Tax the Rich and the Robots? California’s Thinking About It Depending on whom you ask, robots and artificial intelligence are either coming to take your job, or you’re perfectly safe, at least for the near future. Truth is, automation always has and always will put people out of work. It’s just that this time around, even …
What It Takes to Hold Your Breath for 24 Minutes (Yeah, It’s a Thing) When Aleix Segura holds his breath, he thinks about his heart. On land, the focus causes his heart rate to increase—but underwater, it has the opposite effect. “Once my muscles are relaxed and my heart has slowed down, I kind of just …
SpaceX Will Lose Millions on Its Taiwanese Satellite Launch SpaceX is poised to fire off a fresh Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday, delivering a comically tiny payload for Taiwan’s National Space Organization. At 1,047 pounds, the Formosat-5 Earth-observing satellite is almost light enough for a human to deadlift—but it’ll launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket with …
All the Ways US Government Cybersecurity Falls Flat Data breaches and hacks of US government networks, once novel and shocking, have become a problematic fact of life over the last few years. So it makes sense that a cybersecurity analysis released today placed the government at 16 out of 18 in a ranking of industries, ahead …
‘Observer’ Review: The Mind-Bending Sci-Fi Game Made Me Doubt Reality I press a buzzer on a dingy apartment door, and a single pulsing eye appears on the intercom screen. My voice comes out frail, disappointed, all age and regret. “KPD,” says the visitor, meaning Krakow Police Department. “I need to talk to you for a moment.” …
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 …
One-Time Allies Sour on Joining Trump Tech Team President Trump’s victory caught Garrett Johnson—and the rest of humanity—by surprise. A Republican, Johnson had never been among Trump’s biggest fans. He’d worked for former Florida governor Jeb Bush and supported Bush in the primaries. The night candidate Trump addressed the Republican National Convention, Johnson retweeted the words …
This Vegan Vlogger Harassment Scandal Exposes YouNow’s Ugly Underbelly When Anna Scanlon logged onto the video streaming site YouNow last Halloween, her stomach sank. Vegan Cheetah, a popular vlogger within the online vegan community, had uploaded a four-hour video in which he accused Scanlon of flashing him her genitals against his consent and propositioning sex via …
Zipline Launches Medical Supply Drone Deliveries in Tanzania Last month in Rwanda, a young woman started bleeding after giving birth by C-section. Try as they might, her doctors couldn’t stop it. They’d already transfused the two units of matching blood that they had on-hand. They could have called the national blood bank in the capital of …
Twitter Has Great Ideas For Movies—Will Hollywood Listen? You’ve seen the iconic snapshot: Rihanna in midnight shades and a coat with a mustard-colored fur lapel, seated next to Lupita Nyong’o, waring poindexter frames and a modest crewneck sweater. You’ve also doubtless heard the story that arose after it: In 2014, the photo surfaced on Tumblr, along …