Cover Story

Why the Policy Fight over Encryption Is at an Impasse

The next U.S. government looks set to inherit the ongoing fight over whether the government should rein in encryption.

by Tom Simonite

The Daily

Your guide to what matters today

02.10

What Obama’s Cybersecurity Strategy Leaves Out

In two new executive orders, the president makes no explicit mention of fighting terror and limits his administration’s privacy goals.

by David Talbot
Top U.S. Intelligence Official Calls Gene Editing a WMD Threat

Easy to use. Hard to control. The intelligence community now sees CRISPR as a threat to national safety.

by Antonio Regalado
DARPA’s New Neural Implant Has a Sneaky Way of Getting Inside Heads

Researchers implanted a “stentrode” to record activity in the brains of live sheep without having to cut open their skulls.

by Mike Orcutt
A Strong Robot Hand with a Softer Side

A robotic gripper that combines strength with delicacy could help drones hold packages or industrial robots sort objects.

by Signe Brewster

Automated cars

Google’s Self-Driving AI Counts as a “Driver,” According to the Feds

A letter to Google from the NHTSA, which regulates American roadways, clears a significant hurdle to getting driverless cars on the road.

Genomic medicine

After Losing His Wife to Cancer, Google Exec Jeff Huber Will Lead DNA Testing Venture

Jeff Huber’s wife died of colon cancer. As the head of Grail, he is on a mission to develop a kind of blood test that could have saved her.

View from the Marketplace

Four Factors for Successful Entrepreneurial Negotiations

If you can’t negotiate, you can’t win. In this new online MIT Professional Education course, Entrepreneurial Negotiations: The MIT Way, Lawrence Susskind explores how to address four key factors to successfully manage entrepreneurial negotiations.

Provided by MIT Professional Education

Virtual reality

Oculus Founder Says He’s Focused on Time, Money Spent on VR Content

With its first consumer headset, Oculus’s Palmer Luckey will be watching how much people use it and how much they spend on content for it.

Clean power

Supreme Court Strikes Blow Against Obama’s Climate Agenda

Ending a run of good news for clean energy, justices delayed emissions regulations while a legal battle plays out.

Security and privacy

What Obama’s Cybersecurity Strategy Leaves Out

In two new executive orders, the president makes no explicit mention of fighting terror and limits his administration’s privacy goals.

Gene editing

Top U.S. Intelligence Official Calls Gene Editing a WMD Threat

Easy to use. Hard to control. The intelligence community now sees CRISPR as a threat to national safety.

Neuroengineering

DARPA’s New Neural Implant Has a Sneaky Way of Getting Inside Heads

Researchers implanted a “stentrode” to record activity in the brains of live sheep without having to cut open their skulls.

Practical robots

A Strong Robot Hand with a Softer Side

A robotic gripper that combines strength with delicacy could help drones hold packages or industrial robots sort objects.

Robotics

Smart machines are beginning to speak to us and act on their own.

More from Robotics

Features

Novel therapeutics

Unraveling the Mysterious Function of the Microbiome

A new class of experimental therapies is emerging from the study of how the community of microörganisms in your body contributes to disease.

Gene editing

We Have the Technology to Destroy All Zika Mosquitoes

Fear of the Zika virus could generate support for gene drives, a radical technology able to make species go extinct.

Neuroengineering

New Collar Promises to Keep Athletes’ Brains from “Sloshing” During Impact

Researchers have begun human clinical trials for a device, inspired by woodpeckers, that’s meant to keep the brain from moving around so much inside the skull when it gets hit.

Innovations, Ideas, and Insights

Provided by BBVA

More in Innovations, Ideas, and Insights