Letter from the Editor
Our November/December 2011 issue features new technology for eavesdropping on the hive mind, an essay on the evolution of privacy, and much more.
Story Archive
Party Robot
Originally developed as a therapeutic tool to help autistic children with social communication, this robot is now being released as a toy that can dance in time to music or clapping. Sensors make the robot sensitive to types of touch, allowing it to respond differently to, say, pokes and squeezes.
A Social-Media Decoder
New technology deciphers— and empowers—the millions who talk back to their televisions through the Web.
An ECG for the iPhone
Inventor David Albert’s video of an iPhone hack proved a hit.
From Concept to Cover
Chris Foss has created some of the most iconic images in science fiction over the course of his 40-year career. He has painted covers for the books of Isaac Asimov, James Blish, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, and many more. TRSF is his first major U.S. commission in recent years, and this video shows how Foss developed the painting from the sketch of an idea to a gripping image. For more about Foss’s work, visit www.chrisfossart.com.
The Doctor and the iPad
Tablet computers are sweeping into medicine and bringing data to the patient bedside.
The First Fully Stretchable OLED
Researchers at UCLA demonstrate their fully stretchable OLED. They achieved the feat by sandwiching a carbon nanotube-polymer blend on either side of a light-emitting plastic.
Hologram Method Used to Study Neurons
Pierre Magistretti of the Brain Mind Institute at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne explains how holographic microscopy works.
Stem Cells and Entrepreneurs
How Cellular Dynamics International is commercializing the new technology of induced pluripotent stem cells.
The Science of IPS Cells
Biologist James Thompson and others discuss the discovery of IPS cells: the science and the potential for research and personalized medicine.
