Does the Internet Help or Harm Our Ability to Weather Natural Disasters?
Does our technology help us deal with disaster? Or does it put us at risk by creating the illusion that we are immune from disaster?
Is Doxxing the Right Way to Fight the “Alt-Right?”
In the aftermath of Charlottesville, people with similar names to white supremacists involved in the march were also caught in the crossfire.
6 Ways to be a Digital Mentor to Your Kids
What’s involved in being a digital mentor? People have been asking me various version of this question in ...
Can We Live Without Air Conditioning?
Air conditioning is a profoundly paradoxical technology: the hotter it gets the more we use it, and the more we use it the hotter it gets.
Yes, Smartphones Are Destroying a Generation, But Not of Kids
Why parents need to embrace our role as digital mentors: offering kids and teens ongoing support and guidance in how to use the internet appropriately.
The End of “Here And Now”
Thanks to the miracle of contemporary connectivity, I can be here, in one place physically, another place mentally, still others visually or financially.
What’s a Kilogram?
At the end of the nineteenth century, the kilogram was conceived as the mass of one liter of water at 4°C, the temperature at which water was densest.
A Brief History of Prosthetic Limbs
Prosthetics have come a long way from the wooden big toe found on a a 3000-year-old mummy, or the Etruscan bridgework made of human teeth.
Synthetic Fabrics Inspired a Cultural Revolution
The advent of synthetic fabrics played a surprising role in bringing women into the workforce, as Mercury 13 trainee Geraldine Sloan’s story illustrates.
The Artful Science of Anna Atkins
Anna Atkins reportedly created the first photographically illustrated and printed book in response to another monograph she thought was shoddily done.