Inhoudsopgave van February 2016 - WIRED

WHEN CORALS COPULATE, love is literally in the air. “It smells like sex!” says Marah Hardt. She’d know: While scuba diving off the coast of northern Panama, the marine biologist once spent several hours watching whole colonies reproduce. The process starts with the synchronized release of thousands of tiny pink packets from their skeletal bodies—picture an explosion of strawberry Nerds candies swirling through the tide. Once the pods reach the surface, they break open in a hazy (and quite stinky) cloud of eggs and sperm. Ah, life. ¶ For the past three years, Hardt has been documenting the bedroom habits of life in the deep—from polyamorous whales to swinger parties hosted by groupers. Her new book, Sex in the Sea, isn’t just a collection of aquatic erotica, though. She revels…

Jargon Watch protein compass n. / 'pro-'ten 'kum-p s / A complex of iron-bearing proteins found in migrating creatures like birds and butterflies that enables them to detect Earth’s magnetic field. biowearables n. pl. / 'bi-o-'wer--b lz / Wearable devices that adhere directly to the skin. Conceived to monitor vital signs and upload health data to smartphones, they could someday be used for digital payments and location tracking. flock-sourcing v. / 'flaks r-si? / Outsourcing medical diagnosis to pigeons. If trained to interpret microscope images or mammograms, groups of pigeons can spot signs of breast cancer as accurately as pathologists. Flocks would initially be enlisted to test new medical imaging software. megahonyaku n. / 'me-g -h n-'ya-ku / A megaphone that translates speech from one language to another (honyaku is…

“I love to cook—which works out perfectly since I run a grocery delivery business. 18 Reasons, on 18th Street in the Mission district, offers cooking classes that are great for people of all skill levels. Plus, it’s a very fun night out.” — Apoorva Mehta, CEO and founder of Instacart SAN FRANCISCO’S NFL TEAM is the 49ers, named after the miners of the 1849 gold rush. Back then, the gold was in them thar hills, but today, it’s in the Valley. So it’s no surprise the City by the Bay has developed increasingly close ties to its peninsular brethren. When the Bay Area hosts the 50th Super Bowl in February, the celebration will span the entire region—from the city proper’s 49 square miles (OK, 46.9, but go Niners!) to the…

1 Beats Pill+ Apple’s newly redesigned portable Bluetooth speaker pairs to just about anything and pumps out 12 hours of tunage on a single charge. It also works as a speakerphone, so you can pace around while pitching VCs on your first round. $230 2 Microsoft Surface Book This device exemplifies Redmond’s vision of the future of computing: It’s an ultracapable Windows 10 laptop, but the hi-res touchscreen also detaches from the beautiful, curvy hinge to work as a tablet. The stylus magnetically clicks onto the side of the screen, so you’re at least a little less likely to lose it. $1,499 and up 3 Artifox Desk 01 Combat clutter with this solid walnut desk. Stash a power strip in the storage tray and dock your phone and tablet in…

EMAIL’S DEAD, THEY SAID. Ruthlessly murdered at the hands of Slack, HipChat, Basecamp, and Trello. But the reality is that email isn’t going anywhere. We sent 183 billion emails in 2013, and that number is predicted to hit 207 billion in 2017. Consulting firm McKinsey estimates that we spend more than a quarter of our work life managing email. There’s nothing more universal, nothing more essential to our always-on workflows. So it’s a shame there’s hardly anyone dedicated to making email awesome. Except for Microsoft. Its Outlook app for iOS and Android is the best mobile email app, no matter what phone you’re using. It’s better than Mail, better than Gmail. It’s the biggest email innovation since spam filtering. I know—just hearing the word Outlook gives you hives. But that’s…

