Despite enabling almost instantaneous global communication, email appears not to have made the world a more close-knit community.
Duncan Watts and colleagues at Cornell University in New York conducted a massive email experiment to test the theory of “six degrees of separation”, i.e. that everyone in the world can be linked through just six social ties.
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A new mobile service will let UK users pinpoint another person’s physical location at all times, based on the individual’s mobile phone signal.
The mapAmobile service from Carphone Warehouse is being marketed with the slogan “for your peace of mind” and positions itself as a way to keep an eye on loved ones. However, [...]

Online dating, the Web’s largest trackable source of consumer dollars, drew $300 million last year.
In 1996, a handful of rudimentary prison-penpal sites started out with a few ads apiece. Today, convict matchmaking giants like prisonpenpals.com and jailbabes.com claim between 7,000 and 10,000 ads, and scores of competitors: from the straightforward (inmate.com) to the suggestive [...]

During a recent surgery, Dr. Arieh Shalhav sits several feet from the patient, manipulating robotic instrument controls and a miniaturized optics system as he works to remove a cancerous prostate gland.
Robotic surgery–a skill Shalhav is learning–is still a rarity, but it is poised to become more popular as patients push doctors to adopt technology that [...]