Technology

Two years ago Pakistan's Punjab province was hit with one of the world's worst dengue outbreaks. This year the number of recorded cases has plummeted. Many leaders credit a mobile phone app that tracks mosquito populations and city workers' efforts to contain them.

Nathan Myhrvold, who made his name with inventions at Microsoft, is focusing these days on a different kind of technological advance: the threat from biological weapons. Myhrvold's in Washington this week to meet with national security leaders. He wants to convince them to spend time and energy on terrorist attacks that could cause the greatest damage.

The new iPhone's fingerprint recognition technology is the company's first major effort to combat smartphone theft. But with an insatiable global appetite for the devices, will it really make a difference?

When it comes to heavy metal, one group has claimed the title of "world's heaviest metal band." The humans tinkering with the robots say the goal isn't to replace human musicians.

The school, simply named 42, requires no high school diploma and no money to apply. It's turning French education on its head, but it may also solve some of the country's most pressing problems.

Dolby, who invented some of the technologies that revolutionized film and sound recording, was instrumental in developing surround sound technology. Dolby had been living with Alzheimer's and was diagnosed with leukemia this summer.

Security experts say the U.S. has a dearth of professionals qualified to take on cyberthreats like attacks on power grids or defense systems. A school district in Alabama and the U.S. Army Cyber Command have teamed up to help prepare a new generation for cyberwarfare careers.

The label run by engineer Cookie Marenco sells super high-definition downloads — a development even she thought impossible 15 years ago. The downloads may be expensive, but she says, the sound is superior to current popular audio formats like MP3.

Passwords are a pain to remember, and they're only partially effective in securing your devices. Now, with a fingerprint scanner built into the new iPhone 5s' home button, biometrics is taking a big step into a much bigger ecosystem. But such scanners raise security and privacy concerns of their own.

The aging brain may be more flexible than we thought, a study of older adults now suggests. After playing a racing car video game an hour a day, thrice weekly for a month, adults age 60 and over were better at multitasking than untrained 20-year-olds.