Paul Moller stands in the back corner of a large garage in Davis, California, clean-shaven and wearing a large pair of golden aviator glasses. The 52-year-old engineer is a professor down the road at the University of California, Davis, but he’s not the type to sit back with a book and highlighter. In his white polo shirt and glossy brown bomber jacket, he looks ready to tinker with the shiny invention behind him at knee-level at a moment’s notice.
The dark blue saucer be
1. What is a semiconductor?
Generally speaking, the term semiconductor refers to a material—like silicon—that can conduct electricity much better than an insulator such as glass, but not as well as metals like copper or aluminum. But when people are talking about semiconductors today, they are usually referring to semiconductor chips
Bumble users are spending more on the namesake app as singles return to their pre-pandemic habits.
The dating company, which owns Bumble, Badoo, and Fruitz, reported 2Q revenue of $220.5 million, up 18% year over year and just over Wall Street’s expectations. The Bumble app specifically brought in $169.6 million in revenue, which is up 33% from the same quarter a year ago.
But shar
Congress is finally moving this week on the Inflation Reduction Act, a bill that could drive a 40% reduction in carbon emissions over the next decade. But another government arm, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, made its own (far quieter) news this month when it gave final certification to a new kind of nuclear reactor called a
The pain of email is universal, but each person approaches it differently. You might be the Inbox Zero type who must have a clean inbox at all times. Or you might be the chaotic type who leaves hundreds of messages unread and relies on the search bar to find anything.
For nearly a minute, TikTok viewers can hear the person crying over the sound of a running shower, lamenting that they “can’t even describe the pain.” The video is overlaid with a large text bubble, obfuscating the sufferer’s face. Accompanying the v
When you think of Google, casual gaming probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.
But the search giant happens to have a downright enormous cache of diversions over on its Arts & Culture site. At your disposal: everything from virtual pottery to travel adventures to music makers and more. Here are five of my favorites.
Cultural Crosswords
Ha
If Web1 was about “read” and Web2 was about “read and write,” then Web3 is about “read, write, and own,” says Farfetch Founder and CEO José Neves.
On this week’s Most Innovative Companies podcast, Neves explains what Web3 is and what it’s capable of through the lens of fashion and culture, drawing from his experience founding and growing Farfetch, the online luxury fashion retail platform.
Fashion, Nev
This story is part of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business 2022. Explore the full list of innovators who broke through this year—and had an impact on the world around us.
Kyla Scanlon has been glued to her desk for the last hour, barely noticing the late-afternoon downpour and deepening chill out her open window. TikTok’s algori
This story is part of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business 2022. Explore the full list of innovators who broke through this year—and had an impact on the world around us.
When Google first arrived on the scene in 1998, it offered searchers the option of clicking a button insouciantly titled “I’m Feeling Lucky,”