Read the latest articles from Futurism (Page 956)

In a new piece for Quartz, professor David Carroll argues that the U.S. is a surveillance state not entirely unlike China.
Future Society

Professor: US Surveillance State Is a Lot Like China’s

Both nations are using tech to control their minority populations.

By Kristin Houser

The gold, silver, and bronze found in Olympic medals given out during the 2020 Tokyo Games was extracted from old smartphones and other electronics.
Robots and Machines

2020 Olympic Medals Will Be Made Out of Recycled Smartphones

The Tokyo 2020 committee received nearly 79,000 tons of donated gadgets.

By Dan Robitzski

A new experiment used VR to trick people's brains into thinking they inhabited spider or bat bodies. People reported feeling like the body was theirs.
Virtual Reality

Bizarre New VR Makes People Feel Like They’re Spiders

VR makes it easy to trick the brain into thinking it has a non-human body.

By Dan Robitzski

Researchers call for a ban on aspartame, the artificial sweetener better known as NutraSweet, until regulators conduct a new review of its health effects.
Health & Medicine

Aspartame Still Hasn’t Been Proven Safe to Eat, Say Scientists

Step away from the diet soda.

By Kristin Houser

The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 satellite has successfully unfurled its massive boxing ring-sized solar sail on Tuesday.
Off-World

LightSail 2 Spacecraft Officially Unfurls Massive Solar Sail

The boxing ring-sized sail will use pressure exerted by the Sun's radiation as a way to move through space.

By Victor Tangermann

Presidential hopeful John McAfee is missing, and according to his campaign manager, unless he's found, "secreted data" will be released.
Data Privacy

John McAfee’s Manager Threatens to Release Secret Data “Payloads”

"This is not a publicity stunt," he tweeted.

By Kristin Houser

Silicon Valley startup Bumblebee Spaces suspends furniture from the ceiling to make tiny, espensive apartments feel more spacious.
Future Society

Dystopian Startup Wants to Hang Your Furniture From The Ceiling

Here's a horrible idea: make your tiny apartment seem bigger by suspending your bed on the ceiling.

By Dan Robitzski

A number of millennial farmers in the U.S. are making more money talking about farming on their YouTube channels than from farming itself.
Future Society

Millennial Farmers Make More Money on YouTube Than From Farming

Don't forget to like and subscribe to your local farmer.

By Victor Tangermann

San Francisco may provide safe "housing" in the form of a parking lot for people who live inside their vehicles and need to avoid tickets and fines.
Future Society

San Francisco Plans “Safe” Parking for People Living in Vehicles

As soaring rents force people onto the street, many are left trying to avoid fines and tickets.

By Dan Robitzski

Airbus has unveiled a new airplane design inspired by birds of prey, and it hopes the wild-looking concept will inspire the next generation of engineers.
Advanced Transport

Airbus Debuts Wild Plane Concept Inspired by Birds of Prey

They hope the cartoonish design will get kids excited about engineering.

By Kristin Houser

A decade after Google was caught wiretapping unencrypted WiFi networks with its Street View cars, a court ordered the stolen data deleted.
Data Privacy

Google to Delete Private Data Captured by Street View Cars

Google just agreed to delete all the WiFi data its Street View cars collected

By Dan Robitzski

Quantum Darwinism, a mind-bending theory that pulls from biology to reconcile quantum mechanics and classical physics, holds up in three sets of tests.
Physics

Mind-Bending “Quantum Darwinism” Theory Passes Experimental Tests

“All these studies see what is expected, at least approximately."

By Kristin Houser

NASA's plans to get to the Moon by 2024 are turning up the pressure to find a suitable replacement for spacesuits that date back to the 1970s.
Moon

NASA Really, Really Needs a New Spacesuit for 2024 Moon Mission

The space agency has yet to sign any contract or set a deadline to design a new spacesuit.

By Victor Tangermann

Default Futurism featured image
Future Society

Sustainable Urban Living Isn’t Just Necessary – It’s a Giant Opportunity

Cities need to reimagine their future to combat a warming planet and rapid urbanization.

By Rachelle Dragani

Theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder argues that scientists should be expected to better justify all of the billions of dollars their experiments cost.
Physics

Physicist: Maybe We Don’t Need an Expensive New Collider

Sabine Hossenfelder says the bar for approving several-billion-dollar projects should be higher.

By Dan Robitzski

A team of researchers at the University of California found that there could be way more ice water on the surface of the Moon than we initially thought.
Science & Energy

Study: There’s Way More Water on the Moon Than We Thought

Shadowed lunar craters could harbor millions of tons of ice.

By Victor Tangermann

Giving birth in space might cause changes to the human body, including new skin tones and bigger heads, predicts evolutionary biologist Scott Solomon.
Off-World

Biologist: Babies Born in Space Might Not Be Fully Human

Babies born in space might have enormous heads. Seriously.

By Kristin Houser

Facebook is already inundated with scam posts for its yet-unreleased cryptocurrency, Libra. It's a bad sign for a company trying to earn public trust.
Blockchain

Facebook Is Having Trouble Fighting Scams About Its Own Altcoin

It's a bad sign for Facebook's upcoming Libra cryptocurrency.

By Dan Robitzski

The Human Brain Project, which ten years ago promised to model an entire human brain, failed to deliver. Scientists suspect it was doomed from the start.
Science & Energy

This Attempt to Simulate the Human Brain Fell Amazingly Flat

The Human Brain Project tells a classic warning tale against scientific hype.

By Dan Robitzski

Unrestored tapes of the first Moon walk just sold for more than $1.8 million at auction — more than 8,000 times the price paid by their owner in 1976.
Moon

Someone Just Paid $1.8 Million for Videos of the First Moon Walk

The tapes' previous owner bought them for $217.77 in 1976.

By Kristin Houser