How one man revolutionized bowling by redesigning the ball

PLUS: More of WIRED's best longreads from this week.

View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions  05.30.21 As an editor—and as a plain-old reader—I treasure stories that take me into a world I never thought I'd be interested in. We have a stellar example of that genre this week on Backchannel, where contributing editor Brendon Koerner takes a deep dive into the physics of bowling-ball design. He profiles Maurice "Mo" Pinel, whose experiments reshaping the inner cores of bowling balls revolutionized the sport in the 1990s. Pinel figured out that weirdly shaped cores—some look like Y-wing fighters from Star Wars, others like squashed lemons attached to pancakes—can have a major impact on the curving trajectory of a shot, allowing a bowler to whack the sweet spot more consistently and cleanly. Pinel's story is fascinating in itself, rolling from his early years as a drag racer to his later era as a legendary, and decidedly cranky, evangelist of applied materials science and engineering. He even had a nemesis. Who knew? Mark Robinson | Features Editor, WIRED   One Man's Amazing Journey to the Center of the Bowling Ball BY BRENDAN I. KOERNER | 20-MINUTE READ Mo Pinel spent a career reshaping the ball's inner core to harness the power of physics. He revolutionized the sport—and spared no critics along the way.   Freedom, Mayhem, and the Uncertain Future of Revel's Zippy Mopeds BY KATE KNIBBS | 12-MINUTE READ People went wild for its shared rides. Then came trouble. Now the startup is hellbent to prove it can be cool and safe—and exactly what cities need.   VR Trainings Are Not Going to Fix Corporate Racism BY RITA OMOKHA | 7-MINUTE READ HR departments are deploying virtual-reality platforms to foster racial empathy. But building inclusive workplaces will take more than that.   Dumbed Down AI Rhetoric Harms Everyone BY JUSTIN SHERMAN | 6-MINUTE READ By ignorance or malice, policymakers use sweeping platitudes to regulate artificial intelligence, which may persecute citizens more than protect them.   STEM's Racial Reckoning Just Entered Its Most Crucial Phase BY C. BRANDON OGBUNU | 8-MINUTE READ One year after George Floyd's murder, science and technology institutions continue to evolve. The most radical and necessary step remains.   Help! My Coworker Always Asks for Advice—Then Ignores It BY MEGAN GREENWELL | 3-MINUTE READ Megan unravels what your colleagues might really want from you. GET WIRED Memorial Day Sale! Ending Soon: Get WIRED for $10 $5. You can't see into the future, but you can subscribe to WIRED. Subscribe now.         This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or manage your newsletter subscriptions   Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.