English Top Stories
The Tiny Robots Revolutionizing Eye Surgery
Last September, Robert MacLaren, an ophthalmologist and professor at Oxford University, plunged a tiny robotic arm into William Beaver’s eye. A membrane had recently contracted on the 70-year-old priest’s retina, ...Continue reading
By Simon Parkin
Asia’s E-Waste Problem Is Getting Out of Hand
Asia has an e-waste problem. But it’s not the amount of dead gadgets that’s the issue, really—it’s the ability to process them at the end of their lives. New research from the ...Continue reading
For $149 a Month, the Doctor Will See You as Often as You Want
Imagine if your doctor’s office was more like an Apple Store mashed up with a fancy gym: a modern white-and-wood aesthetic, replete with fancy gadgets and gleaming touch screens, for ...Continue reading
By Rachel Metz
Eggs from Skin Cells? Here’s Why the Next Fertility Technology Will Open Pandora’s Box
Imagine you are Brad Pitt. After you stay one night in the Ritz, someone sneaks in and collects some skin cells from your pillow. But that’s not all. Using a ...Continue reading
By Emily Mullin
How Pakistan Turned Around Its Vaccination Program Using Technology
It’s the last ball of the match, Bilal’s team needs two runs to win. The captain and the bowler have a discussion and make some …Continue reading
Pakistani Researchers Lay the Foundation for Building Urdu Speech Recognition System
The possibility of some software application developer coming up with an Urdu speech recognition program just got more likely as the most fundamental tool needed …Continue reading
Changing the Way You Ride
The success story of Pakistan’s first rapid mass transit bus project. Urban transport is a political and not a technical issue,” remarks Enrique Peñalosa, mayor …Continue reading
Lahore Cleans up Its Act
A smart city promises quality of life to its residents by effectively and efficiently managing its solid waste. Efficient management of waste—one of the most …Continue reading
Will the Climate Treaty Get the Money It Needs?
Reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to comply with the Paris agreement will require technological breakthroughs, which is why more than 20 countries formed a plan called Mission …Continue reading
Building the Cities of Tomorrow
Before smart cities initiatives, the government needs to prepare for the Internet of Things (IoT) implementation. Change is the only constant if you look at …Continue reading
Connecting the Unconnected
A spotlight on Pakistan’s telecom sector in the backdrop of smart cities. With a teledensity of 71 percent, 133 million mobile subscribers and 31.8 million …Continue reading
All You Need to Know About the Punjab IT Policy
The Punjab Information Technology (IT) policy draft is not just about IT. Rather, it aspires to be about governance in the age of IT. The …Continue reading
ALL TOPICS
Biomedicine
New technologies and biological insights are providing unprecedented ways of improving our health.
Eggs from Skin Cells? Here’s Why the Next Fertility Technology Will Open Pandora’s Box
Imagine you are Brad Pitt. After you stay one night in the Ritz, someone sneaks in and collects some skin cells from your pillow. But ...Continue reading
By Emily Mullin
One Man’s Quest to Hack His Own Genes
n a dream Brian Hanley told me about, he’s riding a bus when he meets a man in dark leather clothing. Next thing he knows, ...Continue reading
By Antonio Regalado
Spray-On RNA Protects Plants from Viruses for Weeks
Scientists have demonstrated that they can use a crop spray to silence genes in plants, rendering the plants resistant to a virus for several weeks. ...Continue reading
By Jamie Condliffe
Business
Technologies are revolutionizing how we work and how companies operate.
Asia’s E-Waste Problem Is Getting Out of Hand
Asia has an e-waste problem. But it’s not the amount of dead gadgets that’s the issue, really—it’s the ability to process them at the end of ...Continue reading
By Jamie Condliffe
This Centrifuge Costs 20 Cents to Make and Can Be Used Anywhere
It may look like a toy, but a centrifuge made out of paper could dramatically cut the cost of analyzing blood and diagnosing diseases like ...Continue reading
By Michael Reilly
The Blind Community Has High Hopes for Self-Driving Cars
During a few days in August, the parking lot at Perkins School for the Blind morphed into a test zone where a golf-cart-like vehicle transported ...Continue reading
By Elizabeth Woyke
Computing
From the latest smartphones to advances in quantum computing, the hardware behind today’s digital age is rapidly changing.
One Startup’s Vision to Reinvent the Web for Better Privacy
enture capitalist Albert Wenger has done well by investing in Web businesses—he was an early backer of Etsy and Tumblr. But at his urging, Union ...Continue reading
By Tom Simonite
Building the Cities of Tomorrow
Before smart cities initiatives, the government needs to prepare for the Internet of Things (IoT) implementation. Change is the only constant if you look at ...Continue reading
By Jibran Jamshad
Software Dreams Up New Molecules in Quest for Wonder Drugs
What do you get if you cross aspirin with ibuprofen? Harvard chemistry professor Alán Aspuru-Guzik isn’t sure, but he’s trained software that could give him ...Continue reading
By Tom Simonite
Energy
Can we transform how we power and feed the world in time to head off climate change?
Obama’s Drilling Ban Is Just One of Many Forces Pushing the U.S. Toward Renewables
Barack Obama has banned new oil and gas drilling in huge stretches of U.S.-owned waters across the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. In a statement, the ...Continue reading
By Jamie Condliffe
A Coal-Fired Power Plant in India Is Turning Carbon Dioxide Into Baking Soda
In the southern Indian city of Tuticorin, locals are unlikely to suffer from a poorly risen cake. That’s because a coal-fired thermal power station in the ...Continue reading
By Jamie Condliffe
Should the Super-Rich Save Climate Research from Trump?
Judging from statements made by President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team, and the growing list of nominees for key jobs in his administration, the future of ...Continue reading
By Jamie Condliffe
Mobile
How ubiquitous information and communication are transforming our lives.
For $149 a Month, the Doctor Will See You as Often as You Want
Imagine if your doctor’s office was more like an Apple Store mashed up with a fancy gym: a modern white-and-wood aesthetic, replete with fancy gadgets ...Continue reading
By Rachel Metz
Why Insurance Companies Want to Subsidize Your Smart Home
Insurers such USAA and American Family have lately begun offering to strike a high-tech bargain: wire your home with Internet-connected devices such as a new ...Continue reading
By Stacey Higginbotham
The Best Gadgets Coming in 2017
Here are the likely standouts among the smartphones, VR headsets, and smart watches hitting the market this year. Smartphone geeks have a lot to look ...Continue reading
By Elizabeth Woyke
Robotics
Smart machines are beginning to speak to us and act on their own.
The Tiny Robots Revolutionizing Eye Surgery
Last September, Robert MacLaren, an ophthalmologist and professor at Oxford University, plunged a tiny robotic arm into William Beaver’s eye. A membrane had recently contracted ...Continue reading
By Simon Parkin
Why Some Autonomous Cars Are Going to Avoid the Internet
Self-driving cars are essentially large computers on wheels. No surprise, then, that some of them will be kept offline in the name of security. John Krafcik, ...Continue reading
By Jamie Condliffe
This Robotic Box Is Home to a Drone
Drones that can fly and steer themselves show promise for tasks such as carrying urgent medical supplies or making farming more efficient. But to be ...Continue reading