COVID-19 has left city squares abandoned and our streets empty. Unemployment in the United States has already topped 15 percent, and the European Union’s economy is projected to shrink by more than 7 percent in 2020. But hidden in the fallout from the virus are lessons to make the world a better place. Reducing pollution […]
How it started, where it’s headed, and how scientists are fighting back Credit: Richard Borge Advertisement Chasing Plagues A virologist crawled through bat caves to find the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus Fast-Track Drugs With no time to make treatments from scratch, scientists are searching for existing compounds that reduce harm Frontline Trauma Stress from […]
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At least 3,700 years ago, Babylonian mathematicians approximated the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. They inscribed their answer, the first discovered value of pi, on a humble clay tablet: 25/8, or 3.125. Now Carl-Johan Haster, a theoretical astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has managed to do almost as well: in […]
I’ve been sheltering in place since mid-March. Days bleed into weeks, and weeks into months. Each morning I write code. I immerse myself in the world of computer programming. I compare temperature changes in satellite data and in the latest climate model simulations. I develop scripts to display these comparisons in maps, histograms and box-and-whiskers […]
Originally published in April 1910 Credit: Scientific American Advertisement “Various devices have been employed called ‘hold-outs,’ mechanical contrivances concealed in the sleeve or vest which by a very slight pressure or movement in one direction, will instantly shoot out a card into the gambler’s hand and recede again into the sleeve. One of the most […]
When COVID-19 emerged, many of us felt the instinct to use our technical skills to contribute something—and fast. But as researchers and technologists at Stanford, we also felt deep concern, having witnessed technologists’ blind spots and biases give birth to many dangerous technologies, including digital gaydar, deepfakes, discriminatory AI, AI surveillance and more. Even well-meant […]
The new coronavirus that has infected millions of people around the globe can wreak havoc far beyond the lungs. Some of the symptoms of the disease it causes, COVID-19, are predictable enough: cough, fever, chills, headache. But the pathogen’s effects by no means stop there. The virus can cause problems in almost every organ, including […]
State and local authorities from New Hampshire to San Francisco have begun banning the use of facial-recognition technology. Their suspicion is well founded: these algorithms make lots of mistakes, particularly when it comes to identifying women and people of color. Even if the tech gets more accurate, facial recognition will unleash an invasion of privacy […]
The new coronavirus that has infected millions of people around the globe can wreak havoc far beyond the lungs. Some of the symptoms of the disease it causes, COVID-19, are predictable enough: cough, fever, chills, headache. But the pathogen’s effects by no means stop there. The virus can cause problems in almost every organ, including […]