Liam Williams quit standup fearing his pessimism about the state of the planet was making audiences worryingly apathetic. But is a sunny outlook really any healthier? We sat him down for a session with 

The late prize-winning author and art critic was perceptive on, among other things, the male gaze and the subjectivity of art 

Transparent, Iron Man-style smartphones probably aren't on the horizon—the technology and demand just aren't there. But Planar Systems is designing transparent displays and windows that they hope will soon become an integral part of building design and layout; meanwhile, see-through TVs are already hitting the market.

To achieve an accurate description of the universe, physical theories are increasingly invoking extra dimensions to explain the mysteries of nature. The problem is—how do you prove the existence of something so elusive? New experiments with the LHC may finally prove just how many extra dimensions, if any, our universe really has.