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Impatient Futurist: Your Domestic Robot Servant Has Finally Arrived (in a Fashion)
All you need is $400,000 and the patience of Job. 05.21.2012
Our Wonderful Age of Abundance, in 9 Striking Infographics
Technology is driving us toward an era of exhilarating freedom, economic opportunity, and the profound gift of health. 04.24.2012
Fierce Old Warplane Has a New Mission: Flying Into the Hearts of Thunderstorms
Equipped with heavy armor and an impressively powerful cannon, the A-10 Thunderbolt was built to survive. 03.27.2012
3-D Printers Spit Out Fancy Food, Green Cars, and Replacement Bones
The list of the new technology's applications grows monthly. 03.26.2012
Impatient Futurist: Good News, Spock—We're Getting Closer to a Universal Translator
The rapid advancement of Google-style, statistical translation may help realize this long-time dream. 02.27.2012
Big Idea: Seeing Crime Before It Happens
Can remote sensors give us Minority Report-like powers to detect people who will soon break the law? 01.23.2012
#95: Computer Builds A Perfect Galaxy
Nature did it in 13 billion years. Computer does it in 9 months. 01.09.2012
#5: Social Media Stoke Unrest and Ignite Web-Rights Debate
When the explosion in social networking helped topple repressive regimes last year, governments worldwide took notice, stepping up efforts to limit public Internet access. 01.03.2012
#3: A Supercomputer Wins Jeopardy!
When IBM’s game-playing computer trounced two trivia experts, its victory was hailed as a landmark for intelligent machines. A Jeopardy! champ explains why the real winners were humans. 12.29.2011
#8: The Man Who Gave Us Less for More
Impatient Futurist columnist David H. Freedman examines the crushing success of Steve Jobs. 12.29.2011
#40: Computer Model Mimics Infant Cognition
Babies may be able to help teach computers common sense. 12.29.2011
#50: The Net Watchman
Think of him as a cop with the world’s biggest beat: Security guru Jeff Moss is in charge of keeping the entire Internet stable, resilient, and safe. 12.29.2011
#71: Presenting the No-Focus Camera
New start-up's advance allows you to go from fuzzy to focused AFTER snapping a photo. 12.29.2011
#72: The Bird Watcher
Peter Vesterbacka on the secret to making the most popular, ridiculously addictive video game in history. 12.29.2011
Our Data, Ourselves
“Self-Tracking” enthusiasts collect data on every aspect of their lives. If digital navel-gazing goes mainstream, it could transform medicine. 12.08.2011
The Internet Looks Like a Fractal Dandelion
11.11.2011
Divine Data Cruncher
09.25.2011
Meet the Obscure, Useful Metals Lurking in Products All Around You
Without the rare earths, there would be no iPods and no hybrid cars. But who has even heard of erbium or ytterbium? 09.22.2011
The Brain: "I See," Said the Blind Man With an Artificial Retina
New ocular implants are already illuminating colors and shapes, and promise to become far better. 09.15.2011
How Information Became a Thing, and All Things Became Information
From alphabets to iPhones, humans have experimented with data storage for millennia. In the modern age, though, information is beginning to overwhelm the physical world. 09.14.2011
Darpa Challenge Inspires 4 Plans to Make Computers 40x More Efficient
We're not too far away from supercomputers that could use half a gigawatt—as much energy as a small city. So chip researchers are looking to make giant steps in getting processors' power consumption under control. 08.30.2011
The Internet May Soon Include All of the Things Around You
As wireless nodes become cheaper and more common, our electronic networks will expand to include many of the non-electronic things you really care about: your missing pants, a new shoelace, and the city’s best produce stand. 08.22.2011
The Army's Bold Plan to Turn Soldiers Into Telepaths
The U.S. Army wants to allow soldiers to communicate just by thinking. The new science of synthetic telepathy could soon make that happen. 07.20.2011
When Astronomy Met Computer Science
Digital sky surveys and real-time telescopic observations are unleashing an unprecedented flood of information. Astronomers have recently created new tools to sift through all that data, which could contain answers to some of the greatest questions in cosmology. 07.19.2011
Weaving a New Web
Four leading computer-network scientists discuss how best to prepare the Internet in a promising but hard-to-predict future. 06.30.2011
Would You Trade Your Password for Candy? Why You Should Pay Attention to Cryptography
Modern codes protect bank accounts and email, but human error puts all that in danger, say experts on a World Science Festival panel. 06.07.2011
Visualized: America's Backup Drive
The official archive of the federal government has a big job: figuring out which parts of the 97.4-terabyte collection to try to preserve forever. As always, a picture makes things a lot easier. 05.27.2011
Are We Finally Ready for Self-Driving Cars?
