Apple and Google have taken steps recently to let users protect information stored on smartphones – even from law enforcement. It turns out there may be a fingerprint-sized gap in that plan. A Virginia Circuit Court judge ruled Tuesday that police officers cannot force criminal suspects to divulge…

The future of protecting an open Internet has been the subject of fierce debate, and potential changes to the rules by the Federal Communications Commission could affect your online experience. WASHINGTON — The chairman and staff of the Federal Communications Commission are moving toward a proposal…

Experiments in legalisation now under way in Washington, Colorado, and Uruguay, should be watched with interest. Photograph: Seth Mcconnell/DP The UK government’s comparison of international drug laws, published on Wednesday, represents the first official recognition since the 1971 Misuse of Drugs…

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The proof is in: Detailed report shows how U.S. Internet access monopolies punish rivals and catch innocent bystanders in the crossfire—legally. Susan Crawford Oct 30, 2014 Unlisted Devan Dewey, the Chief Technology Officer of midsize investment consultancy NEPC, has an orderly office and a highly…

One of the more controversial provisions of the Patriot Act was to broaden the “sneak-and-peek” power for federal law enforcement officials. The provision allows investigators to conduct searches without informing the target of the search. We were assured at the time that this was an essential law…

Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Warg has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for hacking into computers and illegally downloading files. He and a co-defendant were convicted of breaking into computers owned by technology services giant CSC by a Danish court. They downloaded police and…

by About seven months ago, I abruptly quit Twitter. Though I'd been thinking aboutit for a while, ultimately leaving was a snap decision for me. Lately I've beenreflecting on why I hate Twitter so much. The obviously uniquely identifying feature of Twitter is the 140 characterlimit, but I don't…

W hen John Forbes Nash, the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician, schizophrenic, and paranoid delusional, was asked how he could believe that space aliens had recruited him to save the world, he gave a simple response. “Because the ideas I had about supernatural beings came to me the same way that my…

About nine months ago, as it became obvious that I was With Child to even the most absent-minded professors in my engineering research center, I had the following conversation about two or three times a day: Nervous Graduate Student: So, um, when are you going out on maternity leave? (I wrangle all…

The power unit is a rectangular slab about the size of a movie theater screen. It’s mounted on a thick steel post, and equipped with a tracking mechanism that continuously points it at the sun. The slab is made of over 100,000 small lenses and an equal number of even smaller solar cells, each the…

It’s a question that’s perplexed philosophers for centuries and scientists for decades: Where does consciousness come from? We know it exists, at least in ourselves. But how it arises from chemistry and electricity in our brains is an unsolved mystery. Neuroscientist Christof Koch, chief scientific…

The first in a blog series called “Startup Fuck-ups” on turning bad experiences into good practices. Insync Oct 30, 2014 Last month, one of our developers noticed that we were hitting 75% disk capacity on the server used by our mailer application. We checked it out because that wasn’t supposed to…

One of the great challenges of neuroscience is to understand the short-term working memory in the human brain. At the same time, computer scientists would dearly love to reproduce the same kind of memory in silico . Today, Google’s secretive DeepMind startup, which it bought for $400 million earlier…

There is "no obvious" link between tough laws and levels of illegal drug use, a government report has found. Liberal Democrat Home Office minister Norman Baker said the report, comparing the UK with other countries , should end "mindless rhetoric" on drugs policy. He accused the Conservatives of…

The World Citizenship Passport. Christopher Ellis If bitcoin’s true believers ever found their tax-free libertarian utopia, Christopher Ellis could be in charge of the passport office. Ellis has built software that lets anyone create what he calls a “World Citizenship” passport. Using PGP encryption…

Physicist Peter Eisenberger had expected colleagues to react to his idea with skepticism. He was claiming, after all, to have invented a machine that could clean the atmosphere of its excess carbon dioxide, making the gas into fuel or storing it underground. And the Columbia University scientist was…

Earth-mounted lasers could be used to increase the speed of space rockets without the use of additional fuel, according to research by Russian scientists. The researchers have conceived an approach that would integrate the spacecraft’s traditional fuel propulsion system with what is known as a…

