Do you ever catch yourself yelling at your Alexa? Or typing questions into Google that you would never ask aloud? This week, we explore our changing relationship with technology.
Medical and genetic data from more than a million Americans are now in scientific databases. Some programs hoard the data, while others share widely with scientists, hoping to speed medical discovery.
A project that shares medical information from 500,000 volunteers is driving innovative research around the world. The richness of the database means scientists are motivated to make it even better.
The viral 10-Year Challenge on social media could train facial recognition technology on how we age, and potentially be used against us, argues author and tech consultant Kate O'Neill.
Sometimes discoveries derived from patients' medical data become the foundation of new profit-making companies. A fledgling industry wants to help patients get a cut of the cash.
Data from patient medical records are being used to develop commercial products. What rights do we have over the use of our personal health information?
It can feel intrusive to have so much data collected about us, but Laurie Frick is optimistic about how big data will evolve. She says it could help us evaluate how we respond to other people.
Computational propaganda was invented by people who realized the possibilities emerging from the intersection of new technologies and behaviors they create — and it's frightening, says Adam Frank.
The goal is to customize treatments for cancer and other diseases to a patient's own biology. But something as simple as failing to take care of tissue samples en route to the lab can derail that.
As we find our way in a world shaped by Big Data, it's not the reams of information we gather but the networks they illuminate that's the newest addition to science's index of things, says Adam Frank.
The great hope of urban advocates is to democratize data, allowing residents to see more clearly how a neighborhood is changing — but knowledge of those changes may accelerate them, says Adam Frank.
Southwest China's Guizhou province is one of the country's poorest, most remote regions. But Guizhou has some unique advantages, which it is trying to use to transform itself into a big-data hub.
Data suggests that the rate of colon cancer among people under 50 is on the rise, but there are lots of possible explanations for that. Scientists say teasing out the truth will be tricky.
There's a plethora of projects to gather data about the brain, various kinds of cancer and every type of cell in the body. But researchers are struggling to keep up with the information explosion.
Microsoft researchers say in a new study that Bing searches held clues to pancreatic cancer diagnoses. But what role should new data streams like Web searches and social media play in public health?
The decision to eschew "microtargeting" and other sophisticated tools could have a significant negative effect on Republican candidates down the ballot from Donald Trump.
As Internet giants vie for business in Asia, European mobile carrier Telenor realizes it can have better, bigger Big Data than even Google, putting itself in uncharted territory.
It took about 30 teams of scientists worldwide, using supercomputers to churn through mountains of data, to see patterns aligning of what will happen decades and centuries from now.
It's not enough anymore to learn how to size up the symptoms of a particular patient, say specialists in bioinformatics. Modern doctors need to learn to see patterns in huge data sets, too.
Transit decisions are made by political bodies, and the results are often that the communities with the most political and economic power drive the bus, so to speak. Big data may change that.
A Philadelphia health insurance company analyzes its clients' health data and other factors to find the frailest and assign them health coaches. That may improve health, but is it a breach of privacy?
Police cams have suddenly become a big business. But the real money is in selling departments a way to store each day's video. Firms are offering easy uploads to the cloud but costs are bound to grow.
