I plan to step up this year to a screen that measures at least 4.7 inches in diagonal, from the 4-inch iPhone I use today. With smartphones, even a little increase is a big deal. We used to laugh at Gordon Gekko’s giant cellphone in “Wall Street,” but handset makers are back to supersizing phones—or […]

When Roger Ebert lost his lower jaw—and, thus, his voice—to cancer, the text-to-speech company CereProc created a synthetic voice that would be custom-made for the film critic. The computerized voice, a fusion of the words Ebert had recorded in his long career, would not sound fully natural; it would, however, sound distinctive. It was meant […]

Northeastern University and Rogers Corp. on Tuesday officially launched the Rogers Innovation Center in Burlington, a 4,000-square-foot space housed within the George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security. The Rogers Innovation Center is a joint partnership with between specialty materials manufacturer Rogers Corp., based in Connecticut, and Northeastern University. The new space, on the […]

One of the more recognizable voices in the world belongs to Stephen Hawking—although, of course, it is not actually the famous scientist’s voice at all, but one that’s computer-generated in response to his facial motions. He’s been using a synthesizer to speak for almost 25 years now, his voice and ability to move lost long […]

Given that one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stated reasons for invading Crimea was to prevent “Nazis” from coming to power in Ukraine, it is perhaps surprising that his regime is growing closer by the month to extreme right-wing parties across Europe. But, in both cases, Putin’s motives are not primarily ideological. In Ukraine, he […]

Can a fleet of undersea robots designed in Massachusetts help solve the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370? They’ve done this kind of thing before. In 2011, robot subs from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution tracked down the remains of an Air France plane that had crashed into the Atlantic Ocean two years earlier. Now, […]

When the second edition of an online course on effective giving starts next month, students will have a chance to learn from actor Patrick Dempsey, billionaire Warren Buffett and other prominent philanthropists. Students in the free class that’s scheduled to start on April 2 also will be able to help decide how to give away […]

But it’s not just your friends who will reap the benefits of your gratitude. This 2006 study by Monica Y. Bartlett and David DeSteno at Northeastern University shows that the compassion inspired by gratitude reaches outside a person’s social circle, extending to strangers. “If you’re feeling gratitude, you’re more likely not only to help a […]

Across the street from Amazon headquarters, flanked by a prestigious biology institute on one side and a Filipino-Vietnamese food truck on the other, sitsa storefront in a booming biotech enclave of the city. The space is decked in red and white, with modernist lounge chairs and molecule-shaped sculptures suspended from the ceiling. Welcome to Northeastern […]

There is a fundamental obstacle to most conversations about income inequality: Just about everyone likes to believe that they are average. Whether you make $32,000 or $200,000, you tend to think that you earn at or about the US’s median income. Of course, this can’t be true — actual US median income is about $51,000. […]

The Massachusetts unemployment rate slipped below the nation’s for the first time since November as employers added nearly 4,000 jobs last month, the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said Thursday. Unemployment in February fell to 6.5 percent from 6.8 percent in January, the state reported. Nationally, the rate rose slightly last month, […]

Sometime in the late 1940s, two young Latin musicians in New York, Joe Loco and Tito Puente, sat down to compose songs for a new album by the bandleader Pupi Campo. Mostly, they wrote in a language and style intended for the city’s postwar wave of Cuban and Puerto Rican newcomers, the obvious audience. The […]