Google isn't the only company working on truly automated automobiles. Robot cars will reduce accidents, ease congestion, and keep others from interfering with my excellent driving—especially if we can get the bad drivers into them. 05.23.2011
Who's Smarter, a Human or a Computer? Round 9: Jeopardy
As IBM's supercomputer prepares to face off against Jeopardy champions tonight, we count the ways that humans can still out-think our computational creations—for now. 02.14.2011
Far Out: The Most Psychedelic Images in Science
Scientists know you don't need psychedelic drugs to make mind-blowing psychedelic images: Fractals, particle collisions, computer simulations, and sunspots will do the job just fine. 01.27.2011
Video Games That Make the World Better
Many new video games are interactive, educational, and enriching. And they might even improve your gas mileage. 01.10.2011
Become a Human Seismograph
Crowdsourcing gives geologists valuable new data. 01.08.2011
Future Tech: A Car Smart Enough to *Prevent* Traffic Jams
Better nav systems could get us to our destinations faster, and make our roads a smarter system. 12.26.2010
#82: Scientists Tap Wisdom of Crowds
12.16.2010
#51: Computer Rosetta Stone
12.16.2010
#16: Google Whacked by Hack Attack
12.16.2010
#9: World’s First Cyberweapon
12.16.2010
The 100 Top Science Stories of 2010
Every year DISCOVER sorts through the scientific accomplishments of the past 12 months, and assembles a list of the coolest experiments, most brilliant discoveries, and most world-changing events. As you page through the countdown to the #1 science story, we think you'll come to the same conclusion we did: 2010 was quite a year. 12.16.2010
Discover Interview: Alarming Tales of International Hacking from a Cyber-Terrorism Czar
Spies and hackers know only too well about the security loopholes that riddle the Internet—and maybe even the guts of our computers. Former presidential advisor Richard Clarke has ideas for how we can prepare for the new world of virtual combat. 11.08.2010
What Is This? Discover's Server Room?
Hint: First it flopped. Then it megaflopped. 08.10.2010
Our Brightest Hopes for Keeping Up With Moore's Law
Scientists are trying out strange technological tricks to make computer chips tinier and more powerful. 03.01.2010
Discover Interview: The Man Who Builds Brains
Using computer processors that behave like neurons in the neocortex, Henry Markram is inching closer to building a simulated human brain—a truly conscious machine. 02.05.2010
Two More Steps Toward Quantum Computing
01.31.2010
#23: Computer Learns to Reason Like Isaac Newton
Data-heavy phenomena like gene regulation may be too complicated for human scientists to pin down. 01.25.2010
#34: Computers Go Quantum
Researchers create the first quantum computer on a silicon chip. Making it more powerful will be even harder. 01.25.2010
Your Digital Privacy? It May Already Be an Illusion
Between all the scraps of info about you online, players in business, politics, and government may know a lot more about you than you'd think. 01.08.2010
20 Things You Didn't Know About... Computer Hacking
What's the connection between Steve Wozniak, the Pope, and Henry Kissinger? That's right, it's hacking. 01.05.2010
#68: Computer Program Cracks Cipher That Stumped Thomas Jefferson
A twist and some dummy letters camouflaged words that Jefferson would have easily recognized: the Preamble to the Declaration. 12.26.2009
Brain-Like Chip May Solve Computers' Big Problem: Energy
The future of computing may depend on embracing the chaos that defines human thinking. 11.06.2009
Think Tech: The Best Gadgets to Buy This Month
Devices that are smart, green, portable, and super tough 10.01.2009
In the Race Between Optical and Magnetic Storage, We Win
DVD-size disks that hold 10 terabytes. Memory chips that remember even when the power's off. 09.22.2009
The Device That Will Keep Your Mini-Laptop From Melting
As computers get smaller, keeping them cool has become a major problem—until now. 09.01.2009
What is This? Spirograph 2.0?
