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The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three scientists — Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier — on Tuesday for their experiments that have “have given humanity new tools for exploring the world of electrons inside atoms and molecules.” Their work, the committee said, concerns “experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light…
One ship was pulled across the sea with the help of an enormous sail that looked as if it belonged to a kite-surfing giant. Another navigated the oceans between China and Brazil this summer with steel and composite-glass sails as high as three telephone poles. Both harness a natural propellant that oceangoing vessels have depended…
Early one morning last month, Laura Dudley Plimpton found herself in Forest Park, in Queens, staring at a pair of captured raccoons. It was not the first time that Ms. Plimpton, an ecologist at Columbia University, had caught two of them in a cage trap designed for one. But typically when that happened, she would…
The day almost two years ago when Harvard Business School informed Francesca Gino, a prominent professor, that she was being investigated for data fraud also happened to be her husband’s 50th birthday. An administrator instructed her to turn in any Harvard-issued computer equipment that she had by 5 p.m. She canceled the birthday celebration she…
If you have a pulse and an internet connection, companies want all the details they can get on what you’re willing to buy — and it’s getting harder to tell where they’re getting all that info. Retailers can now track what customers purchase to influence their buying patterns. Loyalty programs collect data on your purchases, frequency…
If you are reading this, there’s a strong likelihood that you are worried about maintaining and protecting your online privacy. Or perhaps you are someone who constantly frets over the possibility of negative online feedback from customers? Or maybe you’re part of a big team or handle sensitive personal information that’s intertwined with emotional family…
Climate change is warming up the spring, lengthening the summer, and drying out soil and vegetation, leading to more frequent, destructive wildfires. This year alone, wildfires have left at least 98 dead on Maui, forced mass evacuations from several Greek islands, and raged across Canada, forcing an entire city to evacuate and fouling the air…
Every day, AI seems to flip a coin between being our tech hero or digital villain. One day, it’s saving the day, another day, it’s stirring up some trouble. In this mix, Bing Chat made a splash by teaming up with OpenAI, turning the mundane task of searching into a friendly chat. With Microsoft leading…
Smoke from wildfires in Canada is expected to drift over New York and other Northeastern states on Monday, officials have warned, adding that they were anticipating slight impacts on air quality in some places. Forecasters were expecting plumes of wildfire smoke to reach New York City around sunrise on Monday and leave a visible haze,…
In the 1970s, soft-shell clams started mysteriously dying off in Maine and the Chesapeake Bay. Years later, scientists identified the culprit: a bizarre form of cancer that spread like an epidemic. When people get cancer, it typically arises when some of their own cells gain mutations and multiply out of control. But the clams were…
