Knowable Magazine

Knowable Magazine is an independent journalistic endeavor from Annual Reviews, a nonprofit publisher dedicated to synthesizing and integrating knowledge for the progress of science and the benefit of society. Sign up for Knowable Magazine’s newsletter.

Wed, 06/20/2018 - 12:02
Growing a More Resilient Global Food SystemCovid-19 has underscored the importance of improving the farm-to-fork food journey
Mon, 04/19/2021 - 12:02
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine. Most of us won’t soon forget that disconcerting moment last spring when grocery store shelves were suddenly bare where the flour, pasta, and other staples should have been. The news told of…
Will Small Businesses Recover From Covid?Their prospects for surviving the pandemic may seem dim, but there are some encouraging signs, experts say
Thu, 04/08/2021 - 12:03
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine. Last spring, things looked grim for Dora Herrera. Revenues at her family’s 45-year-old restaurant business, Yuca’s, had plummeted within a few short weeks as Covid-19 kept customers away from…
How Online Misinformation SpreadsMisinformation is running rampant. To slow this infodemic, researchers are tracking how it spreads on social media.

Thu, 04/01/2021 - 12:02
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine. You may have heard the outlandish claim: Bill Gates is using the Covid-19 vaccine to implant microchips in everyone so he can track where they go. It’s false, of course, debunked repeatedly…
Virtual Agents of Change: How Computers Are Mapping Covid-19’s FutureSimulating the behavior of millions of idiosyncratic individuals may help to understand complex phenomena like pandemics
Wed, 02/03/2021 - 12:01
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine. It’s been a long year, but a vaccine against Covid-19 has started to roll out across the United States. There won’t be enough to vaccinate everyone right away, so public health officials will…
Hi, Robot: Why Robotics and Language Need Each OtherMachines might better understand our commands if they experienced our physical worlds
Wed, 01/06/2021 - 12:02
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine. When Stefanie Tellex was 10 or 12, around 1990, she learned to program. Her great-aunt had given her instructional books, and she would type code into her father’s desktop computer. One…
Design for RecyclingComplex packaging is a headache for recyclers. So why not consider the end point in the first place?
Mon, 12/14/2020 - 12:02
If you were to contact a group of recycling professionals, as one recent survey did, and ask them to list all the ways that consumer product manufacturers drive them crazy, you’d probably hear a lot about “shrink sleeves”—those full-body, shrink-to-…
AI’s Next Big LeapIt began when scientists learned something remarkable about mallard ducklings
Wed, 11/11/2020 - 12:02
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine. The unlikely marriage of two major artificial intelligence approaches has given rise to a new hybrid called neurosymbolic AI. It’s taking baby steps toward reasoning like humans and might one…
Why Some Artificial Intelligence Is Smart Until It’s DumbMachine learning has uses in diverse fields, and its influence is growing. But so is the understanding of its limits.
Wed, 09/16/2020 - 12:02
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine. It’s Stardate 47025.4, in the 24th century. Starfleet’s star android, Lt. Commander Data, has been enlisted by his renegade android “brother” Lore to join a rebellion against humankind—much…
Less Toy, More Workhorse: Drones Get FunctionalAirborne autonomous vehicles could soon be ensuring the infrastructure around you is safe and sound
Mon, 08/24/2020 - 12:01
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine. You hear a mechanical buzz. You look up, and there it is, hovering in the sky—four whirring rotors. Over your shoulder, you catch sight of someone tracking the flight and manipulating…
Why Scientists Need to Be Better at Data VisualizationScientific literature is riddled with bad charts and graphs. Avoiding design missteps can improve understanding of research.
Wed, 08/12/2020 - 12:03
  This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine. Imagine a science textbook without images. No charts, no graphs, no illustrations or diagrams with arrows and labels. The science would be a lot harder to understand. That's because humans…