Hint: It represents a best-selling piece of literature. 08.24.2009
3-D Scanning: How to Put the Real World Into Your Computer
The recent imaging of two 300-million-year-old proto-spiders was just the tip of the iceberg: Here are 12 new scanning technologies that are bringing amazing 3-D images into Hollywood, medical care—and home PCs. 08.12.2009
In the Future, Doing Science Is Like Blogging
Fiction from Bruce Sterling: "If you can read a popular-science publication (and enjoy it), then you most likely have enough brainpower to help us make massive scientific breakthroughs..." 08.10.2009
Professor Roboto: Putting Science on Autopilot
Artificial intelligence is becoming ever better at doing science, from archaeology to physics to genetics. 07.13.2009
Life After Silicon—How Graphene Could Revolutionize Electronics
Will the next generation of computers, phones, and even energy storage be built on a form of carbon? 05.19.2009
How to Make a Digital Display That Rolls Like a Magazine
Computer screens of the future may wrap around your finger. Here’s an inside look at how HP makes their prototype model. 05.14.2009
Pixels by the Yard: HP Prints Flexible Screens Like Newsprint
A flexible computer screen—one that you can roll up and stick in your pocket—is coming closer to reality. 05.13.2009
Bringing Dead-Tree Misfits Into the Digital World
A new Fujitsu scanner merges business cards, receipts, and other important pieces of paper with the rest of your data. 04.27.2009
Visual Science: The Achilles Heel on Michelangelo's David: His Shin
3-D scanning shows where the statue is most stressed—and where it will probably fail. 04.23.2009
3 Great Uses of Twitter, According to Cofounder Jack Dorsey
1) Throwing parties 2) Lifeline during a terrorist attack 3) Staying connected with mom 04.22.2009
78 Exabytes of Facebook, Porn, and More
The big numbers behind Internet use in the U.S. 04.19.2009
Twitter's Greatest Hits—and Greatest Misses
Microblogging has captured the world's attention. But it can do as much harm as good. 04.17.2009
Forget Megapixels: Here Comes the Gigapixel Sky Camera
The Pan-Starrs-1 telescope will scan the skies for asteroids and comets that could wipe out life on Earth. 04.03.2009
Which Brain Games Will Help Your Brain the Most?
Hint: You can play some of the best games right here on DISCOVERmagazine.com. 03.24.2009
How Can You Tell If Your IM Buddy Is Really a Machine?
Hint: Ask it about Sarah Palin. 03.23.2009
The New Weapon Against ID Theft: Lasers
A new technology uses lasers to generate random numbers and encrypt your credit card transactions. 02.17.2009
Prepare for Truly Mobile WiFi
Microsoft's ViFi project uses smarter networking to eliminate Internet outages during travel. 01.28.2009
Gadgets that Can Save Your (Digital) Life
New technology can make your mail, music, and photos nearly indestructible. 01.27.2009
How Google Is Making Us Smarter
Humans are "natural-born cyborgs," and the Internet is our giant "extended mind." 01.15.2009
#48: Cyber Attacks May Be Connected With Real War
As tensions with Russia mounted, Georgia got slammed by hackers. 12.13.2008
#51: Physicists Build the World’s Smallest Transistor
The tiny device measures an astonishing 10 atoms by 1 atom. 12.12.2008
#65: Long-Prophesied Circuit Element Could Revolutionize Computing
Instant booting and decreased power consumption may soon be realities with the new "memristor." 12.10.2008
#100: This Animal Has the Strongest Bite on Earth
A bite from the biggest great white sharks leaves nearly every other species—both alive and extinct—in the dust. 12.04.2008
20 Best Brains Under 40
Young innovators are changing everything from theoretical mathematics to cancer therapy. 11.20.2008
The "Father of the Internet" Would Rather You Call Him "Vint"
Vinton Cerf played an instrumental role in creating the digital age—though he insists he wasn't alone. 11.14.2008
Is It Time to Chuck the Internet and Start Over?
Expanding today's overcrowded Web is like building a skyscraper on a pile of styrofoam. 11.07.2008
20 Things You Didn't Know About... Elections
Humans have a record of screwing up democracy, but we aren't the only species getting in on the act. 11.03.2008
Want an Easy Way to Control Your Gadgets? Talk to Them.
AT&T's Watson leads a pack of new gadgets that understand spoken instructions. 10.17.2008
Rock-a-Pedia
A new open-source atlas could keep you from falling into a sinkhole and help settle the great Arctic land grab. 10.03.2008
An Essential, Concise History of the LHC, 2002–2008
DISCOVER's been all over the Large Hadron Collider since it was just a big hole in the ground. 09.10.2008
Want to Know Which Electronics Suck? Ask Your Computer.
