Quantum Life
They called him “The Professor” because by the time he was ten years old, he was reading every book he could get his hands on. In sixth grade, he scored 162 on an I.Q. test.…
Three Cheers for Alcohol
A good book can take you to some unexpected places. Like this whiskey room at a giant tech company furnished with colorful beanbags and foosball tables. When coders at Google hit a creative wall,…
The New Breed
BEFORE dawn, a Roomba sweeps the floor in my home in Boston. Suckubus (as we call it) can get tangled up with shoelaces or carpet tassels and need rescuing. At the local grocery store, a…
Brave New Planet
“IN THE face of overwhelming odds, I’m left with only one option. I’m going to have to science the shit out of this,” says Matt Damon’s character in The Martian, when he realises…
VRx — Virtual Therapeutics
Imagine an itch that cannot be scratched or, if you can, pain in a missing limb. It is a maddening sensation and for some amputees, the feeling is very real. Called Phantom Limb Pain, the…
Elections, Big Data, American History
Dubbed the “People Machine”, this simulation predicted that to win the 1960 presidential elections, John F. Kennedy needed the black vote. He took a strong position on civil rights. It also advised him to confront…