When Apple and Google unveiled new encryption schemes last month, law enforcement officials complained that they wouldn’t be able to unlock evidence on criminals’ digital devices. What they didn’t say is that there are already methods to bypass encryption, thanks to off-the-shelf digital implants…

In the Slow Lane Credit Mikey Burton Editor’s note: This analysis, first published last fall, is being resurfaced in light of the F.C.C.’s vote on Feb. 26 to regulate broadband Internet service as a public utility. America’s slow and expensive Internet is more than just an annoyance for people…

The tale of the engines that propelled the Antares rocket, which exploded in a spectacular ball of flame in Virginia Tuesday night, begins four decades ago, thousands of miles away, in the land of communism and Sputnik. There, in the Soviet Union, rocket scientists conceived and built dozens of…

By No one wants Android’s bloatware. Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Android One of the downsides to choosing Android over iOS — if you live in the U.S., at least — is that carriers like to pre-install their own apps and services and prevent you from removing them. Often called “bloatware,” the apps…

A braham Lincoln would still be remembered today as a self-taught prairie prodigy and an astute political operator who crushed the Confederate uprising, even without the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the end of slavery. Albert Einstein would still be the most famous…

Advertisement Illustration: James Archer; Hands: Getty Images A poet might say that each human being’s heart is a unique mystery. Those of us working in the brand new field of computational medicine , however, can now model each of those unique hearts with marvelous accuracy and reveal their…

I have one client that has been testing his security for the last 2 years in ways that would made the Pentagon jealous.They had tested their networks, both internal and external, by performing black-box and white-box penetration tests, risks analysis and an all-or-nothing phishing attack attempt (to…

Good news, iOS users: you can still access a calculator widget from Notification Center. The company on Thursday reversed a decision that would require PCalc — a calculator app featured by Apple in its "Great Apps for iOS 8" section of the App Store — to remove its Notification Center widget . News…

Seth Newburg has a phone. It’s a new phone, just a prototype. Almost no one here at Google has seen it yet. Newburg is sitting in a corner conference room in Google’s Mountain View headquarters, fresh off an airplane, with me at his side, and a photographer standing over his shoulder firing through…

A new data set provides a clearer picture of which people gained health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Related Article Hennepin County, Minn. Uninsured in 2014 Uninsured in 2013 Change, 2013-14 Change in insured Americans, 2013-14 +4 +6 +8 +10 pct. pts. more insured We know that about 10…

(Turns out that it’s kinda-sorta her digitally aware dad’s fault.) Jay Rosen Oct 29, 2014 By Sylvie and Jay Rosen Sylvie Rosen, 17, is a high school senior in New York. Her father, Jay Rosen, 58, is a journalism professor at New York University. Jay: Have you taken any kind of programming class?…

According to the recent data shared by the World Bank titled, “The Ease of doing Business 2015” India ranks at #142 among 189 countries with regard to ease of starting a business in the country. The position has fallen down further from #134 as of June 1st last year. India always has had a…

A paralysed man has been able to walk again after a pioneering therapy that involved transplanting cells from his nasal cavity into his spinal cord. Darek Fidyka, who was paralysed from the chest down in a knife attack in 2010, can now walk using a frame. The treatment, a world first, was carried…

Consumers have long complained about how their cable service forces them to buy channels they never watch. The move of video onto the Internet can do something about that frustration – but first Internet video services need access to the programs. Today the FCC takes the first step to open access to…

Pieces of SolaRoad, concrete blocks topped with solar cells, were recently installed in a bike path in Holland. SolaRoad R emember having to stay at home and wait for phone calls? (If you’re below a certain age, you can consult old movies, books, or TV shows—or just trust me on this.) It wasn’t so…

Some legal cases do more than raise eyebrows — they push the legal envelope to change the law. Such is a federal case in Las Vegas now working its way through the courts. The question is whether federal agents can disrupt service to a house and then, masquerading as helpful technicians, gain entry…