Computer

Blades Have The Edge

Superslim machines are fomenting a quiet revolution in the server room

Nanotechnology: What Will It Mean?

Rise of the Machines

Chess computers are beating grand masters with ever-greater ease, and even more demoralizing, they're beginning to do it with style

A Self-Made Machine

RepRap, a new open-source hardware project, goes a long way toward fulfilling the dream of self-replicating machines

The Trouble With Touch Screens

Scientists search for a replacement for indium-tin oxide, a transparent conductor that's vanishing fast

A Bronx Tale

Broadband TV concern hooks up the 'hood

The African Hacker

With home-brewed code and a little help from Microsoft, a programmer in Ghana launches Africa's first software empire

Who Killed the Virtual Case File?

How the FBI blew more than $100 million on case-management software it will never use

The All-Seeing Employer

An overseer of remote employees stops by their virtual cubicles every few minutes

Your Next Computer Will Probably Be a Notebook

The data

A Match Made in Packets

Coming soon: cellular handsets that can use a Wi-Fi network

Ethernet's High-Wire Act

As ever-richer media burden data networks, a new IEEE standard is needed to ensure quality of service

Fighting Indigestion At the Internet Buffet

A description

Networking Know-How

Using online networking sites could land you your next job

Cryptographers Take On Quantum Computers

Researchers prepare for the day when quantum computers can easily crack today's codes

Electric Flex

Electrically activated plastic muscles will let robots smile, arm-wrestle, and maybe even fly like bugs

Exoskeletons Around the World

A photo gallery of exoskeletons and wearable robotic systems in the U.S., Europe, and Asia

Fly like a Fly

The common housefly executes exquisitely precise and complex aerobatics with less computational might than an electric toaster

Hold Me Closer, Tinny Dancer

I, Roboticist

I wanted a robot butler, so I built one

Engineering Everquest

Online gaming demands heavyweight data centers

Who Killed the Virtual Case File?

How the FBI blew more than $100 million on case-management software it will never use

A Rock Show Gets the LED Out

Stadium acts like Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead are trading pyrotechnics and JumboTrons for LEDs and software

A Self-Made Machine

RepRap, a new open-source hardware project, goes a long way toward fulfilling the dream of self-replicating machines

Cryptographers Take On Quantum Computers

Researchers prepare for the day when quantum computers can easily crack today's codes

Who Killed the Virtual Case File?

How the FBI blew more than $100 million on case-management software it will never use

Loser: Fruitless

A strawberry-picking robot won't be displacing farmworkers anytime soon

Winner: The Revolution Will Be Prosthetized

Darpa's prosthetic arm gives amputees new hope

Winners & Losers VI

Special report

You Tell Us

Not everything is a clear-cut winner or loser. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether we'll someday look back and say, "How did we ever live without that?" or "I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time." Here's your chance to weigh in now