The Most Subversive Way to Travel Perhaps the humble bicycle, a transportation mode that puts people in contact with one another and gives them back that control they seem to crave, offers a unique opportunity to remake those realities for the better.

    Let Robots Handle Your Emotional Burnout at Work But as robotics and computing evolve, some researchers foresee a future where technology can relieve the long-held emotional burden of some of these professions. They think we owe it to the service workforce to offer a new frontline of robotic protection. In fact, they think it’s far overdue–but does that actually mean just automating these jobs away?

    Where We Live and How We Die What a year of death looks like around the world.

    Dreaming Up Inventions for an Afrofuturist World Three magical tools necessary for both liberation and laughter.

    How We Got To: The Smart Fridge From Francis Bacon to the Large Hadron Collider.

    Batteries Not Excluded The supercomputer in your pocket and your next car rely on them–so what will we do if we run out of lithium?

    Breaking the Cycle

    The future of reproductive health in India, from early ideas about population control to on-the-ground interventions happening now, to a world where men and women share contraceptive responsibility.
    Hannah Harris Green
    Sep 26, 2018

    The ID Question

    Who decides who you are? You, or the world around you?
    Anjali Ramachandran
    Nov 22, 2017

    A Noxious Problem

    Smog in cities and smoke in the home cause a huge range of short- and long-term health conditions. Why is the world’s biggest public health crisis only getting worse?
    How We Get To Next
    Oct 24, 2018

    Beats: Space

    Space is where we project our dreams–and our nightmares–of the future.

    Beats: Food

    Food structures our day, and food systems shape our world

    Beats: Disability

    “Disable” is an active verb, and disability describes the social and environmental barriers that prevent access just as much as an individual body’s physical reality.

    Beats: Health

    Access to health care is as much a matter of public policy as it is the size of a person’s pocketbook; within a doctor’s office, many factors affect the quality of treatment.

    A picture of the night sky, very starry

    Losing the Night Sky

    The brightest parts of the world are getting brighter–light pollution is on the rise around the globe.
    Caroline Crampton
    Aug 17, 2018 2 min read

    Future Nostalgia: What We’ll Miss When the Music Stops

    From the crackle of vinyl to the clipped edges of MP3s, the ways we listen to music influence why we love it.
    Kate Solomon
    Dec 11, 2015 4 min read

    Was Gamification a Terrible Lie?

    Turning work into play was sold as a miracle for increasing productivity–but was that ever really plausible?
    Simon Parkin
    Nov 18, 2016 9 min read