Hitting the Books
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The best books we read in 2023
From creeping supernatural horror and psychological thrillers to ebulent rom-coms and progression fantasy chickens, this list has something for every reader.
Engadget12.26.2023
How we built a less-explodey lithium battery and kickstarted the EV revolution
For the final installment of Hitting the Books for 2023, we're bringing you an excerpt from the fantastic Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization by Ed Conway.
Andrew Tarantola12.24.2023
Offworld 'company towns' are the wrong way to settle the solar system
Are we really willing to trust mercurial SpaceX CEO Elon Musk with people's air supplies?
Andrew Tarantola12.10.2023
Black hole behavior suggests Dr. Who's 'bigger on the inside' Tardis trick is theoretically possible
Do black holes, like dying old soldiers, simply fade away? Do they pop like universe-spawning balloons?
Andrew Tarantola11.26.2023
Stadium card stunts and the art of programming a crowd
Code to Joy offers an accessible and entertaining guide to the very basics of programming for fledgling coders of all ages.
Andrew Tarantola11.19.2023
What happened to Washington's wildlife after the largest dam removal in US history
That thing fish do in water is shockingly important to biological diversity in the Pacific Northwest.
Andrew Tarantola11.12.2023
How the meandering legal definition of 'fair use' cost us Napster but gave us Spotify
From DMCA takedowns to Content ID filters, record labels continue to crack down on online music sharing.
Andrew Tarantola11.05.2023
What the evolution of our own brains can tell us about the future of AI
How is a AI chatbot like a human neocortex? No, not practice. Prediction!
Andrew Tarantola10.29.2023
NASA's John Mather keeps redefining our understanding of the cosmos
Inside the Star Factory melds stunning photography with insightful profiles of the people that made the James Webb Space Telescope possible.
Andrew Tarantola10.22.2023
Hitting the Books: Voice-controlled AI copilots could lead to safer flights
With an AI riding shotgun, the pilots of tomorrow will have fewer minutia to split their attention between while in the air.
Andrew Tarantola10.15.2023
Hitting the Books: NASA's Kathy Sullivan and advances in orbital personal hygiene
Journalist Loren Grush recounts the trailblazing efforts of America's first female astronauts in The Six.
Andrew Tarantola10.08.2023
Hitting the Books: We are the frogs in the boiling pot, it's time we started governing like it.
Rising authoritarianism, climbing temperatures, and expanding social media empires are exacerbating our ongoing democratic crisis.
Andrew Tarantola10.01.2023
Hitting the Books: Beware the Tech Bro who comes bearing gifts
In 'Optimal Illusions' UC Berkeley applied mathematician Coco Krumme explores our historical fascination with process optimization and how that pursuit has led to unintended is in the systems we're streamlining.
Andrew Tarantola09.24.2023
How a pioneering mixed-gender newsroom covered the A-bomb
Writing for Their Lives by historian Marcel Chotkowski Lafollette recounts the work of America's first female science and tech reporters working for E.W. Scripps' Science Service.
Andrew Tarantola09.19.2023
Hitting the Books: The programming trick that gave us DOOM multiplayer
John Romero provides an engrossing oral history of how the classic FPS game was created in his new book, DOOM Guy: Life in First Person.
Andrew Tarantola09.03.2023
Hitting the Books: Why AI needs regulation and how we can do it
AI is one genie we're never getting back in its bottle so we'd better start working on regulating it, argues Tom Kemp, in his new book, Containing Big Tech
Andrew Tarantola08.27.2023
Hitting the Books: Why we haven't made the 'Citizen Kane' of gaming
Pippin Barr deconstructs the game design process using an octet of his own previous projects to shed light on specific aspects of how games could better be put together.
Andrew Tarantola08.20.2023
Hitting the Books: The thirty-year quest to make WiFi a connectivity reality
In Beyond Everywhere, Wi-Fi co-inventor Greg Ennis recounts the fascinating (and sometimes frustrating) development of this ubiquitous technology.
Andrew Tarantola08.13.2023
Hitting the Books: In England's industrial mills, even the clocks worked against you
In Hands of Time, venerated watchmaker Rebecca Struthers explores how the practice and technology of timekeeping has molded the modern world through her examination of history's most acclaimed timepieces.
Andrew Tarantola08.06.2023
Hitting the Books: The dangerous real-world consequences of our online attention economy
If reality television has taught us anything, it's there's not much people won't do if offered enough money and attention. Sometimes, even just the latter.
Andrew Tarantola07.30.2023