A new program mines user reviews to create the ultimate computer-generated critique. 09.07.2008
Forecasting the Future May Be a Matter of Fun and Games
A new online game uses crowdsourcing to find out how to save humans from extinction. 09.05.2008
Protecting Your Vote With Invisible Ink
A new voting system uses the Internet, cryptography, and "magic" ink to ensure that everyone's vote is counted. 09.04.2008
What Invisible Things Are in the Surfaces You Touch and Air You Breathe?
A DISCOVER editor delves into the unseen forces that affect our lives. 08.29.2008
Oldsters' New Fountain of Youth: Video Games
Some specially tailored games seem to help preserve mental fitness. 08.27.2008
Vernor Vinge
A science fiction giant reveals his reading list. 08.18.2008
A Look at the World's First Computer
The Victorian-age machine is finally up and running. 08.13.2008
Turbulence: How to Visualize the Invisible
You can feel turbulence with your hand, but to see it really well you need some kick-ass computers. Hold on to your seats. 08.13.2008
A GPS to Augment Your Entire Reality
Your cell phone will provide the important linkage between the real world and the digital universe. 08.11.2008
The Science of Sniffing Out Liars
An interrogation expert spills his secrets. 07.28.2008
When Computers Meld With Our Minds
Futurist Vernor Vinge predicts a world of techno-human superbeings. 07.25.2008
Can You Spot the Chinese Nuclear Sub?
Widely available satellite imagery is making governments around the world awfully nervous. 07.21.2008
Will Your iPod Turn on You?
Jonathan Zittrain says closed systems are endangering the Internet—and us. 07.07.2008
IBM May Have the Key to Wireless Hi-Def Video
New hi-tech chips put wireless communications on steroids. 06.26.2008
Hands-On at the Nation's Largest Robot Skunk Works
New bots will explore everything from Mars to your mouth—and perform surgery. 05.08.2008
One Hundred Movies on Just One Disk
Holographic digital storage will let consumers store a DVD library on a single disk. 05.08.2008
Think Tech: The Future of Electronic Displays
Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are thin, bright, and energy-thrifty. 04.22.2008
The Sim That Saves People from Each Other
Computer modeling shows how to keep crowds from turning deadly. 03.03.2008
The Sim That Saves People from Each Other
Preventing disaster in an unruly world. 03.03.2008
Computers See Diseases Written All Over Your Face
Analysis of facial features can reveal genetic disorders. 02.27.2008
The Latest Weapon Against Global Warming: Your Fridge
Smart appliances react to the grid to prevent blackouts—and pollution. 02.11.2008
14 Best Ways to Use Your Computer’s Spare Time
Between YouTube videos, your processor can search for a cure for AIDS. 02.06.2008
38. Math Advance Threatens Computer Security
12.28.2007
39. Plants Using Quantum Computers
12.28.2007
29. First Step to Wireless Electricity
12.21.2007
Long Live Closed-Source Software!
There's a reason the iPhone doesn't come with Linux. 12.11.2007
Scientist of the Year Notable: Hans Rosling
His mission: To enlist hard data in the global war on poverty and disease. 12.06.2007
This Man Wants To Control the Internet
And you should let him... 10.25.2007
Space-Faring Fungus Hats and Synthetic Biology
If the science moves like Moore's law, get ready for bio-freakiness. 10.22.2007
NASA's 6 Best Earth-Based Research Projects
Ultrafast scramjets, mach-10 wind tunnels, cockpit displays that see through clouds... 10.17.2007
The Emoticon Turns 25
“I think they humanize what is otherwise a cold medium,” says the rune's creator. 10.16.2007
Are We Trapped in God's Video Game?
Probably not. And no, he's not looking at your underwear. 10.15.2007
Google Taught Me How to Cut My Own Hair
In the Internet era, the most accessible information is the most valuable. 09.27.2007
Jaron's World: Can Computers Recognize Faces?
In at least one way, the smartest machines can't match a baby. 08.06.2007
William Gibson on the Past and Future
Somehow, cyberspace and the real world switched places. 07.30.2007
The Next Jump in Artificial Intelligence
Computer program is unbeatable at checkers. 07.19.2007
This is Your Brain on Video Games
Gaming sharpens thinking, social skills, and perception. 07.09.2007
Jaron’s World: Computer Evolution
Most software stinks. It should learn from robots and bacteria. 06.27.2007
David Brin Predicts the Future
Sci-fi author knew all about the Web, global warming, and more 06.07.2007
How Much Does The Internet Weigh?
