Shy Cohen

Science and Technology Writer

Shy Cohen
Writer

Shy Cohen is a Washington-based science and technology writer covering advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer science. He reports news and writes clear, plain-language explainers that examine how emerging technologies shape society. Drawing on decades of experience, including long tenures at Microsoft and work as an independent consultant, he brings an engineering-informed perspective to his reporting. His work focuses on translating complex research and fast-moving developments into accurate, engaging stories, with a methodical, reader-first approach to research, interviews, and verification.

Recent Stories from Shy Cohen

A new study shows how AI integrated coursework helps adult learners gain career ready skills in environmental science.

AI-powered course design is helping adult students build real job skills

The species, known scientifically as Homo neanderthalensis, has been debated for more than a century.

New study finds AI depictions of Neanderthals are outdated and wrong

Stanford researchers mapped rare mantle earthquakes worldwide, revealing clusters near the Himalayas and the Bering Strait.

Scientists create the first global map of rare, deep-mantle earthquakes

Tiny methane-eating microbes could fight climate change and produce fuels, protein, and biodegradable plastics from waste gas.

Methane-eating microbes turn greenhouse gas into fuel, food, and bioplastics

An artist’s depiction of a superfluid plasmonic wave. With the terahertz scope, the team observed a frictionless “superfluid” of superconducting electrons that were collectively jiggling back and forth at terahertz frequencies.

Global first: Physicists use light to reveal quantum vibrations in a superconducting material

The Dubai BioVault will serve as the first facility in an emerging international network of bio-resource centers.

Colossal BioVault in Dubai to preserve DNA of Earth’s most endangered species

A University of Michigan team built AI digital twins that estimate tumor metabolism in glioma, helping predict diet and drug response.

AI-built ‘digital twin’ helps doctors precisely target glioma cancer

This is a previously undiscovered and currently unknown astrophysical anomaly, discovered in the Hubble Space Telescope’s archive by researchers using a new AI-assisted method.

AI Tool Uncovers Hundreds of Hidden Cosmic Oddities in Hubble Data

Researchers have developed a wearable, comfortable and washable device called Revoice that could help people regain the ability to communicate naturally and fluently following a stroke, without the need for invasive brain implants.

AI-powered neck wearable helps stroke survivors speak again without implants

New research shows that AI systems learn better when trained with inner speech and working memory models inspired by the human brain.

AI systems learn better when trained with inner speech like humans

Engineers argue peace can be designed into systems, reshaping infrastructure, education, and accountability to reduce conflict.

Can peace be engineered? A new push to combat war

Dinosaur footprints outnumber bones, but they are hard to interpret. A new AI study reveals how machine learning can help identify who made them.

AI helps scientists read dinosaur footprints, offering new clues to ancient life

New research shows printed signs can override safety in self-driving cars and robots using AI vision and language.

Simple printed signs can hijack self-driving cars and robots

Scientists shrink a lab-grade spectrometer down to the size of a grain of sand

A Michigan State team focused terahertz light onto a microscope tip to nudge surface atoms in WTe2, briefly changing its electronic behavior.

Scientists use ultrafast laser to flip materials into a different electronic state

A major study finds AI can outperform average humans on creativity tests, but top human creators still lead.

Artificial intelligence can now beat average humans in creativity, study finds

A new study uses machine learning to reveal hidden conflict patterns and exposes limits of predicting violence severity.

Machine-learning analysis reclassifies armed conflicts into three new archetypes

New research shows women view AI as riskier than men, driven by job exposure and lower tolerance for uncertainty

Women think artificial intelligence is riskier than men do, study finds

A new PSI method combines gentle sintering and an ultra-thin LiF layer to curb dendrites and stabilize solid-state lithium metal batteries.

New solid-state battery design retains 75% capacity after 1,500 cycles

A 3D rendering of a pair of hands holding glowing bands of energy like a cat’s cradle. One of the bands fold inwards, reminiscent of the Mexican-hat-like momentum dispersion indicative of Floquet effects. The glowing orbs above the hands, one dark and the other light, represent the electron and hole that together form an exciton.

Excitons Let Scientists Reshape Quantum Materials With Less Light