IN THE PROCESS, HE ALMOST LOST HIS MIND. SDTO The brain surgery lasted 11 and a half hours, beginning on the afternoon of June 21, 2014, and stretching into the Caribbean predawn of the next day. In the afternoon, after the anesthesia had worn off, the neurosurgeon came in, removed his wire-frame glasses, and held them up for his bandaged patient to examine. “What are these called?” he asked. ¶ Phil Kennedy stared at the glasses for a moment. Then his gaze drifted up to the ceiling and over to the television. “Uh … uh … ai … aiee,” he stammered after a while, “… aiee … aiee … aiee.” ¶ “It’s OK, take your time,” said the surgeon, Joel Cervantes, doing his best to appear calm. Again Kennedy attempted…

Dyes Many so-called mood lipsticks claim to change color based on skin tone or personality, but that’s what scientists call “utter hogwash.” The manufacturer of this one wouldn’t tell us which dyes are in its shade-shifter, but the label says it “may contain” any of about twenty of them, including Red 21 and 27. These are fluorescein dyes, which do transform once applied, but that’s simply a reaction with your skin, which alters the dye’s pH and thus its hue— often producing a shade of pink, regardless of your mood. Wax Whether you’re applying lipstick at room temperature, under the heat of red-carpet spotlights, or on a frigid night, you don’t want it to be too melty or too stiff. Lipstick often gets its just-right consistency from plant-based waxes like…

SWIMMING WITH SHARKS! Behind the wheel of a Formula 1 race car! On board an interstellar expedition! Virtual reality promises immersive experiences that sound like sweepstakes prizes. For one group of designers, though, VR shouldn’t give you heaven, but hardship. ¶ After researching neuroscience studies on “embodiment,” the cognitive illusion of being someone else, design collective BeAnotherLab set out to give people a taste of adversity. A performer wears a vest with a first-person camera, which streams their perspective to a user’s Oculus Rift, along with a voice-over about their experience. As users interact with what they see in their headset, the performer mimics their movements, and the participants can witness in a very real way what it’s like to be the person whose story they’re listening to. The group…

TOM WAS DISCUSSING the film star Tang Wei with a chatbot named XiaoIce, and the bot was excited: “A goddess! She stole my heart … and then went off and married!” Married who? “Haven’t you heard?” XiaoIce replied. “Tang Wei is engaged to famous Korean director Kim Tae-yong.” (“Romantic comedies,” the bot added with a sigh, “are my favorite.”) ¶ XiaoIce is a massive hit on social networks in Asia. Introduced in 2014 by Microsoft Research and Bing in Beijing, it can answer simple questions, like a stripped-down version of Cortana. But Microsoft engineers also trained XiaoIce on real-life human chatter, making it very, very good at banter. More than 40 million users exchange jokes, compliments, and witticisms with XiaoIce, and their conversations are surprisingly long. With many older bots,…

IN THE EARLY 1930S, British engineer George Carwardine was tinkering with automotive suspension springs. He found that if he arranged them in opposition on a jointed armature—much like the muscles in a human limb—the contraption would bend with minimal effort yet hold firm in any position. Carwardine used that principle to create an articulating lamp for factory assembly lines. That’s where Norwegian textile magnate Jac Jacobsen first encountered one. He reckoned it could also illuminate an office desk, if only it picked up a little Scandinavian style. Jacobsen streamlined and simplified the lamp, keeping the long springs exposed. More than 75 years and 25 million units later, the now LED-fitted L-1 is still a shining beacon of design—a brilliant late-night companion to architects and engineers. $474…

DESPITE ITS REPUTATION as the anonymous currency of the digital underground, bitcoin has never been anonymous enough for Zooko Wilcox. As the 41-year-old cryptographer will remind anyone who’ll listen, the public nature of the blockchain, bitcoin’s ledger of transactions, means that unless currency users funnel it through intermediaries or special software, their transactions can be traced—the opposite of its supposed privacy benefit. ¶ So in January, Wilcox and his team launched the public alpha release of Zcash, the cryptography world’s best shot yet at perfectly untraceable money. Using a mathematical sleight of hand known as a zero-knowledge proof, Zcash offers the same antiforgery assurances as bitcoin but also lets users keep their payments entirely secret. “It’s the first time you can transact with anyone on the Internet and control who…

