Overcoming weeks of extortionist threats and other forms of "corporate bullying" from the world's largest retailer, Seattle's City Council on Monday unanimously approved a new tax on Amazon—which paid nothing in federal income taxes last year—and other major companies in an effort to provide essential services for the homeless and combat the local housing crisis.... Continue Reading →

A lot of money — about $140 billion — is lost every year in the U.S. healthcare system thanks to inefficient management of basic internal operations, according to a study from the Journal of the American Medical Association. While there are many factors that contribute to the woeful state of healthcare in the U.S., with... Continue Reading →

The notion of an American Dream can be boiled down to a simple concept: a meritocracy in which place of origin and social status do not preclude success for hard workers. Talk of that dream fading has been present since the Great Recession sucked 9 million jobs out of the economy and knocked down already-depressed... Continue Reading →

New eye drops developed by researchers from the Shaare Zedek Medical Center and Bar-Ilan University in Israel can improve both nearsightedness and farsightedness, the inventors claim. However, so far the “nanodrops” have only been successfully tested on pigs’ corneas. The eye drops are “a new concept for correcting refractory problems,” said David Smadja, one of the ophthalmologists who worked... Continue Reading →

Of the 4,000 Americans waiting for heart transplants, only 2,500 will receive new hearts in the next year. Even for those lucky enough to get a transplant, the biggest risk is the their bodies will reject the new heart and launch a massive immune reaction against the foreign cells. To combat the problems of organ... Continue Reading →

A construction crew can build a small home in about four to six weeks. To shave time and labor costs, some homebuilders have chosen to automate part of the process instead. A new robot, developed by Perth-based company Fastbrick Robotics, may be the speediest homebuilding machine yet. Called the Hadrian X, it's essentially one long... Continue Reading →

Costa Rica’s green credentials already put the Central American nation near the top of the list when it comes to battling climate change, but if their newly elected President is to be believed, then it’s going to climb higher still. In his inaugural speech, which he turned up to riding a hydrogen-fueled bus, Carlos Alvarado... Continue Reading →

Robbie Frei is passionate about the potential of 3D printing. After all, he’s seen its potential first-hand. Robbie’s father is a Marine veteran who lost part of his right arm in Iraq. One challenge was that he couldn’t play video games with his children. So Robbie designed a 3D-printed adapter for him. He’s since made... Continue Reading →

At Build 2018, Microsoft announced a new Remote Assist app that lets users connect with remote experts in mixed reality. In other words, HoloLens is now more collaborative. With Remote Assist, Microsoft wants workers to be able to solve problems quicker together, even if they're not physically the same. For example, HoloLens users will be... Continue Reading →

Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot has been untethered and set free, which, for anyone convinced of an imminent robot uprising, is a rather worrying development. A video posted on YouTube this week shows the humanoid robot running at a fair clip across open land before jumping over a log that it finds in its path. It's... Continue Reading →