It sounds like something out of a comic book, and until recently, Google’s X Lab was kind of a secret compound — or at least a place that wasn’t broadcasting its experiments to the public. But that is changing. Google Glass, the company’s web streaming spectacles, were born there. The Bay Area facility was recently visited by Bloomberg Businessweek editor Josh Tyrangiel. Tyrangiel says the labs are a place where scientists can think big ideas with a lot of freedom.

Scientists may be fretting over global climate change or when the next asteroid will strike Earth’s surface, and the threat of mass extinction such events would bring. But a catastrophic event doesn’t necessarily spell the end for civilization. In fact, Annalee Newitz, author of the new book Scatter, Adapt and Remember, says that with the right mindset and proper preparation, humans have the capacity to thrive in a post-mass extinction world.

Part of the promise of new technology is that it can help protect us when things go terribly wrong — through prevention and appropriate reaction. San Francisco-based company Recovers is sending a group of employees to Moore, Oklahoma in the wake of Monday’s tornado. They’ll use tech skills and experience from other disasters to help.

Private security firm Mandiant says hacking attacks that originate in China have resumed after an apparent three-month hiatus. One form of hacking that is getting a lot of attention is something called spear phishing. Recently an organization calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army used spear phishing to attack several media organizations. And Microsoft will announce the latest Xbox gaming console. CNET’s Lindsey Turrentine says it’s about time.

It’s been in the pipeline for several weeks. But now it looks like a Yahoo purchase of the blogging website Tumblr is happening. Yahoo’s board agreed on Sunday to pony up for Instagram-sized pricetag: $1.1 billion. For Tumblr and its 26-year-old founder David Karp, the buy could offer an influx of advertising and business savvy. The website AllThingsD first reported the deal. Kara Swisher, co-founding editor of AllThingsD, says this is a big part of a mission for Yahoo’s new chief Marissa Mayer — a mission to make the aging Internet company cool again.

Aaron Swartz left behind a considerable online legacy before his suicide earlier this year at age 26. But a posthumously-released collaboration with the New Yorker might be among his most profound innovations and it might just be the first step towards guaranteeing true online anonymity. Plus, why U.S. officials froze an exchange for the online Bitcoin currency, and what happens next.

Lately, it seems like we talk about Moore’s law at least once a week on our show. It’s the idea that our computing power jumps forward by leaps and bounds every two years — so fast that soon our computers will be as smart as we are. Kevin Drum is a writer at the magazine Mother Jones. He’s just written a long piece about intelligent robots. Drum thinks by the year 2025, they’ll be smart enough to take almost all of our jobs. Don’t worry though — he says that’s a good thing.

Today marks the beginning of Google’s three day conference for developers, called Google I/O. Last year the company unveiled its tech-boosted spectacles, Google glass. It was perhaps one of the most extravagant unveilings in tech history — glass-wearing Googlers streamed live video of themselves jumping out of a plane and riding into the convention on trick bikes. Plus, a look at TV’s Upfronts, where the major networks unveil new programing for advertisers.

Cell phone and smartphone theft is a problem that only seems to get bigger. The international black market of stolen phones is huge, lucrative, and not just for the thieves. Phone makers don’t seem to be exactly in a hurry to protect customers from theft. Prosecutors in San Francisco, and most recently New York, are trying to change that. Marketplace’s Nancy Marshall-Genzer reports. And, three drone stories from China, Canada and the U.S.