Articles

Recently Dutch scientists in London prepared the world’s first stem-cell burger, a development with great potential toward (among other things) making beef more affordable and nutritional. Mark Post of the University of Maastricht led the team that developed the burger over a two-year period; Google’s Sergey Brin funded the project.…

The new film Europa Report, showing in select theaters and online, is a finely produced, directed, and performed “hard” (realistic) science-fiction film—with a terrible theme. Set in the not-too-distant future, Europa Report tells the story of six astronauts who travel to Jupiter’s moon Europa in search of alien life. (Spoilers…

In 2005, in Kelo v. City of New London, the Supreme Court permitted cities to take land by force for the purpose of “economic development.” Now officials in Newark, New Jersey want to expand their use of eminent domain to seize mortgages in order to pressure lenders to the “negotiating…

The Uber car service company uses innovative technology that “connects you with a driver at the tap of a button.” Now administrative law judge Harris Adams of Denver has proposed that the government forcibly stop Uber from using such technology—a ruling that may drive the company out of Denver, the…

Sony has recently developed a “head-mount image processing unit” for surgeons that gives them real-time, high-definition video of the inside of a patient during surgery. Sony, a company that has long been a dominant player in the video game industry, created a “Personal 3D Viewer Head Mounted Display” for video…

[caption id="attachment_7460" align="alignright" width="300"] Image: Robotex[/caption] A young robotics company has found that keeping people out of harm’s way is great business. The company, Robotex, builds robots designed to (among other things) help emergency responders handle dangerous situations via remote control. Before Robotex robots, law enforcement officers had to search…

Apple Inc. revolutionized desktop computing—and then tablet computing—with its user-friendly operating systems and hardware interfaces now mimicked throughout the industry. Apple revolutionized the telephone industry with its touch-screen iPhone, a product that immediately became the benchmark for Apple’s competitors. Apple revolutionized the music industry with iTunes, a music player and…

In an interview with Popular Mechanics, Martine Rothblatt, founder and CEO of United Therapeutics, discusses the progress her company has made developing genetically enhanced pig lungs for transplantation in humans. Rothblatt, who entered the biotechnology field when her daughter was diagnosed with a life-threatening pulmonary disease, now believes she is…

[caption id="attachment_7449" align="alignright" width="300"] Josh Fox: Linh Do[/caption] Living is risky. In 2011, for example, 123,000 people in the United States died from unintentional injuries, including 35,000 from motor vehicle accidents and 27,000 from falls (figures rounded). But we don’t quit driving because some people die in car accidents, and…

Putatively frustrated with the “fragile economic recovery,” Barack Obama recently launched a major speaking campaign “ahead of a major economic debate this fall over the federal budget and the best way to ensure sustained growth,” the Washington Post reports. His kickoff speech at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, was short…

Here we go again. Current and former government officials in the country founded on the principle of individual rights—the country that fought a horrific bloody war to end slavery—are calling for re-institutionalizing involuntary servitude in the form of “universal national service.” Sigh. The latest figurehead to advocate this abomination is…

The federal government is hiring a so-called “nudge squad” to “scientifically” manipulate the behavior of American citizens. What could possibly go wrong? Fox News has the story: “The federal government is hiring what it calls a ‘Behavioral Insights Team’ that will look for ways to subtly influence people's behavior” along…

Dan Goldberg of the New Jersey Star-Ledger recently claimed that the federal government is subsidizing America’s “obesity epidemic.” Citing a report from the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (NJPIRG), Goldberg notes: Because the federal government chooses to subsidize corn and soy—key ingredients in junk food—instead of fruits and vegetables,…

Dear Friend of TOS, I’m writing to ask for your support in fighting for your values. As you probably know, TOS has become much more than a quarterly journal. While our quarterly is still the anchor of our offerings, we now have a highly active blog, a rapidly expanding YouTube…

Recently the Mayor of London wrote that within two years, energy scarcity will “force some industries not to operate at peak times” in the city. His solution is to bring hydraulic fracturing to the country; he said, “We should leave no stone unturned, or unfracked, in the cause of keeping…