NASA Sends Parker Solar Probe to ‘Go Touch the Sun’

A NASA spacecraft rocketed toward the sun Sunday on an unprecedented quest to get closer to our star than anything ever sent before. The Parker Solar Probe will fly straight through the wispy edges of the corona, or outer solar atmosphere, that was visible during last August’s total solar eclipse. …

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Samsung’s New Phone Shows How Hardware Innovation Has Slowed

Samsung’s new smartphone illustrates the limits of innovation at time when hardware advances have slowed. The new phone, the Galaxy Note 9, will be faster and will last longer without a recharge. But while earth-shattering new features are in short supply, it will carry an earth-shattering price tag: $1,000. The …

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Drones Can Help Farmers Grow Healthier and More Abundant Crops

Unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly referred to as drones, can become an important tool for farmers around the world within the next 10 years. Researchers at Texas A&M University in College Station are looking at different applications of precision farming with drone technology. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details. …

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Kids + Screen Time = Dry Eyes

If you’ve ever spent a lot of time in front of a computer, you’ve probably come away bleary eyed. That’s because you don’t blink as much when you are working on a computer, which could lead to dry eyes. With the popularity of video games and online activities, dry eye …

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Tesla Board Evaluating CEO Musk’s Idea to Go Private

Tesla Inc’s board said it was evaluating taking the company private, a day after Chief Executive Elon Musk surprised shareholders with the idea of launching the biggest leveraged buyout of all time. In a statement on Tesla’s website on Wednesday, six of Tesla’s nine directors said the board had met …

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Twitter Breaks With Tech Giants, Keeps Alt-Right InfoWars

After several social media outlets banned alt-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his show InfoWars earlier this week, Twitter announced it would be keeping Jones, sparking backlash from users. “We didn’t suspend Alex Jones or Infowars yesterday. We know that’s hard for many but the reason is simple: he hasn’t …

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Can a Robot Know When It’s Wrong?

Today’s robots can be programmed to do many things – from vacuuming floors to assembling cars. But teaching them to recognize and correct a mistake is much harder to do. A group of scientists, led by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, is trying to solve that problem. VOA’s George Putic …

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Tesla CEO Drops Latest Bombshell With $72B Buyout Proposal

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is considering leading a buyout of the electric car maker in a stunning move that would end the maverick company’s eight-year history trading on the stock market. In his typically unorthodox fashion, the eccentric Musk dropped his bombshell on his Twitter account, which he has used …

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FBI Task Force Sharing Information About Online Trolls 

The FBI has started sharing information about online trolls and other suspicious users with top technology companies as part of the bureau’s behind-the-scenes effort to disrupt foreign influence operations aimed at U.S. elections, with officials saying it is the service providers’ responsibility to police malign messaging by Russia and other …

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Facebook, Apple, YouTube Drop Alt-Right Conspiracy Outlet InfoWars

Several major media outlets announced Monday that they would be removing content from InfoWars, a far-right, conspiracy-peddling media source. On Monday, Apple announced it had removed hundreds of podcasts produced by InfoWars from its iTunes and podcast apps. Facebook said it had removed four pages belonging to InfoWars founder Alex …

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Facebook Removes Alex Jones Pages for Hate, Bullying

Facebook says it has taken down four pages belonging to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for violating its hate speech and bullying policies. The social media giant said in a statement Monday that it also blocked Jones’ account for 30 days because he repeatedly posted content that broke its rules. The …

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Apple iPhone Chip Supplier Says Virus Will Delay Shipments

A company that makes semiconductors for Apple iPhones says it is recovering from a virus outbreak but expects the incident to delay shipments and raise costs. Taiwan Semiconductor Co. Ltd. said 80 percent of the fabrication tools affected by Friday’s virus had been recovered by Sunday. TSMC expects full recovery …

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Palestinian Girls Will Pitch Their App to Silicon Valley 

Four Palestinian high school friends are heading to California this week to pitch their mobile app about fire prevention to Silicon Valley’s tech leaders, after winning a slot in the finals of a worldwide competition among more than 19,000 teenage girls. For the 11th graders from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, …

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New Era in Space: NASA Astronauts Fly Commercial Spacecraft

A new era in American spaceflight was unveiled Friday, with NASA presenting the flight crews that will carry out the first test flights and operational missions aboard commercial spacecraft to be launched from U.S. soil for the first time since the space shuttle’s retirement in 2011. The test flights of …

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Alarms on Russian Meddling Sounded on Capitol Hill

One day after Facebook shut down 32 fake social media accounts that spewed politically divisive messages, U.S. lawmakers were warned that Russian efforts to confuse and polarize the American people are as robust and pernicious as ever. VOA Senate correspondent Michael Bowman reports both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are concerned. …

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Dispute Over 3D-Printed Guns Raises Many Legal Issues

A little-known dispute over 3D-printed guns has morphed into a national legal debate in the last week, drawing attention to a technology that seems a bit of sci-fi fantasy and — to gun-control advocates — a dangerous way for criminals to get their hands on firearms that are easy to …

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Google Mum on Chinese Search Engine Reports

Google declined Wednesday to confirm reports that it plans to launch a censored version of its search engine in China, where its main search platform was previously blocked, along with its YouTube video platform. “We provide a number of mobile apps in China … [to] help Chinese developers, and have made significant …

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Social Media Bosses to Face US Lawmakers in September

Top executives from Facebook, Twitter and Google will face lawmakers on Capitol Hill next month to explain what the social media giants are doing to combat foreign information operations. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman, Republican Sen. Richard Burr, and ranking Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner, made the announcement Wednesday, at the start …

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A Special Type of 3D Printing

3D printers are being used extensively in industry, research, teaching and hobbies, printing with metal, plastic and even edible material such as dough. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, are experimenting with another kind of 3D printing – with yarn. VOA’s George Putic reports. …

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