Discover puts the online world on the scale. 05.29.2007
Jaron’s World: Virtual Horizon
VR in the real world may soon surpass the famous glove from Minority Report. 05.11.2007
How to Pinpoint a Pinniped
It's easy—stick a big radio transmitter on their heads. 05.04.2007
Quantum Leap
The future of super-fast computing appears on the horizon. 05.04.2007
I Chat, Therefore I Am...
Conversation between two robots drifts into flirtation and philosophy. 05.03.2007
Map: Welcome to the Blogosphere
Charting the network of jocks, gadget hounds, political junkies, and porn aficionados 04.20.2007
Mind Control
A paralyzed man can operate a computer mouse and even a prosthetic hand using a brain implant. 04.17.2007
Map: A World Full of Spam
Pinpointing the origin of 1 billion spam messages shows global spam hotspots. 03.19.2007
Jaron's World: Sex, Drugs, and the Internet
Does anonymity breed nastiness in the online world? 03.14.2007
Jaron's World: Morphing Messages
Describing ideas so subtle they are literally beyond words. 01.10.2007
Map: What Does the Internet Look Like?
Why China has as many IP addresses as an American university, which ISP should be called "Spamalot," and more. 10.30.2006
Jaron's World: The Murder of Mystery
How Silicon Valley joined the superstitious fringe as the enemy of open inquiry. 09.01.2006
Enigma: The Final Riddle
Cryptologists working to crack Nazi code. 08.01.2006
Discover Interview: Will Wright
The master of the computer god game tackles alien life and dreams up a world that would make Darwin drool. 08.01.2006
The Extreme Sport of Origami
A physicist's computer program produces the world's most complex paper sculptures. 07.29.2006
Emerging Technology: The Internet
The look of truly democratic media: rude, funny, creative, and fickle as fashion. 07.29.2006
The Extreme Sport of Origami
A physicist's computer program speeds the creation of stupefyingly complex paper sculptures. 07.29.2006
The Future of Terrorism
Neutron cameras versus smuggled nuclear bombs. Biodetectors versus bioengineered smallpox. Is technology making us safer—or more vulnerable? 07.25.2006
Map: Evolution Evolving
A very public online fracas 07.02.2006
Emerging Technology: Wi-Fi Networking
Wi-Fi networking could be the foundation of a new form of community. 06.25.2006
Jaron's World: The Soul of The Machine
Can a random collection of data be conscious? 06.25.2006
Sky Lights: Remote-Control Astronomy
View the cosmos on your computer 05.29.2006
Emerging Technology: Skype and Hype
If its Internet phone service is free, how does it make money? 05.29.2006
Blinded by Science
In praise of the bolder world of the first Internet 04.27.2006
The Next Big Quake
Engineers apply weather forecasting methods to earthquake prediction. 04.17.2006
Supercomputer vs Superflu
Statisticians simulate an avian flu outbreak. 04.10.2006
Brave New World
Online fantasy worlds put our democratic ideals to the test 04.02.2006
A Vaccine for Your In-Box
03.03.2006
Emerging Technology
The great Internet search engine is still no match for the passion and expertise of a wise human being 01.17.2006
Emerging Technology
Ordinary people can solve communication problems much quicker than clueless government officials when catastrophes like hurricane Katrina strike 12.01.2005
Discover Dialogue: Geophysicist Didier Sornette
Is the United States economy sustainable? I don't believe it is.' 12.01.2005
Sky Lights
When it comes to astronomy, don't believe everything you see on the Web 11.22.2005
Emerging Technology
How to cut through the info blitz and actually get some work done 11.22.2005
Emerging Technology
Software upgrades promise to turn the Internet into a lush rain forest of information teeming with new life 10.24.2005
Data
Who knows what patterns lie in our growing mass of data? Topology does 10.24.2005
Microelectronics
Stop thinking transistors on chips and start thinking 'up' or 'down' electrons 10.24.2005
Big Blue to Build a Brain
Big Blue to Build a Brain 09.09.2005
Emerging Technology
Your social life will never be the same, thanks to a digital service called Dodgeball 09.09.2005
Does E-mail Make You Dumber?
