The Boundaries of Artificial Emotional Intelligence If our virtual assistants and emotional laborers are all turning out to be soothing, female-voiced AI, will it close certain gaps for human women? Or will it ratify them?

    Beats: Space Space is where we project our dreams–and our nightmares–of the future.

    To Board a Cruise Ship–and Never Get Off Meet the retirees who never stop moving.

    The Roots of an Epidemic From apartheid labor policies to everyday sexism, socio-political issues influence the spread of TB disease and the effectiveness of health responses. To tackle the epidemic, we need systemic changes.

    Dreaming Up Inventions for an Afrofuturist World Three magical tools necessary for both liberation and laughter.

    The Most Subversive Way to Travel Perhaps the humble bicycle, a transportation mode that puts people in contact with one another and gives them back that control they seem to crave, offers a unique opportunity to remake those realities for the better.

    Disability Futures

    We can’t think about the future-of health, of technology, of community-without centering disability; it cuts across every other kind of experience. Disability is central to all of our lives.
    Kenny Fries
    Apr 30, 2019

    The ID Question

    Who decides who you are? You, or the world around you?
    Anjali Ramachandran
    Nov 22, 2017

    Breaking the Cycle

    The future of reproductive health in India, from early ideas about population control to on-the-ground interventions happening now, to a world where men and women share contraceptive responsibility.
    Hannah Harris Green
    Sep 26, 2018

    Beats: Space

    Space is where we project our dreams–and our nightmares–of the future.

    Beats: Food

    Food structures our day, and food systems shape our world

    Beats: Disability

    “Disable” is an active verb, and disability describes the social and environmental barriers that prevent access just as much as an individual body’s physical reality.

    Beats: Health

    Access to health care is as much a matter of public policy as it is the size of a person’s pocketbook; within a doctor’s office, many factors affect the quality of treatment.

    A man wears a prosthetic robotic glove, and with that he holds an electric drill.

    Better Than Biology–Underwater Hands and More

    For the first time, divers will be able to pick up delicate undersea creatures or retrieve fragile objects from sunken wrecks.
    David Hambling
    Oct 16, 2014 3 min read

    How an 800-Year-Old Mystery is Changing the Way We Do Science

    The hunt for Genghis Khan’s grave has led to a host of other discoveries.
    Melissa Lau
    Feb 19, 2015 3 min read

    Give Us Smarter Cities, Block by Block

    The benefits of smart cities need to be rolled-out gradually to be realistically delivered in our lifetimes.
    Scott Smith
    Oct 14, 2014 2 min read