Technology and Society News

The latest technology in optics and lasers will be on display at the Optical Society's (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO), which takes place Oct. 11-15 at the Fairmont San Jose Hotel and the Sainte Claire Hotel in San Jose, Calif.

Computer scientists demonstrated that criminals could hack an electronic voting machine and steal votes using a malicious programming approach that had not been invented when the voting machine was designed.

From CNN to Ashton Kutcher everyone is tweeting. In ads, many companies now display the logo of an animated blue bird holding a sign that says "follow me."

Barring the occasional thunderstorm, most Americans take the electric current behind their power buttons for granted, and assume the power will be there when they’re ready to juice an appliance or favorite tech toy.

In an advance toward the first portable device for detecting human bodies buried in disasters and at crime scenes, scientists today report early results from a project to establish the chemical fingerprint of death.

You probably have cocaine in your wallet, purse, or pocket. Sound unlikely or outrageous? Think again! In what researchers describe as the largest, most comprehensive analysis to date of cocaine contamination in banknotes.

Private information scattered all over the Internet and impossible to control. A new system, called Vanish, puts an expiry date on electronic text. Communications sent using Vanish -- such as e-mail, would have a brief lifetime and then self-destruct.

As more and more news appears on the Internet as well as in print, it becomes possible to map the global flow of news by observing it online. Using this strategy, Cornell computer scientists have managed to track and analyze the "news cycle."

A team led by Yale University researchers has created the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor, taking another step toward the ultimate dream of building a quantum computer.

Thanks to the skills of artists who work on cold case investigations, people have a chance to see what the University of Chicago’s mummy Meresamun may have looked like in real life.