How AR could reshape construction

A fictional glimpse into the future of AR

Hyper-Reality is a project that presents a provocative and kaleidoscopic new vision of the future, where physical and virtual realities have merged, and the city is saturated in media. Watch this six-minute video to experience the vision.

Virtual and augmented realities are paving the way for a more immersive future

Tech companies like Apple, Meta, and Microsoft invest heavily in immersive technologies such as virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. While VR transports users to a fully digital space and AR adds digital elements to the real world, mixed reality allows interaction with both at once.

Mixed reality may help onboard manufacturing workers more efficiently

Mixed reality headsets can facilitate hands-on education by providing immersive guides overlaid onto their field of vision, showing users how to complete complex tasks.

A brief history of augmented reality (w/photos and videos)

Different sources trace the history of augmented reality back to the beginning of the 20th century,. The term augmented reality however was coined by Thomas P. Caudell in the '80s.

How lasers have become a go-to in archaeology

Archaeological teams now have another item to pack with their trowels: Lasers. Researchers' approach to unsurveyed land has been transformed by light detection and ranging technology. LiDAR has helped archaeologists break new ground and uncover...

Playing around with an AR sandbox

The white sand acts as a projector screen and a topographic map image is projected on the surface. An XBOX Kinect is positioned to read the contours of the sand and draw new topographic lines according to how the sand is moved.

An AI-built pixel map reimagines New York City as a video game

Isometric NYC is a zoomable pixel-art map that renders the city in game-style perspective (think SimCity), helpfully clarifying the dense geography and architecture. The makers built the project tile-by-tile using satellite data and generative AI. Zoom into building-level views or out to see all five boroughs.

See how CES comes to life with a massive setup across Las Vegas

This behind-the-scenes video shows crews assembling the sprawling CES show—filling more than 2.5 million square feet of exhibition space with booths, lights, and tech from around the world ahead of the event’s opening.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Technological breakthroughs are spurring innovations in the industry

What if you could see your tattoos before they’re embedded in your skin? Or take a virtual visit into a local studio to work out your nerves over a first tattoo? The industry is anticipating some big technological changes, from 3D designs to sci-fi upgrades to more precise tattoo guns.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Explore persistent 3D environments with Marble

Marble is a spatial AI system built by World Labs, a San Francisco startup focusing on world models (rather than large language models). Using a text prompt (or a single image or video), users can generate a "world" and move through it, edit it, or export it. The company and project are part of the broader spatial intelligence area of AI, where AI can simulate environments.

Self-driving cars may upend transit before cities can build it

Austin approved a $7.1B light-rail in 2020, but components of the plan have already been cut. Simultaneously, Waymo launched a 200-car autonomous fleet across the city. Cities now face a choice: invest in decadeslong fixed infrastructure projects or embrace flexible, on-demand autonomous vehicles that can navigate anywhere.

In 1974, Los Angeles’s Community Analysis Bureau built a smart city

Los Angeles utilized aerial imaging and cluster analysis to gather and interpret civic data, leveraging surveillance technologies developed by the Department of Defense during the height of the Cold War. Instead of being used for military purposes, data insights helped direct social services to high-poverty neighborhoods.

How Google's Tilt Brush brings artists' creations to life

Google has been working closely with more than 60 artists to help them explore their style in virtual reality as part of the Tilt Brush Artist in Residence program.

TikTok is changing the building trades

Plumbers, welders, and general contractors are meeting their customers on TikTok. This article delves into the growing group of tradespeople documenting their work (and advertising their services) on the popular app. The profiled workers are convinced this is the new way to sustain a life in the trades.

Woven City at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan

The Woven City at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan is a ‘living laboratory’ for new technologies. It is being developed by Toyota subsidiary, Woven Planet, and will be the world’s first programmable city.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Hacking the body for a future that didn't happen

Journalist Adi Robertson experimented with one of the most accessible biohacks: magnets. Having a tiny magnet in their right ring finger meant they could sense magnetic fields, attract small metal objects, and more. But magnets weaken over time, eroding this new sense. Such implants do more than offer a new way of interacting with the world, they also pose new complications, such as the inability to get an MRI.

Pepsi uses augmented reality to prank people at a bus shelter

Commuters at a London bus stop have seen alien invasions, monsters from the sewers grabbing pedestrians and tigers running down the street as part of an elaborate advertising campaign.

The construction of LIGO needed to compensate for Earth's curvature

Across the 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) arms, the height of Earth's surface falls by almost a meter, preventing the lasers traveling within the arms from meeting the mirror at the end of each. Concrete slabs built beneath the arms help keep them level and provide structural support against seismic vibrations.

Experts reconstruct Pompeii’s daily life—and whether disaster could strike again

This documentary utilizes archaeology, X-rays, and 3D reconstructions to reconstruct what the streets, homes, and rituals of Pompeii looked like before 79 CE. Scientists also use satellite imaging to track landslide risks that could damage the site today.

The Anthropic Economic Index shows AI adoption is highest in computer science roles

The analysis of millions of anonymized conversations on Claude aims to reveal how AI is being integrated into real-world tasks across the labor market. As of November 2025, 52% of conversations were classified as involving enhancing existing work products, while 45% involved using Claude for automation.

Why can't we just turn the empty offices into apartments?

As both rent prices and mortgage rates rise across the US, many companies have simultaneously continued operating hybrid or remote workforces post-pandemic. A podcast episode dives into why city dwellers aren't all living in their prepandemic break rooms just yet.

See how Stonehenge was built

This short animation shows how human beings managed to lug 30-ton stones over miles of prehistoric English countryside and stand them up The Stone Age engineering involved using giant wooden rollers and carving precisely interlocking tongue-and-groove joints to hold the heavy stones in place.

An architect ranks the best bridges in the world

Architext Ezra Groskin builds bridges and argues that the best bridges do more than allow traffic. They should, he believes, encourage human interaction and lingering to ultimately become a destination of their own. Explore ten stunning designs that connect communities, from New York to Switzerland.

Some venture capitalists believe cryptocurrency will revolutionize global finance

Some of the brightest minds at Andreesen-Horowitz, one of the country’s leading venture capital firms, believe the cryptocurrency ecosystem will revolutionize global finance in the coming decades. This podcast recounts, through their view, the history of crypto, how it works, and trends they see emerging in the future.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.