If we’ve learned one thing from movies and television, it’s that the robot uprising is going to be rough for us humans. Machines made of metal tend to have an advantage over old-fashioned flesh and blood. Who among us has time to meet an army of murderous computers on some apocalyptic battlefield? Don’t we already […]
The Dark Truth Behind AI
What is artificial intelligence? If you ask someone on the street, they might mention Apple’s Siri or Tesla’s cars. But the real answer is far more complicated. Examining the origins of AI and its pitfalls, writer and academic Kate Crawford wants people to know that the AI industry depends on cheap human labor to do […]
You’re Being Watched
Every second of every day, big companies are spying on you (and everyone else). They know where you live, what you purchase, and who you care about. They know your address and your search engine history. And they’re getting better at influencing your behavior, based on what they know about your past. Unfortunately, it will […]
Food = Medicine
Most of the time, we don’t give much thought to how food and mental health are intertwined. But many of us have experienced how easy it is to eat junk food (or lose our appetites) when we’re busy or stressed. The connection is there, even if we rarely reflect on it. Just as mental health issues can influence […]
Don’t Sell Yourself Short
The universe is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old. So it’s understandable if, as puny humans, we think of ourselves as relatively inconsequential. Our physical bodies are very small compared to the vastness of the universe. The Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek has a different perspective. He points out that each individual contains about 10 […]
How Elon Musk Built SpaceX
In 2002, Elon Musk founded SpaceX with $100 million of his own money. Musk had a very ambitious goal for the first privately funded rocket company in the world: to send humankind to Mars. Musk wanted to hire people who were as passionate as he was. They worked hard, but they also got along well, […]
Bill Gates Needs Your Help
By 2050, the effects of climate change could be as deadly as COVID-19 has been. We dump 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases a year into the atmosphere. If we want to avoid a climate disaster, we need to get that number down to zero. Fast. Here’s the problem: greenhouse gases are involved in the […]
How to Stay Sharp
Great news from the forefront of neuroscience: brain decline and memory loss can be prevented, and even reversed. A gradual decline in the brain’s hardware is a normal part of the aging process. The organ shrinks, its folds become more prominent, and its blood vessels harden. But we can maintain (and in some cases, enhance) […]
The Worst Pandemic in Modern History
Piles of bodies. Coffin shortages. Mass graves. The great influenza pandemic infected roughly one in three people—and killed tens of millions of victims around the world. The virus was, in many ways, something that nobody in the medical field had seen before. Victims experienced symptoms so suddenly, and so violently, that many could pinpoint the […]
The Secret Force that Shapes Our Lives
Liars use math to trick people all the time. Knowing how to spot the potential for deception is half the battle. In The Math of Life and Death, mathematician Kit Yates demonstrates how math underpins everything from medical screening to newspaper articles. In articles and advertisements, for example, statistics might be used to inform or mislead readers. How […]
