My colleagues and I have used a tool from economics to measure the costs and benefits of wearing an exoskeleton, and we found that it offers a modest average benefit of US$3.40 per hour while walking uphill, when considering the combined effects of the assistance and device weight. This modest value is in contrast to the value of the assistance alone, which was much greater, at $19.80 per hour. These values were derived using our novel approach, which subtracts the values of the costs and benefits.

A light, cheap space telescope design would make it possible to put many individual units in space at once.

Astronomers have discovered more than 5,000 planets outside of the solar system to date. The grand question is whether any of these planets are home to life. To find the answer, astronomers will likely need more powerful telescopes than exist today.

Seizures are like sudden electrical storms in the brain. Seizure disorders like epilepsy affect over 65 million people worldwide and can have profound effects on a person’s quality of life, cognitive function and overall well-being. Prolonged seizures called status epilepticus can cause lasting brain damage.

Hands up: Who thought it was cool that Captain James T. Kirk (aka Canadian actor William Shatner) got to go into space for real at the age of 90—and, at the same time, thought the flight itself was a ghastly PR exercise for Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin space business?

There was a time when the internet was seen as an unequivocal force for social good. It propelled progressive social movements from Black Lives Matter to the Arab Spring; it set information free and flew the flag of democracy worldwide. But today, democracy is in retreat and the internet’s role as driver is palpably clear. From fake news bots to misinformation to conspiracy theories, social media has commandeered mindsets, evoking the sense of a dark force that must be countered by authoritarian, top-down controls.

After a three-year hiatus, scientists in the U.S. have just turned on detectors capable of measuring gravitational waves – tiny ripples in space itself that travel through the universe.