The Boundaries of Artificial Emotional Intelligence If our virtual assistants and emotional laborers are all turning out to be soothing, female-voiced AI, will it close certain gaps for human women? Or will it ratify them?

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

    It’s Time For a New Kind of Power Fantasy Games can–and must–offer different definitions of fantasy, including fantasies of safety and peace.

    Beats: Food Food structures our day, and food systems shape our world

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

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

    Fowl Plague

    Pandemics have threatened humanity in the past–and avian influenza may well be the next one due.
    Duncan Geere
    Aug 4, 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

    The ID Question

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

    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.

    Clouds reflected in the windows of an office.

    The $25 Chemical Scanner That Runs Off Cell Networks

    One smart device that can carry out an extraordinary range of tests.
    Charles Q. Choi
    Nov 4, 2014 1 min read

    Art Remade for Minecraft

    Mixing videogames and art.
    Duncan Geere
    Dec 17, 2014 2 min read

    Gone Gone Gopher

    Today we “browse the web,” but we almost ended up “digging around in Gopherspace.”
    Richard Baguley
    Jul 28, 2015 4 min read