Big data studies often use easily available user-generated data from the Internet. Researchers assume that this data offers a window into reality. It doesn’t necessarily.
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Science + Tech – Articles, Analysis, Opinion
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Detecting drier or wetter conditions is crucial for insect survival. We’ve long known they can do this – now researchers have discovered the genetic and neural basis for their humidity-sensing system.
Government agencies are turning to social media as a new way to engage with their constituencies. Practitioners in the trenches are excited about the possibilities – while some academics are less so.
New and imagined digital technologies have important ethical implications. We should devise relevant social norms through a high-profile, public, collaborative process.
The human psyche loves a challenge as well as a pat on the back for achievement. Pervasive computing taps into these drives to ‘gamify’ aspects of life that are typically not games or even much fun.
A philosopher argues that now is the time to figure it out, before we make the inevitable discovery of extraterrestrial life.
The country’s actual offensive cyber capabilities remain shrouded in the classified world. But what is public is enough to discuss potential cyber weapons and how they might be used.
Anecdotal evidence suggests the pervasiveness of smartphones is making us increasingly distracted and hyperactive. Does research support that conclusion?
If a computer search would qualify for a warrant if its whereabouts were known, why should simply hiding its location make it legally unsearchable?
Embryos greedily want more resources than their fair share. New research investigates how early in evolution their hormonal tactics arose.
Fall in love, have a baby, watch your happiness and satisfaction plummet. Psychology researchers know the transition to parenthood can be rough on relationships.
We are deepening our understanding of why people fall victim to the attacks in the first place.
Scientists of all kinds turn to computer models to investigate questions they can’t get at any other way. Here’s how models work and why we can trust them.
Breaches of confidential information are inevitable. But we can limit their size and scope, and therefore their damage.
Testing whether machines are capable of generating sonnets, short stories or dance music that is indistinguishable from human-generated works.
We don’t need to look for Earth-like planets exclusively around Sun-like stars. Tiny, dim TRAPPIST-1 has only 11 percent the diameter of the Sun and is much redder.
In 2012, nearly one-third of voters with a disability had trouble voting. A 2002 law was supposed to fix this problem. New technology may have the answer at last.
Look beyond transgenic techniques that add new genes to a species. People have used selective breeding techniques to change plants and animals for millennia – why not try them on mosquitoes?
Imagining possible futures can help us plan a secure information technology environment for the years to come.
Throwaway phones are just one piece of the ever-widening technological arsenal of extremists and terror groups of all kinds.
One of the great technological challenges of this century is to design novel items and then make them – and have the results match the intent.
The meltdown at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 exposed 572 million people to radiation. No other nuclear accident holds a candle to that level of public health impact.
Bad guys or law enforcement could hack into our networked gadgets to spy on everything we do – and it’s not clear how a laptop’s video camera or an Amazon Echo fits within wiretapping laws.
Scientists build on knowledge gained and published by others. How can we know which findings to trust?
Gifted musician, peerless showman – and fierce protector of his copyrighted work. Prince fought battles that changed the direction of the music industry and are helping the next generation of artists.