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.

    The Way We Work: A Reading List A crash course in new developments in employment and labor.

    Chasing Virality Brought Us Fake News, Now Everything’s on Fire By uncritically embedding itself into social networks, did the media actually usher in the era of fake news?

    How to Dress for Ultimate Privacy In the age of surveillance, achieving invisibility through fashion isn’t a futuristic idea–it’s already possible.

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

    The ID Question

    Who decides who you are? You, or the world around you?
    Anjali Ramachandran
    Nov 22, 2017
    A vast stack of containers on a ship

    Postcards From a Supply Chain

    A series that traces consumer goods back through the global shipping system to their source.
    Dan Williams
    Jan 21, 2015

    A Visual History of the Future

    Decades ago, artists’ imaginings formed high expectations about the world to come. Were these just fantasies–or was it the work of pioneers whose visions of the future actually helped to shape it?
    Darren Garrett
    May 30, 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.

    Consumer Wearables Measure Air Quality in the Most Polluted Cities

    Crowdsourcing air quality readings could make life better for millions around the world.
    Duncan Geere
    Jun 19, 2015 2 min read

    Rocket Mail

    How missiles almost revolutionized the world’s postal services.
    Duncan Geere
    Sep 16, 2015 10 min read

    The Media Can’t Sell Climate Change

    Readers are asking news outlets why they aren’t hitting harder on climate change. But who are they hoping to convince?
    Elizabeth Minkel
    Aug 31, 2018 4 min read