A cargo ship hit the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Florida’s Tampa Bay in 1980, collapsing one span and killing 35 people.
AP Photo/Jackie Green
A civil engineer explains why ships taking out bridges is rare, and describes how bridge builders protect the structures from ship collisions.
Bartlomiej K. Wroblewski / Shutterstock
Quantum computing has huge promise from a technical perspective, but the practical benefits are less clear.
Kisialiou Yury/Shutterstock
Time pressure is bad for your health- but the answer may be right outside your door.
Kampus Production/Pexels
Current methods of screening for dementia have a range of limitations. Using virtual reality for cognitive screening is still a new area, but it’s showing promise.
SvedOliver/Shutterstock
In an era of transformation, manufacturing still matters.
TikTok’s features for combining users’ videos lend themselves to political disputes.
Quick et al
TikTok’s features for combining different users’ videos have sparked a wave of creativity. They’ve also formed an arena for political arguments and insults.
How can users of AI tools like OpenAI’s Sora video generator be sure they aren’t producing copyright-violating content?
Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images
With the right prompts, AI users can mimic copyrighted works. There’s no easy technical or legal fix.
Vigen M / Shutterstock
Smart rings can collect information about us that smartphones and smart watches struggle to.
Tero Vesalainen / Shutterstock
As technology has advanced, AI-generated deepfakes have become more convincing.
Chinese president, Xi Jinping, claps during the closing meeting of the Two Sessions annual parliamentary meetings.
Wu Hao / EPA
China is facing many economic obstacles, but Beijing remains optimistic about growth.
Are the AIs making decisions about your life fair?
sorbetto/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images
Bias in AI has been getting a lot of attention lately, but it’s just one aspect of the larger – and thornier – problem of fairness in AI.
Thomas Raggi of the band Måneskin performs a concert that streamed live on TikTok in 2021.
Fabian Sommer/Picture Alliance via Getty Images
For some musical artists, TikTok has become a beacon in an otherwise dismal digital streaming landscape.
Like it or not, AI is already playing a role in the 2024 presidential election.
kirstypargeter/iStock via Getty Images
Using disinformation to sway elections is nothing new. Powerful new AI tools, however, threaten to give the deceptions unprecedented reach.
Andrus Ciprian / Shutterstock
Could the technology move beyond medical applications and into wide use?
Some U.S. lawmakers have grown concerned about TikTok.
Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images.
In China, ‘private’ businesses aren’t entirely private and the ultimate boss is the CCP, not the CEO.
A generic image of a smart ring in use.
Fotos593 / Shutterstock
What are the benefits and drawbacks of putting smart technology into a ring?
Several popular messaging apps, including Messenger, Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp, use end-to-end encryption.
Open Rights Group/Flickr
End-to-end encryption provides strong protection for keeping your communications private, but not every messaging app uses it, and even some of the ones that do don’t have it turned on by default.
Space_Cat/Shutterstock
Many families want to set ground rules to reduce their screen time – and have time to connect with each other, without devices. Here’s where to start.
The USS Portland test-fires a laser weapon. The photo captured infrared light to make the beam visible.
Staff Sgt. Donald Holbert/Marine Corps via AP
Militaries around the world are rapidly developing science fiction-like laser weapons, motivated in part by the growing threat from swarms of drones.
NASA
The next generation of spacesuit needs to do more than simply protect an astronaut from the vacuum of space.