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Will computers ever feel responsible?

Bold technology predictions pave the road to humility. Even titans like Albert Einstein own a billboard or two along that humbling freeway. In a classic example, John von Neumann, who pioneered modern... Read more »

This startup is making coffee without coffee beans

They spent months experimenting with various ingredients. “From my previous work, I had an inkling of what might work,” says Tan, but narrowing it down to the exact proportions, processes, and types... Read more »

Job title of the future: Weather maker

Old tech, new urgency: The precipitation-­catalyzing properties of silver iodide were first explored in the 1940s by American chemists and engineers, but the field remained a small niche. Now, with 40% of... Read more »

From the editor

The longer you report on tech, the more you realize how often we get the future wrong. Predictions have a way of not coming true. The things that seem so clear now... Read more »

The author who listens to the sound of the cosmos

Henderson has a knack for crisp characterization (“Singing came from winging”) and vivid, playful descriptions (“Through [the cochlea], the booming and buzzing confusion of the world, all its voices and music, passes... Read more »

AI’s growth needs the right interface

Imagine if you didn’t have to accept the features some tech genius announced on a wave of hype. Imagine if, instead of downloading some app someone else built, you could describe the... Read more »

Lakes and seas on Titan may be shaped by waves

“We had the same starting shorelines, and we saw that you get a really different final shape under uniform erosion versus wave erosion,” Perron says. “They all kind of look like the... Read more »

A tool that lets users fight misinformation online

Users click a button to open a side panel where they label content as accurate or inaccurate or question its accuracy, and they can identify other sources whose assessments are trustworthy. Then,... Read more »

Screening new materials with computer vision

Graduate students Eunice Aissi and Alexander Siemenn, SM ’21, who reported on the work with colleagues including professor of mechanical engineering Tonio Buonassisi, used the technique to analyze perovskites, materials that have... Read more »

How a butterfly’s scales are born

An optical micrograph shows the scales on the wings of an adult painted lady.COURTESY OF THE RESEARCHERS Using a special microscopic technique to peer through an opening they created in the chrysalis... Read more »