It's Business Time for Rocket Lab, Launcher of Small Satellites
“Dear everyone,” wrote Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck during a reddit AMA in April, “I'm not building a bigger rocket any time soon.” Beck seems to get asked about expansion a lot. He and his Kiwi-US space company don’t build craft whose names end in “heavy.” Their rockets don’t land after launch. They’re only about…
Child Stars Don't Need Hollywood. They Have YouTube
"Do you like Instagram?" Bee Fisher asks her son, Tegan Fisher, a 3-year-old Instagram sensation who specializes in posing next to his family's enormous Newfoundlands. He doesn't seem to understand the question. "Is this yogurt cooled down?" Tegan replies. "Do you like Instagram? Do you like taking pictures?" Bee asks again. Once again, the temperature…
Women May Have an Alternative to Freezing Their Eggs
Here’s how it could go: Some day in the future, it’s routine for every young woman of a certain age—for argument’s sake, let’s say 21—to undergo a procedure to snip off a piece of tissue from one of her ovaries. Her doctor slices up the tissue into a half-dozen or so microthin sections; these are…
Why Robots Should Shake the Bejeezus Out of Cherry Trees
I don’t think sci-fi saw this coming. For so long, futuristic books and films have promised us robots like C-3PO that translate alien languages and assist us in hijinks. Or ones like Rosie that clean our houses. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, robots that level our houses and destroy humanity. Looking at…
Childish Gambino Made History at the Grammys
Happy Monday and welcome to another edition of The Monitor, WIRED's look at all that's good in the world of pop culture. In this installment: The Walking Dead is losing a beloved cast member, The Lego Movie 2 underperforms, and Donald Glover did something unprecedented at the Grammys—without being there. Childish Gambino's History-Making Grammy Moment…
The Quest to Make a Robotic Cat Walk With Artificial Neurons
The little robot finger’s favorite color is blue. Wave a handful of blueberries in front of it and the finger will follow, transfixed. If you’re wearing a blue shirt, congratulations, you’re its new best friend. If you painted everything around it blue, the robo-digit could well have a heart attack. You can program a robot…
New Smash Bros. Challengers Approach, and the Rest of the Week in Games
Crossovers, screen tests, and the ever-looming threat of legal action—this week had it all. Let's get to it. Super Smash Bros Ultimate Is the Greatest Crossover Event in Yada Yada Yesterday morning, Nintendo held a Nintendo Direct conference for the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and—lord, where to start? Well, a new Pokemon (Incineroar), and…
The Creepy Genetics Behind the Golden State Killer Case
For the dozen years between 1974 and 1986, he rained down terror across the state of California. He went by many names: the East Side Rapist, the Visalia Ransacker, the Original Night Stalker, the Golden State Killer. And on Wednesday, law enforcement officials announced they think they finally have his real name: Joseph James DeAngelo.…
Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Russian Trolls, and the Disintegration of Discourse
Late last year, I got a Facebook message from someone, let's call them a "fan," asking why writers like me "always talk about misogyny and somewhere find a way to cry about Trump no matter what it's about." (They didn't refer to me as a "writer" but I'm not going to type the epithet actually…
How Scientists Tracked Antarctica's Stunning Ice Loss
When the Antarctic wants to rid itself of ice, it has to get creative. The cold is too stubborn to allow surface ice to gently melt into oblivion. Instead, crushed by the immense buildup, ice gets shoved slowly along valleys and gorges until it finally reaches the edge of the continent, walking the plank into…