SpotMini, the robotic dog and social media sensation, is looking for a job. Boston Dynamics, the company behind the cybernetic canine, excels at two things: designing cool robots, and making viral videos of them in action. SpotMini has racked up an impressive 30 million YouTube views in just a few years, and a photo of... Continue Reading →

LAST YEAR, THE Japanese company SoftBank opened a cell phone store in Tokyo and staffed it entirely with sales associates named Pepper. This wasn’t as hard as it sounds, since all the Peppers were robots. Humanoid robots, to be more precise, which SoftBank describes as “kindly, endearing, and surprising.” Each Pepper is equipped with three... Continue Reading →

Compared to the amount of paid time off afforded to workers in other countries, American employees are woefully undercompensated. In fact, the U.S. is the only advanced economy that doesn't guarantee its workers any paid vacation time. And as a result, a quarter of the country's private-sector workers don't receive any time off at all,... Continue Reading →

Daydreaming may indicate intelligence and creativity, according to new research. “People with efficient brains may have too much brain capacity to stop their minds from wandering,” says Eric Schumacher, an associate psychology professor from Georgia Tech and coauthor of a new study. Schumacher and his students and colleagues, including lead coauthor Christine Godwin, measured the... Continue Reading →

DARPA, the Pentagon's mad science wing, is revolutionizing how ground vehicles move across rough terrain. Its latest breakthrough: round tires that transform into triangular tank tracks in two seconds, without the vehicle needing to come to a stop. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrQrJ57J9eE The three things that matter most for tanks are firepower, protection, and mobility. A combat vehicle... Continue Reading →

A recent press release introducing the 2018 version of their well-known hype chart contained a powerful and unsettling headline. Gartner Identifies Five Emerging Technology Trends That Will Blur the Line Between Human and Machine I had to read it a couple of times. And as you dig a bit deeper into the document, you find... Continue Reading →

From the invention of hoes, scythes and ploughs to the introduction of tractors, innovation is at the heart of agriculture. Today, a number of digital technologies — from autonomous robots that pick fruit to subterranean farms — are helping transform the industry. As technology develops, it's only natural that the sector will change and adapt.... Continue Reading →

For blood transfusions to be safe, the donor and patient blood types must match. Now researchers at the University of British Columbia have identified a new, more powerful group of enzymes that can turn any type of blood into the universally usable type O—expanding the pool of potential blood donors and making blood matching safer... Continue Reading →

Watching a business grow is like watching a child grow. Certain characteristics take you by surprise. That's how Luis Segura says he and his wife Leanna felt watching their fresh food business bloom in Lindsay, Ont. "You see all those little things, those little characteristics that start to shine and come out," Luis said. "I... Continue Reading →

Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek. Paper or plastic? is less a question and more of a way of life. How you answer it says something about you. You know you're supposed to say paper, but there's something a little more flexible and... Continue Reading →