Once upon a time there was a family that lived in homes raised on platforms in the sky. They had cars that flew and sorta drove themselves. Their sidewalks carried them to where they needed to go. Video conferencing was the norm, as were appliances which were mostly automated. And they had a robot that [...]

If I lived elsewhere in the multiverse, this is the news and cool space stuff I’d have been covering this week. Unfortunately, in this universe I didn’t have the time. Last weekend, Cassini dipped down close to Enceladus to “taste” the jets that erupt from its surface. For some background on Enceladus, see my entry [...]

The flood of online data about each of us seems to be increasing exponentially. For the most part we’re willing participants, lured by the promise of convenience and information. But how much control will we have over the data that we give up? Michael Fertik, CEO of Reputation.com, which is in the business of giving [...]

Your cell phone location information can be used to help you find restaurants or help companies serve you targeted ads. What if all of this data could also play a role in studying and fighting deadly infectious diseases, such as malaria? An international team of researchers has done just that—for an entire country. People can [...]

Big clinical trials—to test new drugs or procedures—generate reams of important data about safety and efficacy. Only a fraction of that information sees the light of day, a publishing practice that could put patients at risk, according to a special report published this week in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Even though scientific and medical [...]

Hurricane Irene is part of a worsening trend. Weather disasters have grown more frequent and more costly over the past 30 years in the U.S., according to data that was released today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). On Thursday afternoon, NOAA posted a map of the 99 weather disasters that caused at [...]

All-you-can-eat data downloads seemed like a good way to sell fancy smart phones at first, but now wireless carriers AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are slowing down the buffet line. A minority of customers who keep refilling their digital dinner plates (while others are still working on the first course) have helped the wireless providers realize [...]

As more and more personal business is conducted online, passwords (make that dozens of passwords) have become a necessary evil of daily life. We all know the rules for coming up with good passwords, or at the very least we hopefully know there are rules—choose an alphanumeric combination, don’t write it down, don’t use it [...]

When researchers make an exciting discovery, the data behind it are often closely guarded until they can be examined, developed and then revealed—at least in part—in a peer-reviewed journal with all of the proverbial fanfare. But that custom often leaves the public and most of the research world in the dark—sometimes for years, as some [...]

By: Melissa C. Lott and Ian Kalin, Presidential Innovation Fellow, U.S. Department of Energy In the early 1970s, auto manufacturers faced the challenge of how to ensure compliance with new U.S. emissions standards without sacrificing vehicle performance. As a result, they largely turned to electronically controlled fuel feed and ignition systems. And, with the addition [...]

When attempting to evaluate the overall health of the U.S. electric grid, one potentially important metric relates to outages – how often and how long customers are without power. But, data related to disruptions in electricity service are largely unavailable. In fact, many states do not require utilities to report data related to the impact [...]

Flickr user Eric Fischer has done something very interesting. By accessing the geolocation information in photos uploaded to Flickr and Picasa, he’s been able to map out the locations that tend to be photographed by locals and those that tend to be photographed by tourists. Blue dots are for locals (people who have taken pictures [...]