Technology

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.

Every week, a group of people with a range of disabilities hits San Francisco Bay. They sail using specially rigged boats; one woman controls her boat using only her chin. Sailing offers a sense of independence for the participants, some of whom are confined to wheelchairs while on land.

Smartwatches are capturing imaginations because of what they can measure about their wearers. A watch touches your skin, so it can take your pulse, measure your temperature and record the quality of your sleep.

China runs the largest censorship machine in human history, researchers say. But Harvard studies of Internet postings in China suggest that even vitriolic criticisms of leaders and state policies are not what officials want to censor.