Special Reports

What to watch for in the year ahead

Preview exciting technical developments for the coming year

The past, present, and future of the modern world’s most important invention

Technology trends and developments that will make news in 2022

Deep learning has built a brave new world—but now the cracks are showing

Here are some of the technologies you’ll be reading about this year

The trend toward all-electric is accelerating

COVID-19 has galvanized tech communities. The tens of billions we’re spending on vaccines, antivirals, tests, robots, and devices are transforming how we’ll respond to future outbreaks of infectious disease.

The greatest gadgets of the past 50 years

The stories of the greatest and most influential microchips in history—and the people who built them

Humans are preparing to build the first permanent settlement in space

IEEE Spectrum traveled across East Africa to capture new perspectives on the growing drone industry

Can technology slow emissions of greenhouse gases enough to halt climate change? IEEE Spectrum reporters fanned out across the globe to find out

Electricity may be fully restored—but the hard work of hurricane-proofing the grid remains

When Bitcoin was unleashed on the world, it filled a specific need. But it wasn’t long before people realized the technology behind Bitcoin—the blockchain—could do much more than record monetary transactions.

Intensive efforts to re-create human cognition will transform the way we work, learn, and play

A project to identify and quantify the full-system cost of electric power generation and delivery—from the power plant to the wall socket

Robots will soon have the power of life and death over human beings. Are they ready? Are we?

Here’s what we’ll need to walk around on Mars

Medicine has always sought to understand the human body’s operating system. Now, with biometric sensors and big data analytics, we’re learning how to fix the bugs.

The glorious history and inevitable decline of one of technology’s greatest winning streaks

Turns out, there are plenty of extraordinary engineers. You just need to look for them.

Bright scenarios for eight of today’s hottest technologies. Plus: What could possibly go wrong?

All the tech tricks and politics that will make driverless cars common place

Bitcoin has gone from being an experiment in anarchy to becoming a billion dollar online currency

There is indeed a STEM crisis—just not the one everyone’s been talking about

Smart technology and better management policies will let us feed the hungry hordes to midcentury and beyond

Exploring the achievements that are ushering in the era of personalized genetic medicine

To explore what’s fastest on earth we’ve roamed the globe to check out speedy things on wheels, tracks, legs or wings, and in the water

The last days of cash: How e-money technology is plugging us into the digital economy

What really happened at Fukushima, and what it means for nuclear power

Google, Facebook, and the struggle for the future of the web

Meet some of the world’s most creative minds in robotics to find out how their robots will transform our lives—for real

Our thirst for water competes with our hunger for energy. Only radical new ideas will get us out of this mess.

It’s been 40 years since Apollo astronauts took humanity’s first baby step into the cosmos. Now it’s time to take the next one.

A list of some of the most innovative, intriguing, and inspiring integrated circuits

How technology is driving the country’s economic boom and what that means for the World

One day a machine will blink into consciousness

Urban living has its advantages, but the challenges are formidable. Here’s a how-to manual of technology solutions.

Humanoid robots, self-driving cars, smart wearables—are they the stuff of science fiction? Or are they more likely than we think?

IEEE Spectrum contributing editor Robert N. Charette examines the root causes of the current crisis in weapons acquisitions

As organizations waste tens of billions of dollars annually on failed software projects, the key to consistently creating large, reliable, and efficient IT systems remains elusive