Technology

Americans prefer a space program that focuses on potential asteroid impacts, scientific research and using robots to explore the cosmos over sending humans back to the moon or on to Mars, a new poll shows. The poll by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, released Thursday, one month before the […]

With a name that sounds like futuristic fiction, Rapid DNA machines roughly the size of an office printer have helped solve rape cases in Kentucky, identified California wildfire victims and verified family connections of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Now a state board in Texas has asked a growing government provider of the DNA equipment

A Boston-based genealogical organization and a Georgetown University graduate who launched a project to trace the family histories of hundreds of black slaves sold by the Jesuits who ran the college in 1838 have teamed up to digitize the information and make it available to people researching family histories. The public announcement Wednesday of what’s

Facebook is getting a taste of the regulatory pushback it will face as it creates a new digital currency with corporate partners. Just hours after the social media giant unveiled early plans for the Libra cryptocurrency, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire insisted that only governments can issue sovereign currencies. He said Facebook must ensure

Ahead of a Western wildfire season expected to be again worse than average, officials in Seattle announced Wednesday that five city buildings would be outfitted to serve as havens where residents can go to breathe clean air. The move is in response to several years marked by thick smoke hanging over the city from summer

Winter hit U.S. honeybees hard with the highest loss rate yet, an annual survey of beekeepers showed. The annual nationwide survey by the Bee Informed Partnership found 37.7% of honeybee colonies died this past winter, nearly 9 percentage points higher than the average winter loss. The survey of nearly 4,700 beekeepers managing more than 300,000

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The Federal Trade Commission is in advanced stages of an investigation into YouTube’s handling of videos aimed at children, according to two people with knowledge of the inquiry. The investigation, which could result in fines against YouTube, comes after complaints by parents and consumer groups that the video giant had collected

A Florida city agreed to pay $600,000 in ransom to hackers who took over its computer system, the latest in thousands of attacks worldwide aimed at extorting money from governments and businesses. The Riviera Beach City Council voted unanimously this week to pay the hackers’ demands, believing the Palm Beach suburb had no choice if

Rank-and-file employees were more likely to share concerns about the new era of office chat. There was the woman who cited a “truly unhinged Slack situation” — dozens of new rooms serving a workflow that seemed only to make sense to the new boss — as one reason she ultimately left her job at a major media

Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say they have recorded singing by a rare right whale for the first time. Researchers used moored acoustic recorders to capture patterned calls made by male North Pacific right whales. Researchers detected four distinct songs over eight years at five locations in the southeast Bering Sea. Humpback,