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This Audi knows when the light’s going to change

by Casey Newton

A red light can be a stressful affair. Idling at the intersection, waiting for the light to turn green, your brain reminds you that you would rather do anything else. But do you have time to check your phone? Remove your jacket? Pick your wallet...

What’s standing between Donald Trump and nuclear war?

by Rachel Becker

When President-elect Donald Trump officially becomes the president of the United States in January, he will take complete control of America’s nuclear arsenal. Should he decide to start a nuclear war, there are no legal safeguards to stop him....

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Spotify wants to bring on-demand features to its free mobile users

by Micah Singleton and Ben Popper

But will the labels go for it?

Bridge is a new headset that lets you mix virtual objects with the real world

by Sean O'Kane

A fresh take on mobile VR and AR, powered by your iPhone

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Data on immigrants won't be safe from Trump, unless the data doesn't exist

by Colin Lecher

When New York City implemented its IDNYC municipal ID system, it was meant to give undocumented immigrants a way to access crucial services that require government identification. But as Donald Trump’s inauguration looms, a new lawsuit will test...

Scientists manipulated mice to make them lose track of time

by Angela Chen

Dopamine makes the time go by

The political fight behind Facebook and Google’s new terrorist content database

by Russell Brandom

This week, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter announced a new database for images and videos that promote terrorism. The database, which is hosted by Facebook, is designed as a defense against propaganda videos and imagery by terrorist...

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Rogue One’s success or failure will shape the future of Star Wars

by Nick Statt

This post contains minor plot spoilers for the beginning 30 minutes of Rogue One. Standing before a crowd of journalists in a private movie theater at Skywalker Ranch this past weekend, Gareth Edwards made an appeal to the hardcore fans. “I feel...

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Facebook and Google make lies as pretty as truth

by Kyle Chayka

If you asked Google who won the popular vote just after the election, there’s a chance you would have been sent to a conspiracy blog with bogus results. And the site is likely to have looked as legitimate as any other.

New, 56 comments

Google just notched a big victory in the fight against climate change

by Nick Statt

Outside Tulsa, Oklahoma, among a series of nondescript warehouses off Route 69, lies a Google campus. Beyond its peculiar location — about 2,000 miles from the company's Mountain View, California headquarters — the site has all the standard...

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Nokia’s Android phone revival has to be about more than just phones

by Vlad Savov

For romantics among us, one of 2017’s most enticing storylines will be witnessing the return of the Nokia brand to the world of smartphones. Nokia is the company that defined the mobile phone for most of us in Europe (even if its US presence was...

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A sexual misconduct case that rocked anthropology ends with resignation

by Elizabeth Lopatto and Michael Balter

Brian Richmond, a paleoanthropologist at the American Museum of Natural History who has been investigated three times for the same accusation of sexual misconduct, has resigned his post effective December 31st, according to the museum. “The...

Behind the scenes of a 30-player video game theater

by Adi Robertson and Amelia Holowaty Krales

ESC Game Theater takes experimental gaming to a New Jersey mall

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Stimulating the brain can bring back forgotten short-term memories

by Angela Chen

Some hopeful news for those who can’t remember new people’s names: stimulating the brain with a magnetic pulse can bring back forgotten short-term memories, as long as we know that we’ll need that information later. Scientists used to think that...

Why Delphi and Mobileye think they have the secret sauce for self-driving cars

by Andrew J . Hawkins

Delphi and Mobileye, two leading auto-part suppliers, aren’t as well-known in the self-driving space as their much bigger rivals Google and Tesla. But Delphi, a GM spinoff now based in the UK, has been showing off its autonomous technology for...

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French man sentenced to two years in prison for visiting pro-ISIS websites

by Amar Toor

A man in France was sentenced to two years in prison this week for repeatedly visiting pro-ISIS websites, even though there is no indication that he planned to stage a terrorist attack. The 32-year-old, whose name has not been released, was...

