I cover technology, science, startups, and VC, particularly in Silicon Valley.
I've founded a startup (Publet), served as the managing editor of the Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia, and written for Fast Company, Foreign Policy, and The Economist.
I love wicked problems and clever solutions. Find me @mj_coren or in the Pacific sailing, swimming and surfing. If I'm not at home, then michaeljcoren.com. San Francisco, CA
For decades, infrastructure for coal, oil, and gas was seen as a relatively safe investment delivering strong returns, and renewables barely attracted the private sector’s attention. Whil...
Every year, the sun sends radiation toward Earth equivalent to more than 7,000 times humans’ annual energy consumption. Much of it (about 30%) ricochets off the atmosphere into space; the...
Jason Czapla is walking across a former lake bed in the middle of southern California. The ground simmers at our feet as little mud volcanoes disgorge piles of hot, sulfurous muck. The Sa...
On the stroke of midnight this New Year’s Eve, the American dream got a makeover. In California, the nation’s most populous state, every newly-built home must now come with enough solar p...
Not much has changed when building homes in the US. Dozens of workers show up at a dirt lot. Tons of materials are delivered. Crews hammer, pour, and nail them together over weeks and mon...
Thousands of years ago, glaciers covered much of the planet. Oceans receded as water froze in massive sheets of ice blanketing the North American continent. As the ice age ended, glaciers...
For decades, oil and gas companies and utilities dismissed electric cars. Now, the old petroleum and power giants are muscling into the driver’s seat of the “new fuels” industry.
The internet is getting faster. Ookla, an internet analytics company, recently released its state of the internet report, showing mobile and broadband internet are accelerating around the...
Google debuted “Duplex” at its I/O developer conference on May 8, an AI system that could make virtual assistants as capable as humans available to anyone.
China is racing into what it calls its “new energy” future, the country’s term for electric-powered vehicles, and last week Shenzhen completed its transition to all-electric buses. The ci...
Facebook has acquired a two-month-old app called tbh—as in “to be honest”—which lets people send each other positive feedback through anonymous, quiz-style polls. The app is geared toward...
Hired had a problem. Women on the online hiring platform were consistently underbidding themselves. Hired, which lets technology workers post their preferred salaries so companies can int...
Henrik Christensen, director of the University of California San Diego’s Contextual Robotics Institute, has issued a jarring prophecy for the next generation: “My own prediction is that k...
Tesla has taken heat for releasing its unfinished Autopilot as a “beta” to drivers on the road. Plenty of owners have ignored Tesla’s directions to keep alert with their hands on the whee...
Last year, Sean Gourley got an email from an acquaintance: Would he be interested in joining the board of a $30-billion oil and gas company? The 36-year-old had never sat on a public boar...