DESPITE ALL THE CHATTER about standing up at your desk, Knoll knows that most professionals are largely chair-bound. But that doesn’t mean we sit still. We twist, turn, and fidget. New Zealand–based Formway Design, a longtime Knoll partner, studied these movements to come up with the Remix. It balances traditional ergonomics with comfort—something often lacking in office perches that are “good for you.” Key to the Remix is tech that lets it flex with your body instead of fighting it: The two-layer “tandem back” features a core structure that allows for torsional, side-to-side movement and an elastomer webbing that moves with your back. And it’s all topped with an upholstered cushion that envelops you in cozy luxury. Think of it as a tiny oasis in the corporate wasteland. $670…

V-Moda Crossfade Wireless BEST FOR: Coders who moonlight as e-sports stars or Tiësto-worshipping DJs V-Moda’s headphones are tough enough to pass DOD stress tests, so they’ll certainly survive anything a cubicle monkey can dish out. The 50-mm drivers in this Bluetooth model are the same ones V-Moda uses in its award-winning (and wired) Crossfade headphones that are so popular with DJs and gamers. The addictive V-Moda house sound, with its EDM-worthy bass, has survived the wireless leap intact. Rave on. $300 Master & Dynamic MW60 BEST FOR: Execs who need headphones to match their loafers New York–based M&D’s latest release, all luxe metal and sumptuous leather, is pricey. But it’s also a Bluetooth miracle: CD-quality sound without wires, zero dropouts from interference, and a 16-hour battery. With a range of…

THE ROOM WHERE I’m standing would have been filled with a deafening roar. The air would have pealed with the sound of a dozen V-8 engines, each one trembling atop its own laboratory pedestal as engineers in white shop coats used joysticks to adjust its throttle and load. Today, though, this former engine testing facility at General Motors’ Warren Technical Center, outside Detroit, is almost dead silent. From one end to the other—across a space roughly the size of two soccer fields—the room is blanketed with the low frequency hum of cooling fans, interrupted only by the occasional clack of a keyboard and, on this particular morning, the chatter of Larry Nitz’s voice. “Let’s take a walk,” he says after we’ve lingered in the doorway a moment. A voluble guy…

Look—we have no idea how this election will turn out. President Trump? Cruz? Clinton? Rubio? Sanders? Fiorina? If we could tell you where things will stand in November, we damn sure wouldn’t be editing a magazine. ¶ But we do know this: 2016 is the election when Silicon Valley—its players, its policy priorities, and, oh yes, its money— finally upstages the old 20th-century power structure and seizes control of the political game. ¶ Of course, tech has been shifting the terrain in ways large and small for a while now. Where would a candidate’s op-research/rapidresponse team be without analytics apps? What might have happened if that video of Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” had never shown up? And then, of course, there’s Barack Obama. Eight years ago, he harnessed data tracking…

Mild turbulence on the way home for Thanksgiving; The Dog Stars, by Peter Heller; “She’s About a Mover,” by the Sir Douglas Quintet; ClassPass; 7-foot waves at Shipwreck Beach on Kauai; Cynthia Robinson of Sly and the Family Stone; Cascadian black metal played through my headphones just loud enough to shut out the world; Taco Tuesday lunch emails; Seamless; Shake Weight; snake hips; your moneymaker; those ladies in J. B.’s “Sorry” video—every.last.one.uv.em; direct deposit notifications; hydrocodone; Jeremy Fish, San Francisco City Hall’s first artist in residence; a Michigan Wolverines victory; spiked Bantha milk shakes; “We are the music-makers/And we are the dreamers of dreams/Wandering by lone sea-breakers/And sitting by desolate streams.” WIRED is a registered trademark of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. Copyright ©2016 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Printed in…