In the series “A Modest Proposal,” my colleagues and I will propose inventions and projects that I think are eminently doable and would love made real. So Glass from Google helps people see what you see, in a hands-free way that’s simpler to use than a handheld camera. To me, that could lead to an [...]

In the series “A Modest Proposal,” my colleagues and I will propose inventions and projects that I think are eminently doable and would love made real. A powerful benefit of Glass from Google is how it could help people see what you see at the same time you are seeing it. I believe this could [...]

In the series “A Modest Proposal,” my colleagues and I will propose inventions and projects that I think are eminently doable and would love made real. Google aims to help change the way we see the world with Glass, a transparent video display that rests lightweight in front of your eyes and whispers into your [...]

In A Menagerie of Curiosities, I explore the fascinating results of experiments that explore how life develops. Science to me is about exploring what’s unknown and what’s impossible. So what happens if you implant eyes onto a tail of a blinded tadpole? One might not expect anything — the brain of a tadpole didn’t evolve [...]

In the series, “From The Writer’s Desk,” I’ll describe what I do for a living as a writer and ideas I have for advancing my craft. Today I have a story out on a secret war that might have taken place for years in the embedded computers found within the devices that make up the [...]

In the series “A Modest Proposal,” my colleagues and I will propose inventions and projects that I think are eminently doable and would love made real. The very first post for this blog had to do with conjecture that it might one day be possible to manufacture brains, or people. This was no idle speculation, [...]

In the series “A Modest Proposal,” my colleagues and I will propose inventions and projects that I think are eminently doable and would love made real. So I had earlier suggested the idea of a brooch like the communication badge seen on Star Trek that one can tap for an otherwise hands-free way of talking [...]

The sword is silent as it leaves its scabbard in an expert draw. The only sound it makes is when it whistles as it cuts through the air. It might be the last sound you ever hear. When I’m not writing about science, one of my pastimes is swordsmanship. Specifically, I’m studying Toyama Ryu Batto [...]

In the series, “Worth Pitching?” I’ll describe research I’ve come across in the course of science journalism and whether or not I pitched it to editors as a story. All research may be worthwhile, but what might the general public want to read about? Nature conspires with the sacred lotus to keep it clean and [...]

In the series “Visions,” science fiction about the very latest research will be paired with analysis looking into the facts behind the fiction. The goal is to marry ripped-from-the-headlines science fiction with analysis into the possibilities hinted at by new discoveries. This edition of Visions is written by Jesse Emspak, a freelance science writer in [...]