Author: Wired Magazine

One Man’s Quest to Revive the Great American Vacuum Tube

Predictably, it was harder than Whitener thought. It took him two years to persuade AT&T, which hadn’t made a tube since 1988 but still owned Western Electric, to license the brand and sell him its tube-manufacturing equipment. He set up shop in Western Electric’s former tube factory in Kansas City, Missouri, where the mothballed machines… Continue reading One Man’s Quest to Revive the Great American Vacuum Tube

Microsoft’s ‘Security Copilot’ Sics ChatGPT on Security Breaches

Jakkal says that while machine learning security tools have been effective in specific domains, like monitoring email or activity on individual devices—known as endpoint security—Security Copilot brings all of those separate streams together and extrapolates a bigger picture. “With Security Copilot you can catch what others may have missed because it forms that connective tissue,”… Continue reading Microsoft’s ‘Security Copilot’ Sics ChatGPT on Security Breaches

Plastics Are Devastating the Guts of Seabirds

This might be why her team got contrasting results in their analysis: The more individual microplastics in the gut, the greater the microbial diversity, but the higher mass of microplastics, the lower the diversity. The more particles a bird eats, the greater the chance that those hitchhiking microbes take hold in its gut. But if the bird… Continue reading Plastics Are Devastating the Guts of Seabirds

To Hold Tech Accountable, Look to Public Health

How is it that public health has delivered on its promise to improve the lives of millions, while failing to resolve the dramatic health disparities of people of color in the US? And what can the movement for tech governance learn from these failures? Through 150 years of public institutions that serve the common good through science,… Continue reading To Hold Tech Accountable, Look to Public Health

Gene Expression in Neurons Solves a Brain Evolution Puzzle

The neocortex stands out as a stunning achievement of biological evolution. All mammals have this swath of tissue covering their brain, and the six layers of densely packed neurons within it handle the sophisticated computations and associations that produce cognitive prowess. Since no animals other than mammals have a neocortex, scientists have wondered how such… Continue reading Gene Expression in Neurons Solves a Brain Evolution Puzzle

The TikTok Hearing Revealed That Congress Is the Problem

In one sense, today’s US congressional hearing on TikTok was a big success: It revealed, over five hours, how desperately the United States needs national data-privacy protections—and how lawmakers believe, somehow, that taking swipes at China is a suitable alternative.  For some, the job on Thursday was casting the hearing’s only witness, TikTok CEO Shou… Continue reading The TikTok Hearing Revealed That Congress Is the Problem

TikTok Paid for Influencers to Attend the Pro-TikTok Rally in DC

Ahead of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s much-anticipated testimony in the United States House of Representatives today, the embattled tech firm conducted a full-court press on Capitol Hill. This included paying to bring TikTok influencers face-to-face with their home state lawmakers, staffers, and journalists, as well as sharing their journey with their collective audience of… Continue reading TikTok Paid for Influencers to Attend the Pro-TikTok Rally in DC

Withings Body Comp Scale and Health+ Review: Not Enough for Too Much

Smart scale pioneer Withings has been making Wi-Fi-connected scales for more than a decade. As the Body Comp name suggests, Withings’ latest scales provide a breakdown of your body composition, adding vascular age, visceral fat, and nerve health to the usual list of measurements. The Body Comp ($210) scales come with a year’s subscription to Withings’… Continue reading Withings Body Comp Scale and Health+ Review: Not Enough for Too Much

Inside Taiwan’s ‘Sacred Mountain’ of Chip-Making

Lauren Goode: Yeah. This is what Kara Swisher calls, assisted living for millennials. Here— Virginia Heffernan: Assisted living for millennials. Lauren Goode: —at the San Francisco tech companies. Yeah. Virginia Heffernan: It’s perfect. But I did say, I said, “So wait, do they get any perks here?” to one of the people in HR. And… Continue reading Inside Taiwan’s ‘Sacred Mountain’ of Chip-Making