Technology

Tech Stocks Have Taken A Beating This Year, And The Effects Have Been Far-Reaching

4:32pm December 31, 2018

by Jim Zarroli

After many years of flying high, mighty tech stocks have come tumbling down because of regulatory worries and slow growth. Their bad year affects companies that seemingly have nothing to do with tech.

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Bad Bunny onstage at the Latin Grammy Awards in November.

Music & Culture

In 2018, Streaming Services Helped Fuel A New Latin Explosion

8:00am December 30, 2018

Spanish-language artists like Ozuna, J Balvin and Bad Bunny dominated YouTube with billions of plays. Alt.Latino host Felix Contreras and contributor Stefanie Fernández explain how we got here.

Cuba's Mobile Internet Access Is A Big Step, But It's Not Without Flaws

8:24am December 29, 2018

by Jasmine Garsd

The Cuban government recently extended Internet to mobile devices, a big step for Cubans living on the island under the repressive communist regime.

Author Of 'The New Childhood' Advises Parents: Don't Panic About Screen Time

8:24am December 29, 2018

NPR's Debbie Elliot speaks with Jordan Shapiro about his new book, "The New Childhood," which explains how children should engage with the digital technology around them.

National

FCC Investigates Widespread CenturyLink Outage That Disrupted 911 Service

1:52am December 29, 2018

by Eric Whitney

The FCC chairman called CenturyLink's widespread telecom outage unacceptable and says an investigation will start immediately.

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How Much Of The Internet Is Fake? A Lot.

5:07pm December 28, 2018

How much of the internet is fake? From metrics and politics to people and businesses, according to Max Read's New York Magazine article, the answer is quite a lot.

Even for conventional medical treatments that are covered under most health insurance policies, the large copays and high deductibles have left many Americans with big bills, says a health economist, who sees the rise in medical fundraisers as worrisome.

Patients Are Turning To GoFundMe To Fill Health Insurance Gaps

11:41pm December 27, 2018

by Mark Zdechlik

Medical fundraisers account for 1 in 3 of the website's campaigns and bring in more money than any other GoFundMe category. Americans' confidence they can afford health care is slipping, some say.

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Science

The Unregulated Terrain Of Gene-Editing Technology

6:14pm December 27, 2018

by Rob Stein

A Chinese scientist's claim that he'd created the first gene-edited babies rocked the world this year, raising questions about the ethics of powerful new gene-editing techniques.

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A moment from Embodied Labs' virtual reality video of Clay Crowder, a fictional 66-year-old man with incurable lung cancer. In this scene, Clay's family gathers around his bed, reassuring him that it's OK to let go of life.

Virtual Reality Helps Hospice Workers See Life And Death Through A Patient's Eyes

12:18pm December 27, 2018

by Kathleen Burge

A Maine medical school and nearby hospice center are trying out a VR program aimed at fostering more empathy for dying patients among health workers-in-training. Not everyone is sold on the idea.

A cubesat, like this briefcase-sized MarCO, was key to relaying telemetry during the recent InSight mission to Mars. It was the first time this kind of mini-spacecraft had flown into deep space.

Science

What's Next For Tiny Satellites?

4:09pm December 26, 2018

by Joe Palca

Two briefcase-sized satellites gave the control room of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in November what scientists had never been able to get before: real-time information about a spacecraft's landing.

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