Amazon is wading into the voice-activated technology fray with its new "Alexa Fund." It's all about creating the successor to touch-based devices by accelerating the evolution of voice recognition and response technology.

Quantum mechanics and general relativity, the twin monuments of 20th Century genius, have done a remarkable job of explaining the way our universe works. But at the edges of knowledge, we're learning that they're only facets of a much larger picture. Attempts to fashion a quantum theory of gravity, which unites the quantum and general relativistic realms, have resulted in a flurry of recent weird breakthroughs—including the bizarre notion that time might be the byproduct of entangled qubits residing on the temporal boundaries of the universe.

The multiverse is one of science fiction's most beloved conceits—travel far enough, or enter the right wormhole, and you can meet your alter ego in another universe. But granting parallel universes even exist, will we ever be able to reach them? Leading physicists weigh in with their own idiosyncratic thoughts—which are, as usual, highly entertaining.

Deaths in conflict have fallen (slightly), emissions have not risen for a third year and fewer people are dying from disease