08.06.2005
Emerging Technology
How to develop a photographic memory without even trying 08.06.2005
Fingering the Answers
06.05.2005
Emerging Technology
Let's just zoom down from a satellite to check on the kids in your backyard 06.05.2005
School of Flock
05.01.2005
Emerging Technology
If only publishers would let us cut, paste, forward, and even change their words 05.01.2005
X
Ooh La Loud 04.28.2005
Men: Get Laptops Off Your Laps
03.31.2005
Let HAL Moderate Your Next Meeting
03.31.2005
Emerging Technology
Embrace the collective power of file sharing on the World Wide Web 03.31.2005
Emerging Technology
Grab your computer and strike up an electronic rock-and-roll band 02.06.2005
Testing Darwin
Digital organisms that breed thousands of times faster than common bacteria are beginning to shed light on some of the biggest unanswered questions of evolution 02.05.2005
Emerging Technology
This is not a dream: You can make a chunk of change by writing a Web log 01.02.2005
Emerging Technology
Digitizing patient records exposes you to prying eyes but could also save your life 12.03.2004
Christmas Captured
The Polar Express sets new genre in motion 11.22.2004
Is It Real or Is It Photoshopped?
09.27.2004
Emerging Technology
Let your PC join an army of several million others and save the world—while you sleep 08.02.2004
Discover Data
07.25.2004
Paper-View Movies
07.13.2004
Emerging Technology
Digital environmentalists devise a clever strategy for bankrupting junk mail purveyors 06.27.2004
The Cryptography of . . . Voting Machines
Electronic skullduggery could create greater confusion than hanging chads 05.29.2004
Emerging Technology
Microsoft discovers that software should be—surprise!—a thing of beauty. 05.29.2004
Emerging Technology
How the mighty Internet search engine's rankings of results can be manipulated 05.25.2004
Emerging Technology
How computer animators illuminate the evanescent complexity of the natural world 04.21.2004
World Wide Mind Meld
A new Web site offers cash for solutions to tricky scientific puzzles 04.08.2004
Digital Cache
A computer museum in Silicon Valley offers some perspective on the next new thing 03.28.2004
Physics
01.02.2004
Emerging Technology
Can the World Wide Web give ordinary people a shot at true populism? 01.02.2004
Survival of the Most Literary
12.03.2003
The Computer That Plays DNA Tic-Tac-Toe
12.03.2003
Emerging Technology
A revolutionary idea that could convert critics of these virtual worlds 12.03.2003
Do I Know You?
11.24.2003
Emerging Technology
A new headline service lets the readers collectively decide what's important 11.08.2003
Emerging Technology
A new Web site empowers citizens to track government officials' every move 10.01.2003
Less Danger From Falling Rocks
10.01.2003
Emerging Technology
Hmmm: You pay several hundred dollars for word-processing software and they fill it full of commercials? 09.01.2003
Internet in a Can
09.01.2003
Emerging Technology
Are you ready for computers that speed up the process of evolution and teach themselves to think? 08.01.2003
Emerging Technology
How to assume a 3-D online identity that lets you put on a happy—or angry—face 07.01.2003
Computing With Stopped Light
07.01.2003
Chicken-Fried Computers
07.01.2003
Emerging Technology
Are computers better qualified than humans to grade student essay exams? 06.01.2003
Emerging Technology
Imagine if SimCity wasn't just a game 05.01.2003
Spray-On Organs
05.01.2003
Emerging Technology
Pass your e-mail through some new software and the answer will become obvious 04.01.2003
Touching is Believing
04.01.2003
Emerging Technology
Who needs musicians when computers can think like bees? 03.01.2003
Discover Roundtable: Will Computers Replace Engineers?
Not long ago, men flew to the moon and plotted their course with slide rules, pencils, and graph paper. Now we live in such a complex age that not only do our lives depend on computers, but only computers can design computers 02.01.2003
Emerging Technology
Grab your Palm, plug in your GPS, and head for the 3-D Internet 02.01.2003
Instant Microwave Replay
02.01.2003
Proteins Decoded on Borrowed Time
02.01.2003
The Mathematics of . . . Artificial Speech
Two centuries of tinkering finally produce a sweet-talking machine 01.01.2003
Computers Watch Your Step
01.01.2003
Future Tech
Reverse-engineering the brain might finally lead to smarter computers 12.01.2002
Pushing the PC to the Speed of Light
11.01.2002
Discover Roundtable
In an age when computers, not to mention calculators, can do just about any kind of math, is it more important to know how to get the answer than to know the math behind it? 10.01.2002
A Digital Fix for Damaged Artwork
10.01.2002
Whose Computer Is Fastest of All?
