Could a recent scientific breakthrough in electric conductivity transform tech?

Researchers at the University of Rochester created a material that could make superconducting possible at room temperature.
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Jens Schlueter/AFP via Getty Images

How 3D printing could revolutionize auto manufacturing

Mar 27, 2023
Kevin Czinger, of Czinger Vehicles and Divergent Technologies, envisions flexible, local factories that are fixtures in their communities.
Kevin Czinger, the founder and CEO of Divergent Technologies, poses with the Czinger 21C at Czinger’s production facility in Torrance, California.
Maria Hollenhorst/Marketplace

Biotech sector still hot despite cooling economy

Dec 27, 2022
The pandemic led to an explosion of interest in and funding of biotech. That continues even as many sectors slow and recession fears grow.
A sign on Oyster Point Boulevard calls South San Francisco the birthplace of biotech.
Beth LaBerge/KQED

Can the EU break Google and Apple's app store dominance?

Dec 20, 2022
The European Union's Digital Markets Act could have implications beyond Europe's borders — even in the U.S., where similar bills didn't make it through Congress.
Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images

Tracing the history of electronics through the Old Calculator Web Museum

"The first digital use of the transistor for consumers was in a calculator," says Rick Bensene, curator of the Old Calculator Web Museum.
Back in the 1970s, the first microprocessors and transistor technology were breaking ground in calculators.
MarioGuti via Getty Images

The transistor's story is one of innovation and immigration

Mohamed Atalla of Egypt and Dawon Kahng of Korea are responsible for the technology that helped harness the transistor's power.
The technology developed by two immigrants at Bell Labs in 1959 allowed transistors to become small enough so that more could fit on a microprocessor.
krystiannawrocki/Getty Images

75 years ago, the transistor ignited the fire of modern innovation

The transistor was born in 1947 at Bell Labs in New Jersey. We're looking into the culture of innovation that made it possible.
Nokia Bell Labs still has the first transistor, which was invented in 1947. Here's David Brancaccio holding it at the company's campus in Murray Hill, New Jersey.
Alex Schroeder/Marketplace

For public good, not for profit.

Film photography has made a comeback. Can manufacturers keep up with demand?

Nov 30, 2022
Prices for some film rolls are more than double what they used to be, while some camera prices have quadrupled.
After facing a decline in the aughts, 35 mm film photography is making a comeback.
Daniel Chetroni/Getty Images Plus

As crypto chaos continues, the next generation of hires is having doubts

Nov 30, 2022
"Interest in the crypto space, generally speaking, tends to track the price of bitcoin," a UCLA professor says of his computer science students.
Soon-to-be hires are rethinking pursuing jobs at crypto companies.
Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Companies are ditching degree requirements, but what about their hiring software?

Nov 28, 2022
Applicant tracking systems often home in on degrees, specific schools, previous employers and key words that can bias the process.
"An increasing number of employers have vowed to do away with degree requirements, but the bias is often embedded in the software companies use to screen applicants," says Shad Ahmed with the nonprofit Opportunity@Work.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images