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Innovation / Technology

Is this the future of grocery shopping?

Five Questions You Should Have About Amazon’s New AI-Powered Store

Will it destroy retail as we know it? Is it spying on you? Will it weaken your resolve not to buy that $8 gourmet chocolate bar?

A printed ring through the color-change process

These 3D-Printed Objects Can Turn Any Color You Want

MIT researchers hope a process that uses a special photochromic dye to change an object’s color in response to light will one day reduce waste

The spandex in Under Armor suits U.S. speedskaters will wear has a slightly gritty texture, which designers claim makes them more aerodynamic by breaking the vacuum that can form around skaters’ arms and legs.

Winter Olympics

Look at the High-Tech Gear Olympians Will Be Wearing

From jackets heated with electronic ink to personal airbags for skiers, these are some of the most innovative wearables you’ll be seeing in PyeongChang

Could a secret ingredient make crumbling concrete a thing of the past?

With Fungi in the Mix, Concrete Can Fill Its Own Cracks

Adding fungus might be one way to endow concrete with the ability to repair any damage, without the need for human intervention

Can you tell which is the face of someone who is sick? Take a good look. Images of 16 individuals (eight women) photographed twice were averaged, during experimentally induced (a) acute sickness and (b) placebo.

The Next Pandemic

Could AI One Day Detect the Flu…Before You Even Feel Sick?

New research into the subtle facial signs of illness could one day help train artificial intelligence systems to scan for infections

Google's latest app seems to think National Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet has a lot in common with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Future of Art

Here’s My Problem With the Google Arts & Culture Face-Matching App

Kim Sajet, the director of the National Portrait Gallery, offers ideas to make it better

A professor teaches an online class with students from around the world.

Will Traditional Colleges and Universities Become Obsolete?

Artificial intelligence and automation are bringing changes to higher education that will challenge, and may even threaten, in-person learning

The inventor at rest, with a Tesla coil (thanks to a double exposure).

The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

The eccentric inventor and modern Prometheus died 75 years ago, after a rags-to-riches to rags life

Armenia

How Augmented Reality Is Helping Raise Awareness About One of Armenia’s Most Endangered Species

Nine Innovators to Watch in 2018

Meet a group of trailblazers in medicine, education, art, transportation, artificial intelligence and more

Travelers walk in the departure hall of Hong Kong International Airport.

The Rise of Indoor Navigation

You may never get lost in a mall again with these new technologies, designed to help you navigate inside places traditional GPS-based mapping apps can’t

Shan Dou (from left), Jonathan Ajo-Franklin, and Nate Lindsey were on a Berkeley Lab team that, in collaboration with researchers from Stanford, used fiber optic cables for detecting earthquakes and other subsurface activity.

Could Fiber Optics Detect Earthquakes?

By monitoring every grumble, shiver and burp our planet makes, researchers hope to be more prepared to take action when things go awry

The FCC ruled against U.S. consumer protections online.

How Other Countries Deal With Net Neutrality

As the U.S. weakens its protections for internet users, it risks falling behind the rest of the world

BB-8 is an “astromech droid” who first appeared in The Force Awakens.

What the Robots of Star Wars Tell Us About the Future of Human Work

The films’ much-loved robots exist mostly to assist rather than replace humans—and like us, they are prone to errors

Pleito cave site

Virtual Reality Is Allowing Us To See Some of the World’s Most Inaccessible Archaeological Sites

A Native American tribe in California got a chance to reconnect with its past through virtual reality models of sacred sites

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