Dodging spoilers on the internet is no easy task, especially if your ex is using them as a form of revenge. Many of us live in fear of reading a spoiler about our favorite TV show or an upcoming blockbuster. But should we be working so hard to avoid spoilers? Do they actually ruin stories? … Read more
Faster, faster, more and more data. Our demands for Internet speed are outpacing the technology. UC San Diego alum Janelle Shane has an answer: lasers. As we try to fit more and more data on wires, we are running up against the limit of what electricity can do. Wires heat up, and interfere with each … Read more
To most of us dust is just something we clean off our furniture, but to scientists dust can cause big problems in the lab. Computer chips are put together and tested in what are called clean rooms. These environments use filters to limit the amount of particles of dust in the air. UC San Diego’s … Read more
“I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer because it teaches you how to think,” Steve Jobs said in a lost interview from 1995. But for a beginner, learning to code from scratch can be intimidating. Enter CodeSpells. UC San Diego computer scientists developed this video game to teach people … Read more
We’re all subjects in a massive experiment. Humans have created about 80,000 synthetic industrial compounds — including plastics, the flame retardants that cover our sofas, and pesticides. These compounds have structures that are not commonly seen in nature and present a risk to our health. Everybody on the planet is exposed. It’s important to understand what these substances … Read more
From an electrical engineering researcher at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego: “It resembles a mushroom cloud, but in fact, it’s one of our microscopic nanolasers, imaged under an electron microscope. These lasers are among the smallest in the world, so small you could fit a billion of them on an iPhone … Read more