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“Mooooo.” This dairy barn is full of cows, as you might expect. Cows are being milked, cows are being fed, cows are being cleaned up after, and a few very happy cows are even getting vigorously scratched behind the ears. “I wonder whe

In the three decades since Brewster Kahle spun up the nonprofit Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, it has scaled up to include government websites and datasets—many of which are essential to the engineering and scientific communities. U.S. government agencies like the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and NASA are critical sources of research data, technical specifications, and standards documentation in pretty much every area where IEEE Spectrum’s audience works—AI & computer science, biomedical devices, power and energy, semiconductors, teleco

This is a sponsored article brought to you by Freudenberg Sealing Technologies.The increasing deployment of collaborative robots (cobots) in outdoor environments presents significant engineering challenges, requiring highly advanced sealing solutions to ensure reliability and durability. Unlike industrial robots that operate in controlled indoor environments, outdoor cobots are exposed to extreme weather conditions that can compromise their mechanical integrity. Maintenance robots used in servicing wind turbines, for example, must endure intense temperature fluctuations, high humidity, prolonged UV radiation exposure, and powerful wind loads. Similarly, agricultural robots operate in harsh c

In the past few years, AI has set Silicon Valley on fire. The new book AI Valley: Microsoft, Google, and the Trillion-Dollar Race to Cash in on Artificial Intelligence chronicles those blazing high times, telling the stories of the startups, venture capital firms, and legacy tech companies that are burning bright—and those that have already flamed out.In the excerpt below, author Gary Rivlin tells the inside story of the startup Inf

It’s been a busy three years since IEEE Women in Engineering celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2022.WIE facilitates the recruitment and retention of women in technical disciplines around the world. It also works to inspire girls to pursue an engineering career. There are student chapters at universities around the globe. Men may join the affinity group as well.Women make up less than a third of the world’s workforce in technology-related fields, according to a repo

I’m fascinated with the early 20th-century zeal for electrifying everyday things. Hand tools, toasters, hot combs—they all obviously benefited from the jolt of electrification. But the eraser? What was so problematic about the humble eraser that it needed electrifying? A number of things, it turned out. According to Hermann Lukowski in his 1935 patent application for an apparatus for erasing, “Hand held rubbers are clumsy and cover a greater area than may be required.” Aye, there’s the rub, as it were. Lukowski’s

Cheryl Conrad no longer seethes with the frustration that threatened to overwhelm her in 2006. As described in IEEE Spectrum, Cheryl’s husband, Tom, has a rare genetic disease that causes ammonia to accumulate in his blood. At an emergency room visit two decades ago, Cheryl told the doctors Tom needed an immediate dose of lactulose to avoid going into a coma, but they refused to medicate him until his primary doctor confirmed his medical condition hours later. Making the situation more vexing was that Tom had been treated at that facility for the same problem a few months earlier, and no one could l

In Mira Daher’s home country of Lebanon, the national grid provides power for only a few hours a day. The country’s state-owned energy provider, Electricity of Lebanon (EDL), has long struggled to meet demand, and a crippling economic crisis that began in 2019 has worsened the situation. Most residents now rely on privately owned diesel-powered generators for the bulk of their energy needs. But in recent years, the rapidly falling cost of solar panels has given Lebanese businesses and families a compelling alternative, and the country has seen a b

Your weekly selection of awesome robot videosVideo Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.RoboSoft 2025: 23–26 April 2025, LAUSANNE, SWITZERLANDICUAS 2025: 14–17 May 2025, CHARLOTTE, NCICRA 2025: 19–23 May 2025, ATLANTA, GALondon Hum

The U.S. government recommends that everyone have a disaster kit that includes a weather radio. These radios tune to a nationwide network run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Federal Communications Commission that provides alerts about hazardous weather and other major emergencies. Such broadcasts can be a lifeline when other communication systems go out. But what i