishing amount of…
Happy 30th Birthday to the Engine That Powered the CGI Revolution
When Pixar president and co-founder Ed Catmull announced his retirement earlier this year, people rightly saw his impending departure as a transitional moment for the animation studio. But it's bigger than that. Catmull's shadow looms large not just over groundbreaking films like Toy Story and Coco, his influence can be traced all the way back…
The Bot-Strewn History of the Best Kids' Show on Netflix
On a late June day in 2012, Gregg and Evan Spiridellis uploaded five videos to YouTube. Each featured a quintet of monochromatic cartoon robots, catchy songs, and an educational slant. Six years, 150 songs, and 500 million views later, StoryBots is now a kid’s entertainment empire. It also just happens to be one of the…
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…