Robotic vehicles, from Google to Mercedes, have arrived. So what form and purpose will these cars have when we finally let go of the wheel?

The United States successfully test-fires its first Titan I intercontinental ballistic missile. The threat of global nuclear holocaust moves from the plausible to the likely.

There was a time when APIs were just a way of building applications for a desktop operating system like Microsoft Windows. But in the age of the internet, they have the power to plug applications into, well, almost anything. They've already transformed websites like Google and Facebook and Twitter into services that talk to a world of other applications, across PCs as well as mobile phones. But that's small potatoes. They're also reinventing old-world operations, including mobile carriers like AT&T and even auto makers like GM.

Google's daily brainteaser helps hone your search skills.

Google's daily brainteaser helps hone your search skills.

Google's daily brainteaser helps hone your search skills.

Could the low-power-chip design that's used in your iPhone someday show up inside the chips built by Intel-rival Advanced Micro Devices? Definitely maybe. Or as AMD's brand new Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster put it to us: "The answer is not no."

Microsoft's Windows Phone OS is often criticized for lagging far behind iOS and Android. But on Thursday, a leaked description of Microsoft's next big mobile OS, Windows Phone 8, came to light, revealing how the operating system will improve. But can it really compete? We handicap Apollo against iOS 5 and Android 4.

Given the recent controversy over sugar, one might look to artificial sweeteners for an easy alternative to thorny scientific and ethical questions. But to anyone seeking pastel-packaged reassurance that regulators won't ever need to pry donuts from their cold, dead and pudgy fingers, science offers only more uncertainty.

Today Motorola issued a fail alert of epic proportions: From October to December 2011, 100 out of 6,200 refurbished Xooms sold from Woot.com may contain the previous owner's personal data.

Nothing illustrates the web's growing influence on filmmakers more effectively than Me @the Zoo, a feature-length documentary that premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

In a resurgent space-themed fashion shoot, supermodel Natalia Semanova mingles with real-life cosmonauts in Star City, the home of Russia's space training program. We interview the spread's photographer, Arthur Elgort, for the back story.

The Chevy Sonic, a 40-mpg, sub-$20K subcompact, has got the price point, performance and spunk necessary to stand out in a perennially crowded category.

Steve Appleton, the Chairman and CEO of memory and semiconductor manufacturer and one of the giants of the industry, died on Friday in a solo plane crash in Boise, Idaho. He was 51.

Have Google's new privacy policy changes prompted you to question whether the company is capable of "doing no evil"? If so, here's how to protect your online privacy while still using the services.