From my article in Inc., posted May 26, 2026

Arsalan Tavakoli was at his bachelor party in 2013 when Ali Ghodsi, a computer science researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, pulled him aside. “We’re starting a company,” said Ghodsi. “Why don’t you join us?”

“Don’t bother me at my bachelor party,” said Tavakoli with a laugh, waving him off. But later his fiancée pushed him to take a chance with the startup. Which turned out to be good advice. Earlier this year, Databricks, Tavakoli and Ghodsi’s AI-centric data platform startup, became one of the most valuable private companies in the world….Read more

From my article in The Atlantic, posted Jan. 8, 2026

Every few weeks I turn up in a hospital gown at a medical exam room in Massachusetts and describe a set of symptoms that I don’t really have. Students listen to my complaints of stomach pain, a bad cough, severe fatigue, rectal bleeding, shortness of breath, a bum knee, HIV infection, even stab wounds; on one occasion I simply shouted incoherently for several minutes, as if I’d had a stroke. Then the students do their best to help….Read more

From my article in Inc., posted Dec. 2, 2025

SharkNinja doesn’t just enter markets—it descends on them. Sometimes, the company, famous for its viral kitchen, cleaning, and beauty products, creates the market from scratch. Other times, it muscles aside the competition. And perhaps most impressive, SharkNinja produces an unending stream of unique appliances with features that spark consumer frenzies, such as its home soft-serve ice cream makers and its self-emptying cleaning robots.

Having mastered the art of marketing innovative gadgets, SharkNinja has set its sights on marketing the art of innovation to a new generation of gadget designers….Read more

From my article in Inc., posted Sep. 29, 2025

President Trump had a straightforward reason for dismissing all those expert predictions about climate change: “They were made by stupid people,” he asserted during a speech at the United Nations on September 23. Sure, as long as you’re ready to accept that virtually all climate scientists and experts are stupid, because they are fairly unanimous on the dire reality of climate change.

It seems clear that respect for expert opinion has collapsed in recent years….Read more

From my article in Inc., posted Sep. 16, 2025

On September 10 at an international energy conference in Italy, United States Interior secretary Doug Burgum put into plain words what has been increasingly apparent when it comes to the Trump administration’s thinking on a major component of clean energy: “Under this administration, there is not a future for offshore wind,” he said.

The Trump administration has canceled several wind projects, taking a range of steps to prevent future wind projects from getting off the ground, and expanding the attacks to solar and other renewable energy projects. The impact of these moves is likely to be felt not only by renewable energy companies, but by many businesses and consumers throughout most of the country….Read more

From my article in Inc., posted July 30, 2025

On a trip to Scotland in July to cut trade deals with Europe, President Donald Trump spoke out on multiple occasions about what he called “ugly monsters”: wind turbines. “We will not allow a windmill to be built in the United States,” he said at a press conference with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. “They are killing us.” In his second term, Trump has all but declared war on wind power. And that presents a major challenge for Michael Polsky and his company, Invenergy….Read more

From my article in a special publication of Scientific American sponsored by the Buck Institute, Google, Optispan and Phenome Health, published March 21, 2025

Lifespan is outpacing the number of years people live in good health. Scientists are developing ways of preventing illness and slowing the aging process….Read more

And in the same special issue, see my article on how AI is reshaping healthcare.

From my article in Inc., posted Dec. 19, 2024

Matt Mullenweg has been referred to by many as the “benevolent dictator for life,” or BDFL, of WordPress, the software that powers almost half the web. But in recent months, as a spat with an underdog rival unfolded on social media, Mullenweg definitely has come across as more dictatorial than benevolent. “I don’t identify with the term ‘dictator,’” he says. “A nicer way of saying it would be ‘enlightened leader.’” But just how tightly Mullenweg controls WordPress, and how aggressively he’s willing to wield that control, has caught many by surprise over the past few months. And it all began when Mullenweg got very annoyed, very publicly, at a $400 million-per-year company called WP Engine….Read more

From my article in a special issue of Scientific American sponsored by the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, published April 15, 2024

The drug treatments that attack plaque are going to become increasingly effective, insist most researchers. Now that two anti-plaque drugs have been proven to slow the progress of cognitive decline, researchers and pharmaceutical companies can focus on new, better ways of hitting plaque….Whether through existing anti-plaque drugs or new ones, researchers expect to see more patients get more benefits as research and clinical experience help find ways to match the right drug to the right patients, and to zero in on the optimal doses and timing….Read more

And in the same special issue, see my article on breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s prevention.

From my article in Newsweek, published Jan. 11, 2024

….Texas is the only state in the U.S. that generates more than a third of its electricity from wind and solar energy—energy that’s unaffected by the high temperatures. Even when solar panels fizzle out at night, the state’s solar farms keep the energy flowing, thanks to its investments in massive banks of batteries that soak up energy by day and release them in the dark.

As most states struggle to get to substantial generation of green energy, big wind and solar numbers are almost old news in Texas. Driven by a combination of huge power demands, copious sun and wind, a love of frictionless free-market enterprise, and surprisingly visionary leadership from past Republican politicians, Texas has steadily plowed so far ahead in big solar and wind projects that its green energy output could well surge past those of fossil-fuel plants in the state….Read more