As the world’s need for large amounts of portable energy grows at an ever-increasing pace, many innovators have sought to replace current battery technology with something better. Italian physicist Alessandro Volta tapped into fundamental electrochemical principles when he invented the first battery in 1800. Essentially, the physical joining of two different materials, usually metals, generates a chemical reaction that results in the flow of electrons from one material to the other. That stream
Elon Musk’s accepted bid to purchase Twitter has triggered a lot of debate about what it means for the future of the social media platform, which plays an important role in determining the news and information many people – especially Americans – are exposed to. Musk has said he wants to make Twitter an arena for free speech. It’s not clear what that will mean, and his statements have fueled speculation among both supporters and detractors. As a corporation, Twitter can regulate speech on its pl
IT’S HERE. If you were eagerly waiting for NFTs to arrive on Instagram, the moment is has arrived. You can share NFTs on your feed, in stories, and in messages. But for now, you have to be in the US and you have to be one of the “handful of creators and collectors” chosen by Instagram to use the feature. So much for decentralization, eh? Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, said in a video that you’ll be able to see NFTs with a “digital collectibles” tag. If you tap on it, you’ll see details like a d
Google’s annual developer extravaganza, Google I/O, is almost here. The conference is set to begin on May 11, starting with a keynote address at 10:00 AM PT (1 PM ET/7 PM CET/10:30 PM IST). As with last year’s conference, I/O 2022 will be free to ‘attend’ (virtually, that is), and everyone can stream the entirety of the event from the comfort of their pajamas. That said, the opening keynote usually has the most relevant announcements for everyday consumers, so that’s the bit you’ll want to be su
In early March, a manipulated video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was circulated. In it, a digitally generated Zelenskyy told the Ukrainian national army to surrender. The video was circulated online but was quickly debunked as a deepfake — a hyper-realistic yet fake and manipulated video produced using artificial intelligence. While Russian disinformation seems to be having a limited impact, this alarming example illustrated the potential consequences of deepfakes. However, deepfak
Cars are getting streamlined and minimalist. We’ve seen approval for vehicles without a steering wheel or pedals in the effort to make cars with increased autonomous capabilities. But now, automakers have designed a car without conventional brake discs — and it’s all part of a bigger effort to reduce carbon emissions. Over the weekend, French carmaker DS Automobiles, the luxury arm of Citroen, launched a prototype of the DS E-TENSE, which uses only electric regenerative brakes. How does regenera
In the last few weeks, we’ve heard multiple rumors about Elon Musk’s vision of generating more money through Twitter. But now, we have a robust idea of what Twitter’s numbers would look like under the Tesla CEO’s management. Over the weekend, The New York Times published a report about Musk’s pitch deck to investors — and the goals described in it are pretty ambitious. Rocket fueled user growth 931 million. That’s Musk’s target for user numbers by 2028. That’s huge by any measure. But for refere
I like imperfect things. I like my sweater with its holes at the elbows, that painting of mine that my cat walked over while it was drying, that source code I’m using for my doctorate that never seems to execute as I’d expected it to. I like it that way, though. Imperfection makes things more interesting. When you’re talking about business, however, there’s money to be made — potentially lots of money. And unlike other parts of life, in the business world, a small imperfection might result in mi
Whether you need a new villain or an old Spider-Man, your sci-fi movie will sound more scientifically respectable if you use the word multiverse. The Marvel multiverse puts different versions of our universe “out there”, somewhere. In these films, with the right blend of technology, magic, and imagination, travel between these universes is possible. For example (spoilers!), in Spider-Man: No Way Home, we discover there are other universes and other Earths, some of which have their own local Spid
China has had the world’s fastest-growing economy since the 1980s. A key driver of this extraordinary growth has been the country’s pragmatic system of innovation, which balances government steering and market-oriented entrepreneurs. Right now, this system is undergoing changes that may have profound implications for the global economic and political order. The Chinese government is pushing for better research and development, “smart manufacturing” facilities, and a more sophisticated digital ec