Yes, Phones Can Reveal if Someone Gets an Abortion

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May 17, 2022

Dear Reader,   Throughout the day, your smartphone gathers an astonishing volume of information about your behavior. It can even tell if you get pregnant and consider an abortion—and share that information with law enforcement. This week's lead story demonstrates how a landscape where tech companies vacuum up as much data as possible, unfettered by legal restraints, could jeopardize people living in states that plan to criminalize abortion after Roe falls.

Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, Technology

Privacy Yes, Phones Can Reveal if Someone Gets an Abortion To protect personal information from companies that sell data, some individuals are relying on privacy guides instead of government regulation or industry transparency By Sophie Bushwick

Robotics Drones Could Spot Crime Scenes from Afar A system could aid forensic searches and crime-scene mapping by detecting reflections from human materials By Rachel Berkowitz

Climate Change Air-Conditioning Should Be a Human Right in the Climate Crisis We need to protect vulnerable people from killer heat without destroying the environment By Rose M. Mutiso,Morgan D. Bazilian,Jacob Kincer,Brooke Bowser

Sponsor Content Provided by Worcester Polytechnic Institute What makes our approach to research distinctive? At WPI our interdisciplinary research approach is like nowhere else—meaning our impact solves problems in ways others don’t. Our faculty and students collaborate to amplify the potential of everything we do—and the results are extraordinary.

Artificial Intelligence AI Can Predict Potential Nutrient Deficiencies from Space New work maps a region’s nutrient landscape By Rachel Berkowitz

Politics To Prevent Nuclear Annihilation, Resume Negotiations Immediately The war in Ukraine shows the urgency of nuclear arms control By The Editors

Energy Rechargeable Molten Salt Battery Freezes Energy in Place for Long-Term Storage The technology could bring more renewable energy to the power grid By Anna Blaustein

Artificial Intelligence How Language-Generation AIs Could Transform Science An expert in emerging technologies warns that software designed to summarize, translate and write like humans might exacerbate distrust in science By Richard Van Noorden,Nature magazine

Natural Disasters New Drones Could Spot Wildfires Earlier, Even Help Snuff Them Out And other new technology could detect carbon monoxide emitted just when flames start By John Fialka,E&E News

Engineering New Tech Conveys Emotional Touch Long-Distance Complex social information can be felt through a virtual touch By Richard Sima

QUOTE OF THE DAY "Robotic surgery reduced the chance of readmission by half (52%), and led to a 77% reduction in the prevalence of blood clots, when compared with patients who had open surgery." Andrew Gregory, The Guardian

FROM THE ARCHIVE 50, 100 & 150 Years Ago: June 2022 Innovation and Discovery as Chronicled by Scientific American By Mark Fischetti | June 2022

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