Hollywood and Scientists Seek Each Other Out for Inspiration

Blurring the Lines Between Science Fiction and Fact

Loading the podcast player...

Science fiction has always been one of the best barometers of the social and technological zeitgeist. Considering our turbulent times, themes are bleaker and more introspective about our relationship with the Earth, technology and ourselves. And the lines between science fiction and fact are blurring as Hollywood and scientists now seek each other out for inspiration. Sue Karlin reports.

IBM’s Watson Tries to Learn…Everything

What happens when Watson learns a million databases? RPI students and faculty hope to find out21 May

Data Science Is Now a Job Market Based Entirely on Merit

A start-up ranks data scientists and creates competitions between them for specific consulting projects17 May

Lost in America: Still No Phone Service After Hurricane Sandy

In several communities, Verizon has not restored landline phone service in seven months—and may never14 May

The Future of the Assembly Line

The assembly line was invented 100 years ago. It’s time to invent the disassembly line9 May

Want to Save the Environment? Build More Cities

A new book argues for the environmental advantages of urban density7 May

A Social Network for Emergency Notifications

Canadian start-up ePACT’s dedicated system keeps organizations connected in emergencies2 May

Hacking Pacemakers

Manufacturers are still not putting security first when designing implantable medical devices30 Apr

Marriage by Skype

When advanced telecommunications is the only way to get you to the church on time26 Apr

IEDs in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Boston

The U.S. Army knows more about countering IEDs than any other organization24 Apr

Mapping the Human Brain

The U.S. BRAIN initiative will build the tools needed to model the human brain23 Apr

Literature Is Hard to Remember—Compared to Facebook

And gossip is more memorable than the evening news, according to a new study19 Apr

What’s Next For 3-D Printing? Car Bodies

Canadian start-up Urbee takes 2500 hours to print a car body that has only 40 parts15 Apr

Mars Attack: The Curiosity Rover’s Laser-Zapping Rock Analyzer

In a timely new memoir, a geologist chronicles his journey from shooting model rockets to becoming one of Curiosity’s lead scientists12 Apr

Robots Are Not Killing Jobs, Says a Roboticist

A Georgia Tech professor of robotics argues automation is still creating more jobs than it destroys9 Apr

Paying for Free TV

Aereo takes broadcast TV signals and puts them on your computer, tablet, and smartphone—for a fee5 Apr

A 3-D Printer for Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Researchers hope to one day be able to print out an entire human liver2 Apr

Can Cars Keep Their Cool, Even at 100 Miles Per Gallon?

A look at the top tech cars of 2013 with car critic Lawrence Ulrich29 Mar

Going Back to School for Drone Pilot Training

There will be 10 000 commercial drones by 2018. They’ll need pilots26 Mar

Basketball and Biology: A Tale of Two Social Networks

A systems biologist looks at basketball games through the prism of graph theory22 Mar

Are Paywalls Working?

The successful paywall for Andrew Sullivan’s blog may have everyone rethinking free content19 Mar