IEEE SpectrumPub Date : 2026-08-01Epub Date: 2026-08-07DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644902
Allison Marsh
{"title":"Past Forward: Birth of the Laugh Track","authors":"Allison Marsh","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644902","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644902","url":null,"abstract":"The hit of the 1935 Berlin Radio Show was the Magnetophon, a reel-to-reel tape recorder developed by AEG and I.G. Farben (now known as BASF). One decade and a world war later, a young electrical engineer named John T. “Jack” Mullin was serving with the U.S. Army Signal Corps when he came across the machine at a German radio station. Impressed with the device's remarkable playback fidelity, he shipped two disassembled Magnetophons to the United States, along with about 50 reels of magnetic tape and schematic drawings. He then set about rebuilding the machines, swapping in U.S. motors and vacuum tubes.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 8","pages":"52-52"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11644902","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148694956","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 : 2026-08-01Epub Date: 2026-08-07DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644911
Harry Goldstein
{"title":"Fridays with Bob: Parting Thoughts from my Rabbi","authors":"Harry Goldstein","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644911","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644911","url":null,"abstract":"When I started at Spectrum 25 years ago, a senior editor suggested that I find a “rabbi,” by which he meant someone who could mentor me in how EEs approach problems and evaluate potential solutions.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 8","pages":"2-2"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11644911","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148694793","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 : 2026-08-01Epub Date: 2026-08-07DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644898
{"title":"Robot of the Month: Stretch","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644898","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644898","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 8","pages":"49-49"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11644898","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148694799","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 : 2026-08-01Epub Date: 2026-08-07DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644910
Rachel Berkowitz
{"title":"Wiring the North: A Remote Indigenous Community Built One of Canada's Fastest Fiber Networks","authors":"Rachel Berkowitz","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644910","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644910","url":null,"abstract":"IN FEBRUARY 2024, a young man lay somewhere on the frozen shore of James Bay, Canada, surrounded by snow and darkness, succumbing to hypothermia. When he failed to get home on time, his frantic mother sent a Facebook message to Elizabeth Kataquapit, then chief of the indigenous community Fort Albany First Nation in northeastern Ontario. Kataquapit used Facebook to alert the community's search-and-rescue squad, who jumped onto their snowmobiles and drove into the night. Before dawn, they returned with the dazed man, who told rescuers he'd given up until wolves nudged his hypothermic body. “The wolves told him to wake up,” Kataquapit says. “I really believe they saved his life.”","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 8","pages":"40-47"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148694890","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 : 2026-08-01Epub Date: 2026-08-07DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644891
David Schneider
{"title":"Detect Dark Matter's Mark: Probe this Cosmic Enigma with a DIY Radio Telescope","authors":"David Schneider","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644891","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644891","url":null,"abstract":"If you're wondering what dark matter is, you're not alone. Astronomers don't know. But they've determined that this invisible material must be far more abundant than the stars and nebulas that they can see. They've surmised as much from observing the gravitational effects of all this perplexing dark stuff, launching a decades-long campaign to understand its nature.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 8","pages":"14-16"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148694931","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 : 2026-08-01Epub Date: 2026-08-07DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644909
Paul Bogard
{"title":"The Wrong Way to Light a City: LONDON and PARIS Reveal why LEDs are Making our Nights Worse—But Also how We Could Make Them Better","authors":"Paul Bogard","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644909","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644909","url":null,"abstract":"IN THE CHILL of a London spring night, under overcast skies, iconic Trafalgar Square opens around me. Admiral Nelson rises on his pedestal, the National Gallery rests behind, the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields sits nearby. From the 13th century, the site served as the Royal Mews for hawks and then horses. By 1844, it was a public space at the heart of one of the biggest cities in the world.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 8","pages":"20-27"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148694823","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 : 2026-08-01Epub Date: 2026-08-07DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644912
Chris Chinchilla
{"title":"How the iPhone and Android Killed the Feature Phone: Nokia's 14 Years of Mobile-Phone Supremacy Ended in an Afternoon","authors":"Chris Chinchilla","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644912","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644912","url":null,"abstract":"In 2005, Nokia sold its billionth mobile phone, a budget-friendly device that went to a customer in Nigeria. By then, the company, based in Espoo, Finland, was making one of every three cell-phones globally. • But just nine years later, the mobile-device maker offloaded its entire handset division to Microsoft for pennies on the dollar, compared to what it had been worth at its peak.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 8","pages":"34-39"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148694889","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 : 2026-08-01Epub Date: 2026-08-07DOI: 10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644896
David Kuszmar
{"title":"How I Turned AI to the Dark Side: I Hijacked the Biggest AI Models. No One Cared","authors":"David Kuszmar","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644896","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2026.11644896","url":null,"abstract":"ON A FINE BRIGHT afternoon last fall, my colleague Matthew Gore-Kormanik (or Zigula, as he prefers to be known) and I decided to unwind with a game of Fortnite. In the game, we were strolling along with the infamous Sith Lord Darth Vader, chatting about this and that. Darth seemed in a good mood, and soon enough he was spilling all his dark evil secrets. He gave us detailed instructions on how to count blackjack cards at a casino and what the steps are to producing napalm.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":"63 8","pages":"28-33"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148694811","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}