Future

Throughout our planet's history, Earth has fluctuated between a hothouse and an icehouse.Today, our home is supposed to be in a period of global cooling, but human emissions of greenhouse gasses are reversing that natural trend at a rapid and unprecedented rate.  One of the last times Earth went from an icehouse to a hothouse this quickly and dramatically, about 304 million years ago, our planet experienced major upheaval.During the Kasimovian–Gzhelian boundary (KGB), atmospheric carbon levels doubled in roughly 300,000…

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel and editor-at-large David Pierce discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories. On today’s episode, Nilay and David spend a while chatting with Tripp Mickle, a New York Times reporter and the author of a new book, titled After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul. They talk about the rise of Jony Ive and Tim Cook, the power struggle…

Representative Image Automobiles are no longer just a mode of transport. As technology makes our cars smarter, it has also changed their relationship with us and their surroundings. OEMs and car manufacturers are in a race to make future vehicles connected, autonomous, sharing and electric (CASE). And digital innovation will be the driving force behind the development of future-ready vehicles. Chinese OEM Huawei believes that as the industry moves forward, intelligent functions integrated within vehicle driving systems…

After nearly 50 years of relative stability, the future of abortion in America is suddenly very uncertain. On Monday night, a leaked draft opinion showed the Supreme Court is preparing to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that secured the right for people to terminate their pregnancies across the United States. In a matter of months, many common abortion procedures could become illegal in the 22 states that have passed laws in anticipation of such a ruling. Even in states without those laws, access will likely…

We’re all wondering what lies ahead for Twitter now that it is going to be owned by Elon Musk. Though the Tesla CEO has tweeted hints of what’s to come for the social media platform after his acquisition, the U.K. Parliament has decided to get the details via a more straightforward approach: Inviting Musk to testify before them. On Wednesday, the U.K. Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (DCMS) tweeted out a copy of a letter it sent to Musk, inviting him to speak about his plans for his newly…

The smart home is about to change. Soon, you won’t have to choose a smart light bulb or door lock just because it works with your smart speaker. Instead, you’ll be able to buy a smart device, bring it home, and it will work with any voice assistant or app you choose. At least, that’s the promise behind Matter, a new standard created by Samsung, Google, Apple, and Amazon. Most importantly, you won't be locked into the platform you chose. If you decide you want to switch to SmartThings from Google Home, or go with Amazon…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Those who feel certain about what the future of the COVID-19 pandemic would entail are more likely to both ignore medical experts and to adhere to conspiracy theories, finds a new study by a team of psychology researchers. Its results also show those who were certain about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election were more likely to contend that it was rigged.…

Samsung has announced the development of Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 4.0 as its next-generation storage solution — the successor to the existing UFS 3.1 — to deliver a faster experience on mobile devices. The new solution is built on Samsung's seventh-generation V-NAND and uses a proprietary controller to deliver a sequential read speed of up to 4,200MB per second and a sequential write speed of up to 2,800MB per second. The UFS 4.0 storage solution is expected to be available on next-generation 5G phones and foldables.…

Texas A&M engineers led by Ana Diaz Artiles are developing soft robotic technology that could make future "SmartSuit" space suits for planetary exploration more safe, comfortable, and energy efficient for astronauts.If humans are ever going to be more than tourists in space limited to gawking out the windows, space suits need to move into the 21st century. Today, astronauts have a choice of two kinds of space suit. One is a group of glorified flight suits that are designed to protect crews from accidental…

FIFA 22 will see a test of cross-play functionality in the “near future” between players on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Google’s cloud-gaming service Stadia, EA has announced. Cross-play will be limited to Online Seasons and Online Friendlies game modes, the developer says, letting you play against friends on other platforms, or climb Online Seasons Divisions against a cross-platform playerbase. EA says it’s limiting cross-play to these two modes in an attempt to limit the chance of the feature “introducing…