Computers

Smart Startup

Building Libraries Along Fiber-Optic Lines in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Washington, D.C.-based startup, Librii, is rethinking what a library looks like

February 23, 2015

This Week in Crowdfunding

A Kit to Make Robots Out of Drinking Straws and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

Perhaps a three-dimensional paper mount of an animal is just what your living room needs

February 20, 2015

How the Photocopier Changed the Way We Worked—and Played

Decades before 3-D printers brought manufacturing closer to home, copiers transformed offices, politics and art

March 2015

A Man With ALS Says “I Love You” to His Wife for the First Time in 15 Years

A new invention from Not Impossible Labs allows Don Moir to script an audible love letter

February 12, 2015

Cool Finds

A Scientist And a Slime Mold Are Set To Play a Duet

The blob-like creatures’ movements inspired a composer to create a way for slime mold to play the piano

February 11, 2015

Cool Finds

Women Were Key to WWII Code-Breaking at Bletchley Park

Female operators and mathematicians play a greater role in the history of computers and code-breaking than most realize

January 27, 2015

Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism, the First Computer

Hidden inscriptions offer new clues to the origins of a mysterious astronomical mechanism

February 2015

Social Media Is Not Making You a Ball of Stress

But perhaps unsurprisingly, Facebook and Twitter can cause stress to spread when bad things happen to friends and family

January 15, 2015

New Research

Your Computer Knows You Better Than Your Mom

Why machines can predict your personality more accurately than your family or friends

January 13, 2015

How to Create a Virtual Organism

Through OpenWorm, scientists are hoping to allow anyone with a computer to unlock the secrets of animal behavior

January 2015

Trending Today

The First Piece of Code Written by an American President

The President participated in an introductory coding workshop as part of Computer Science Education Week

December 9, 2014

How Do Kids Learn Where There Are No Teachers? It May Take a Village…Computer

A non-profit called Projects for All has a plan for educating children without schools: Turn them loose on outdoor computer kiosks in their community

December 9, 2014

Five Practical Uses for “Spooky” Quantum Mechanics

Fifty years after Bell’s Theorem, tools that harness the weird properties of quantum mechanics are at work all around you

December 1, 2014

Cool Finds

Computers Write Novels Faster Than You Do

Silicon chips don’t suffer writer’s block

December 1, 2014

Cool Finds

This Computer From 1949 Runs on Water

Computers at the time didn’t have displays; one economics student created a visualization using water-filled tanks and tubes

November 28, 2014

Cool Finds

How to Heat Your House With a Cloud Computer Server

A German company is installing servers in homes and offices to recycle heat

November 18, 2014

Cool Finds

The World of Personal Computers in the 1980s Was A Wacky, Wonderful Place

You can experience early video games and operating systems yourself through retrocomputing and ads

November 7, 2014

Trending Today

Parents Could Be On the Hook for What Their Irresponsible Kid Does on Facebook

A court case in Georgia says parents can be liable for their kids Facebook behavior

October 16, 2014

Cool Finds

All the Things a Hacker Can Find Out About You on Public Wifi

Your vacation, your job, your passwords

October 15, 2014

Anthropocene

To Live in the Anthropocene, People Need Grounded Hope

A Smithsonian symposium about human impacts on Earth looked past warnings of global doom to discuss the necessary balance of achievable solutions

October 10, 2014