10.01.2002
Welcome to Yucca Mountain
Where a computer model has determined it's safe for America to bury its nuclear garbage 09.01.2002
Smallville Rebounds from Buckyball Scandal
09.01.2002
Number Crunching the Cosmos
09.01.2002
Flying Blind
The war in Afghanistan has exposed a new level of U.S. expertise in pilotless aircraft. Meet the Global Hawk. and prepare to hear a strange announcement on a future airline flight: This is your computer speaking . . . 08.01.2002
Computer Screens Get Ready to Roll
08.01.2002
Liquid Lights the Way
06.01.2002
Internet2
A supercharged new network with true tele-presence puts the needs of science first 05.01.2002
Future Tech
The race is on to make unbreakable codes by tapping into the oddities of quantum physics 05.01.2002
Driving Simulator
Four hours' sleep last night, a glass of wine at the office party, an antihistamine for a stuffy nose, and here comes a car full of teens, head-on, drifting into your lane.(Be glad you're in the National Driving Simulator.) 04.01.2002
Computers Enter the Molecular Zone
04.01.2002
The Science of Surprise
Can complexity theory help us understand the real consequences of a convoluted event like September 11? 02.01.2002
Technology
Year In Science 01.13.2002
Future Tech
Engineers begin to tap into the power of electron spin 01.01.2002
Future Tech
Microchips and micromuscles could spell the end of one-size-fits-all medicine 12.01.2001
The World is
12.01.2001
What's Really Out There?
Astronomers use cyberspace to explore the outermost edges of the universe. 11.01.2001
The Future of Wireless
Discover Roundtable 10.01.2001
They Invented it
10.01.2001
Tomorrow's Computer
08.01.2001
Program Advisers/Evaluators
Discover Magazine Innovation Awards 07.01.2001
Winner - Entertainment
Mark Billinghurst; Research Associate, Human Interface 4 Laboratory, University of Washington; Seattle, Washington 07.01.2001
Winner - Electronics
Joseph M. Jacobson, PhD; Associate Professor, MIT Media Lab; Cambridge, Massachusetts 07.01.2001
Winner - Communications
Aharon Agranat, PhD; Founder & Director, Trellis Photonics; Columbia, Maryland 07.01.2001
Communications: Aharon Agranat
Discover Magazine Innovation Awards 07.01.2001
Electronics: Joseph M. Jacobson
Discover Magazine Innovation Awards 07.01.2001
Virtual You
That guy to the right of this headline is Dr. Sid, star of a major motion picture to be released this month. He's not real. No actor played his part. Which is all well and good until you realize that the people who made him could make a copy of you next 07.01.2001
Computers Will Save Us
The Future According to James Martin 06.01.2001
Radio Flyer
Can a tenacious lone inventor revolutionize wireless communications with a chip he invented in his garage? 05.01.2001
Future Tech
High-tech prison reform comes to America's state and federal inmates 05.01.2001
Works in Progress
Can custom-made video games help kids with attention deficit disorder? 03.01.2001
A Love Song for Napster
Imagine what could happen to democracy if the courts kill off this popular software 02.01.2001
Smart Food for Robots
02.01.2001
An End to the World Wide Wait?
02.01.2001
Mechanics of Panic
02.01.2001
Machines that Think
Which of the following can computers now do better than humans? Write advanced software Design other machines Predict who will pay their bills Evolve and adapt All of the above and more 01.01.2001
Common Sense on a Chip
01.01.2001
Wish These Were On Your Explorer?
01.01.2001
Computers That Talk
If you hate using a keyboard to communicate with your PC, you're going to love the next revolution in technology 12.01.2000
Future Tech
Do children know a better computer when they see it? 12.01.2000
Book 'em, Database
12.01.2000
NonStick Computing
12.01.2000
The Future of the Internet
Hang tough, surfers: Here come adventures unimagined, dangers undreamed of, and a towering wave of chaos to test your nerve 11.01.2000
The Nug Cracker
11.01.2000
Future Tech
What's beyond silicon and fiber optics? Would you believe microprocessors with living brain tissue? 10.01.2000
Next, the Copier Will Reproduce Popsicles
10.01.2000
Beam Me Up, Barbie
09.01.2000
Future Tech
Soon you'll be able to reach out and touch someone on the internet 08.01.2000
Tower of Tetris
08.01.2000
Avoiding the Hand of God Look at the Movies
08.01.2000
Freeing Minds with EEGs
08.01.2000
Future Tech
06.01.2000
Avoiding the next Big Hack Attack
05.01.2000
Traffic with the Weather
04.01.2000
Gene-ius Computer
04.01.2000
DISCOVER Roundtable-The Startling Future of Computers
Connect to the Internet through a tiny telephone implanted in your head? 11.01.1999
The Future of Computers A Discover roundtable Discussion
Our guru panelists say you're headed toward a revolutionary new relationship with your PC.Ooops! What PC? Who needs a keyboard, a clunky old CPU, and a monitor when you can connect to the Internet through a tiny telephone implanted in your head? 11.01.1999
Nasa's Space Mutant
09.01.1999
Disposable Chips
Disposable Chips 07.01.1999
Who's Out There?
