Technology

From self-driving cars to all-electric Teslas, Silicon Valley is imagining an automobile beyond the internal combustion engine and steering wheel we all grew up with. Meanwhile, app-based companies like Uber and Lyft are radically shifting the way we interact with cars.

Sand is the most abundant material on Earth. And, other than water and air, sand is the natural resource we consume more than any other -- more, even, than oil.

The Ethel Walker School in Simsbury recently hosted a fair showcasing its STEAM summer program. The program gives kids in pre-K through fifth grade from Hartford Public Schools an opportunity to develop skills in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics.

Rhode Island’s new toll program made more than half a million dollars in one month.  But only tolling tractor-trailers has led to a lawsuit by the trucking industry not to mention criticisms from some Rhode Island politicians.  

Humans are great at making a mess of things. So far, however, that mess has been confined to Earth. But as we develop into a spacefaring species, our capacity for destruction, pollution, and prejudice (towards aliens of earthly and unearthly origins) threatens to have cosmic consequences.

Nearly ninety-percent of Americans own a smartphone.

On average, we spend more than four hours a day on our phones, which adds up to about 56 full days a year. That's like sealing yourself in a room on the first day of summer and not emerging until the kids head back to school. 

Connecticut school districts have been working over the last two years to comply with new privacy laws around student data, but many have been struggling to make the July 1, 2018 deadline.

Siri, Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant, etc. These are just the beginning of what experts believe will be a future filled with verbally interactive, digital and robotic assistants. And as we become more accustomed to interacting with machines, the machines are becoming more life-like.

This hour: the deadly reality of counterfeit drugs. We discuss the history and proliferation of fake pharmaceuticals with Dr. Muhammad Zaman, author of Bitter Pills: The Global War on Counterfeit Drugs, and consider their impact both internationally and at home. 

Also: a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlines an alarming trend in the U.S. -- fleas, ticks, and mosquitos are on the rise. But what, exactly, is driving the increase? And what does it mean for public health?

Lauren Bacall probably does have the most famous line about smoking in all of cinema. But there are other good ones too. "What are you gonna do? Charge me with smoking?" "Smoke if ya got 'em." And many more.

Cigarettes have been such an integral part of movies for so long that one big concern in the lead up to Disney and Fox's planned merger is -- seriously -- all the smoking in Fox movies.

From its humble, South Korean origins in the early 2000s to its current place as an international, cultural phenomenon, esports is certainly on the rise. Huge venues including Madison Square Garden, the Staples Center and others are routinely selling out to diehard fans of these competitive video gaming tournaments

When Alexis de Tocqueville toured America in the early 1830's to gather observations that he would later put on the pages of Democracy in America, he was impressed with the efficiency of our American Postal Service.

Joe Biden is seriously thinking about running for president in 2020. He's got a wealth of political experience and institutional knowledge. He's vibrant and in good health.  He's also seventy-five-years-old. Many of us are quietly wondering if he's too old for the job.

Rapidly advancing technology is changing the way we do a lot of things... including policing.

This hour: police drones are coming to Hartford. Are they an invasion of privacy or a helpful tool for law enforcement? And how are lawmakers debating this new technology? What do you think about police using drones? Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Wes Anderson is a... particular sort of filmmaker. With his typewriters and his pipe smoking. With his monochrome sets and props and costumes. With his perfectly symmetrical compositions. The one place where Anderson's tweeness is maybe softened a bit is in his old-school, stop-motion, animal-centric animated films. There was Fantastic Mr. Fox. And now there's Isle of Dogs. Dogs isn't without its own problems, though. The Nose weighs in.

The November midterms are fast-approaching -- raising concerns about election security and the safeguarding of local voter identity.

This hour, we look at how Connecticut is responding with Secretary of the State Denise Merrill.

Plus: a Middletown-based prison program gives incarcerated adults the opportunity to work towards an Associate degree behind bars.

We learn about the Wesleyan Center for Prison Education and its recent degree-granting collaboration with Middlesex Community College.

And finally: Have recent weather reports left you feeling underwhelmed? Don’t be upset with your local forecaster, says Quinnipiac University professor Ben Bogardus.

Coming up, Bogardus joins us along with NBC Connecticut Chief Meteorologist Ryan Hanrahan. And we want to hear from you. 

Cambridge Analytica, a data company backed by Republican donor Robert Mercer and headed by Steve Bannon, harvested private information from almost 50 million Facebook users without their permission to develop and exploit psychological profiles in the 2016 U.S. election.

Are you constantly pulling out your phone to check that notification from Instagram or Facebook? If so, you’re not alone—nearly seven in ten American adults are on social media, according to a recent Pew survey.

This hour: social media has made our world smaller, but do virtual networks make us feel more connected? A recent study found that those who spend more time on social media actually tend to feel more socially isolated. We ask researchers and a psychiatrist why.