Inside Comma.ai’s garage: Warren G, Drake quotes, and a message to Elon Musk

by Lauren Goode

Comma.ai is a startup company known in equal measures for the product it has made and the person who made it. Founder George Hotz, who goes by “geohot,” first gained notoriety for carrier-unlocking an early iPhone and exploiting Sony’s PlayStation...

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Magic mushrooms help cancer patients cope with fear and depression

by Angela Chen

Many said this was one of their life’s most meaningful experiences

Will net neutrality survive Donald Trump?

by Russell Brandom

When FCC chairman Tom Wheeler passed the Open Internet Order in February of 2015, it was the culmination of decades of work. After countless advocacy campaigns and legal fights, the order classified internet providers as common carriers — falling...

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Designer bacteria build carbon-silicon materials for the first time

by Rachel Becker

Scientists have genetically engineered bacteria to make a protein that squishes silicon and carbon together long enough for them to stick to one another — forming a bond that, until now, only chemists had managed to create. If scientists can teach...

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Why YouTube’s biggest stars keep quitting

by Ben Popper

Two weeks ago PewDiePie, the world’s most popular YouTuber, announced he was ending his vlog. Four days later Casey Neistat, one of the fastest rising stars over the last two years, said he was ending his daily vlog. Imagine Beyoncé and Taylor...

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Backlash against voting audits makes elections less secure

by Russell Brandom

Almost three weeks after Election Day, Wisconsin is getting ready to recount its votes, and Pennsylvania and Michigan may soon follow suit. Green Party candidate Jill Stein has raised over $6 million to fund the effort, saying fears of a hacked...

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How your brain tricks you into believing you’re the reasonable one

by Angela Chen

Few people saw Donald Trump’s victory coming, including Donald Trump. There are easy culprits to blame for the surprise win (skewed polls and fake news come to mind), but the biggest enemy might be our own egos. It’s natural to ignore everything...

What a Trump presidency means for the future of self-driving cars

by Andrew J . Hawkins

Carmakers and tech companies working on self-driving cars are pushing back against the Obama administration’s request to share data and safety specifications with the federal government. But they are expressing hope that President-elect Donald...

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Cults, chaos, and community: how The Tension Experience rewrote the rules of storytelling

by Bryan Bishop

The future of immersive entertainment is here, and it is bloody

Young blood transfusions are probably not the best way to reverse aging

by Angela Chen

It’s old blood that seems to really make us grow old

Japan’s tsunami warning system worked well in today’s major earthquake

by Rachel Becker

At 5:59AM local time Tuesday morning, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake shook the east coast of Japan. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued tsunami warnings and evacuation orders soon after the quake hit, warning of possible 10-foot waves. The quake...

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This smart device sniffed my morning breath to check for gum disease

by Rachel Becker

The human mouth is a disgusting place, capable of emitting awful smells. Viruses, fungi, and possibly more than 1,000 species of bacteria live inside this dark, moist orifice. Nestled into the crevices between your gums and teeth, these microbes...

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Inside Sansar, the VR successor to Second Life

by Adi Robertson

The door is bright red, perched at the top of a mossy stone staircase in the middle of a floating island. When I approach, a mysterious tune begins emanating from it, as if playing from the other side. Right now, it’s just a simple prop, and there...

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Daydream Nation

by Adi Robertson

It’s a couple of weeks before the Daydream View headset launches, and at Google’s Mountain View headquarters, the team has filled a room with pieces of its past. The tables are littered with fabric swatches, molded foam shells, and things that...

New, 20 comments

What’s next for Pantsuit Nation, the pro-Clinton Facebook group with over 3 million members?

by Kaitlyn Tiffany

In Hillary Clinton’s concession speech last Wednesday, she thanked supporters, activists, community leaders — and called upon the members of secret Facebook groups to speak out. “I want everybody coming out from behind that,” she said. “And make...

New, 53 comments

One patient’s blood might hold a new weapon against HIV

by Rachel Becker

The key to developing a new drug to fight HIV may lie in the blood of a patient whose immune system can control the infection, a new study says. Scientists discovered proteins in the patient’s blood that blocked the virus from infecting immune...

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