The search for intelligent life in outer space is going so well, scientists need a little help from you and your home computer 04.01.1999
Who's Out There?
The search for intelligent life in outer space needs a little help from you and your home computer. 04.01.1999
Silicon Valleys
02.01.1999
The Nuts and Bolts of Qubits, Part 2
The Nuts and Bolts of Qubits, Part 2 01.01.1999
The Nuts and Bolts of Qubits, Part 1
(If You Really Must Know) 01.01.1999
The Great Quantum Number Cruncher
If someone succeeds in building a quantum computer--and the odds of that look better every day--the information age may never be the same. 01.01.1999
The Fiscal Frontier
Over the past three millennia, money has had many incarnations, but none--most likely--as strange as what is yet to come. We asked a group of thinkers to cast their eyes toward the future and describe what they envision. 10.01.1998
A Touch of Science
From a lab in San Diego comes a mix of science and sculpture that lets even microbiologists lay hands on their subjects. 06.01.1998
Evolving A Conscious Machine
Some computer scientists think that by letting chips build themselves, the chips will turn out to be stunninglyefficient, complex, effective, and weird—kind of like our brains. 06.01.1998
The Year in Science: Technology 1997
A Packet of Chips 01.01.1998
A Tragic Echo
11.01.1997
Truth, Beauty, and the Virtual Machine
With each passing day our fabulous software creations--our virtual machines--grow more complex, more powerful, and more unwieldy. They will never carry us to a golden future unless we start to craft them with beauty as well as brawn. 09.01.1997
Chocolate Tech
08.01.1997
The Star Machine
When a team of astrophysicists wanted to simulate a moderate-size star cluster, they figured the world's fastest computer could help. And so it could, they learned, give 3,000 years for calculating. So these computer neophytes did the natural thing. They built an even faster computer. 06.01.1997
Virtual Gorillas
04.01.1997
The Curse of QWERTY
O typewriter? Quit your torture! 04.01.1997
Beauty and Magnets
03.01.1997
Deeper Blue?
01.01.1997
Cube Tube
12.01.1996
Is Occam's Razor Rusty?
11.01.1996
Artificial Genius
Computers don't suffer, are perfectly nonjudgmental, and utterly undemanding when it comes to aesthetics. Yet soon they might teach us a thing or two about how to paint a picture, write a poem, or compose a song. 10.01.1996
1996 Discover Awards: Software
07.01.1996
Silicon Gambit
06.01.1996
Trust Me, I'm Your Software
All very complex computer programs will, at some time, fail. How often? No one knows; the programs are too complex to test. So where should we use them? How about in planes, nuclear power plants, weaponry... 05.01.1996
On the Road With Ralph
02.01.1996
http://www.hisholiness/hisbooks
01.01.1996
Heart of Iron
01.01.1996
A Face of One's Own
As any newborn baby knows, no two faces are alike. Now, finally, a computer knows this, too. 12.01.1995
The Best Computer in All Possible Worlds
The problem with computers today, says David Deutsch, is that they are all stuck in a single universe. He thinks it's time to call out the quantum mechanics. 10.01.1995
Reinventing the PC
09.01.1995
1995 Discover Awards: Sound
06.01.1995
1995 Discover Awards: Computer Software
06.01.1995
A Wearable Computer
02.01.1994
Ladies May Have a Fit Upstairs
12.01.1993
Venus Exposed
Computer wizardry has turned raw data into stunning pictures of our sister planet. But do they show the real thing? 12.01.1993
Tutor by Computer
09.01.1993
The Shape of Things to Come
06.01.1993
The Body Electric
New computer models reveal patterns that spring back from the heart. 02.01.1993
Mass Transit for One
12.01.1992
1992 Discover Awards: Computer Software
09.01.1992
Fire in the Sky
Supercomputers and new observational technology are helping astronomers unlock the sun's most stubborn secrets. 08.01.1992
My Computer Runneth Over
07.01.1992
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