IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2026-03-09DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427072
Paul Jones
{"title":"The Attraction of Blackberries","authors":"Paul Jones","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427072","url":null,"abstract":"The first time she tried to seduce me, (atoms falling in a vacuum) she asked about blackberries—(every mass exerts some gravity)","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 3","pages":"66-66"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11427072","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147374365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2026-03-09DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427081
Peter Fairley
{"title":"The Anti-Induction Suit: This High-Tech Outfit could give Power-Line Workers the Protection they Need","authors":"Peter Fairley","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427081","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427081","url":null,"abstract":"In 2018, Justin Kropp was working on a transmission circuit in Southern California when disaster struck. Grid operators had earlier shut down the 115-kilovolt circuit, but six high-voltage lines that shared the corridor were still operating, and some of their power sneaked onto the de-energized wires he was working on. That rogue current shot to the ground through Kropp's body and his elevated work platform, killing the 32-year-old father of two.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 3","pages":"40-41"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147374375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2026-03-09DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427083
Gwendolyn Rak
{"title":"Careers: Alan DeKok: Serendipity Led him from Nuclear Physics to a Career in Network Security","authors":"Gwendolyn Rak","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427083","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427083","url":null,"abstract":"When Alan Dekok began a side project in network security, he didn't expect to start a 27-year career. In fact, he didn't initially plan to work in computing at all. DeKok studied nuclear physics before making the switch to a part of network computing that is foundational but—like nuclear physics—largely invisible to those not directly involved in the field. Eventually, a project he started as a hobby became a full-time job: maintaining one of the primary systems that helps keep the internet secure.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 3","pages":"19-20"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11427083","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147374377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2026-03-09DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427088
Dina Genkina
{"title":"5 Questions: Laslo Hunhold: AI's New Number Formats don't Work Elsewhere","authors":"Dina Genkina","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427088","url":null,"abstract":"Artificial intelligence has driven an explosion of new number formats—the ways in which numbers are represented digitally. Engineers are looking at every possible way to save computation time and energy, including shortening the number of bits used to represent data. But what works for AI doesn't necessarily work for scientific computing, be it for computational physics, biology, fluid dynamics, or engineering simulations. IEEE Spectrum spoke with Laslo Hunhold, who recently joined Barcelona-based Openchip as an AI engineer, about developing a bespoke number format for scientific computing.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 3","pages":"21-21"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11427088","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147374363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2026-03-09DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427082
Eliza Strickland
{"title":"Letting Machines Decide What Matters: AI Systems Built into Particle Detectors now Shape what Physicists Study","authors":"Eliza Strickland","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427082","url":null,"abstract":"In the Time it takes you to read this sentence, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will have smashed billions of particles together. In all likelihood, it will have found exactly what it found yesterday: more evidence to support the Standard Model of particle physics.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 3","pages":"2-2"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11427082","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147374384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2026-03-09DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427092
Glenn Zorpette
{"title":"The Data: A Lofty Idea for AI Data Centers","authors":"Glenn Zorpette","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427092","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11427092","url":null,"abstract":"What's the difference between a stupid idea and a brilliant one? Sometimes, it just comes down to resources. Practically unlimited funds, like limitless thrust, can get even a mad idea off the ground.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 3","pages":"14-15"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11427092","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147374366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-03-04DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11506022
Allison Marsh
{"title":"Past Forward: This Chocolate Empire Ran on Electric Rails","authors":"Allison Marsh","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11506022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11506022","url":null,"abstract":"The U.S. chocolate magnate Milton S. Hershey understood the value of vertical integration. So when a global sugar shortage prompted Hershey to begin purchasing sugarcane fields in Cuba in 1916, it naturally made sense to also invest in a Cuban sugar mill, refinery, power plant, and railroad to transport the processed sugar to port. Many of Hershey's Cuban employees lived in well-maintained company towns.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 5","pages":"52-52"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11506022","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147808141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-03-04DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11506021
Stephen Cass
{"title":"Teletext on the Radio: Co-Opting Some of the Best Tech from the 1980s","authors":"Stephen Cass","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11506021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11506021","url":null,"abstract":"Once upon a time in Europe, television remote controls had a magic teletext button. Years before the internet stole into homes, pressing that button brought up teletext digital information services with hundreds of constantly updated pages. Living in Ireland in the 1980s and '90s, my family accessed the national teletext service—Aertel—multiple times a day for weather and news bulletins, as well as things like TV program guides and updates on airport flight arrivals.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 5","pages":"16-18"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147808157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}