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dateMore Than a Year Ago
subjectTheory
authorScientific American
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Nanotech Pioneer Langer Wins Award By Thinking Small
From ACM Opinion

Nanotech Pioneer Langer Wins Award By Thinking Small

Bioengineer Robert Langer has spent his career looking for the next not-so-big thing.

A Graphene Discoverer Speculates on the Future of Computing
From ACM Opinion

A Graphene Discoverer Speculates on the Future of Computing

In 2010 two physicists at Manchester University in the U.K. shared a Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on a new wonder material: graphene, a flat sheet of carbon...

This Mathematician Figured Out How to Solve For Zero
From ACM Opinion

This Mathematician Figured Out How to Solve For Zero

To mathematician Amir Aczel the most important number of all might just be zero.

Search Gives ­s Superpowers
From ACM News

Search Gives ­s Superpowers

Machine learning—an area of AI focusing on systems that "learn" from data in order to navigate future similar scenarios—is one of the ways we’ve managed to give...

Why We're All Beta Testers Now
From ACM Opinion

Why We're All Beta Testers Now

I taught a class a few years ago at Columbia Business School called "What Makes a Hit a Hit—and a Flop a Flop."

What Is It Like to Control a Robotic Arm with a Brain Implant?
From ACM Opinion

What Is It Like to Control a Robotic Arm with a Brain Implant?

Jan Scheuermann is not your average experimental subject.

'glass Brain' Offers Tours of the Space Between Your Ears
From ACM Opinion

'glass Brain' Offers Tours of the Space Between Your Ears

Former Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart takes pride in his brain.

A Computer Scientist Tells Mathematicians How To Write Proofs
From ACM Opinion

A Computer Scientist Tells Mathematicians How To Write Proofs

Believe it or not, I do have friends who would describe themselves as not liking math, and every so often one of them will share this meme on Facebook: And then...

Visualizing 4-Dimensional Asteroids
From ACM Opinion

Visualizing 4-Dimensional Asteroids

One of the largest treasure troves of astronomical data comes from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), an ongoing scan of the firmament that began 15 years ago...

The Case For Kill Switches in Military Weaponry
From ACM Opinion

The Case For Kill Switches in Military Weaponry

This summer the insurgent group ISIS captured the Iraqi city of Mosul—and along with it, three army divisions' worth of U.S.-supplied equipment from the Iraqi army...

Beyond Classic Brain Illustrations That Make ­S Drool
From ACM Opinion

Beyond Classic Brain Illustrations That Make ­S Drool

I threw down a bit of a challenge last month at the Association of Medical Illustrators Conference in Minnesota.

Quantum Chaos: After a Failed Speed Test, the D-Wave Debate Continues
From ACM Opinion

Quantum Chaos: After a Failed Speed Test, the D-Wave Debate Continues

How hard can it be to determine whether a computer works as promised?

Time Travel: Installing an Atomic Clock at 15,000 Feet
From ACM Opinion

Time Travel: Installing an Atomic Clock at 15,000 Feet

A few months ago I went to Cambridge, Mass. to check in with the Event Horizon Telescope crew and found Shep Doeleman, the project leader, fresh off the completion...

So Far, Big Data Is Small Potatoes
From ACM Opinion

So Far, Big Data Is Small Potatoes

Is Big Data going to revolutionize science and help us make a better world? Not based on what it's done so far.

From ACM Opinion

Time Machines Would Run Afoul of the Second Law of Thermodynamics

We've all seen those movies where someone goes back in time and tries to change something (the classic "Grandfather Paradox": what happens if you go back in time...

Warp Drive Research Key to Interstellar Travel
From ACM Opinion

Warp Drive Research Key to Interstellar Travel

As any avid Star Trek fan can tell you, the eccentric physicist Zefram Cochrane invented the warp-drive engine in the year 2063.

Asimov's Predictions from 1964: A Brief Report Card
From ACM Opinion

Asimov's Predictions from 1964: A Brief Report Card

Predictions about technology's future are almost always doomed.

7 Gadgets to Watch For in 2014
From ACM Opinion

7 Gadgets to Watch For in 2014

Turn an ordinary table into a touch screen, monitor your kids' whereabouts, and place the power of 3D printing in the palm of your hand—and there’s more.

How Microsoft's 1 Percenters Balance Basic Research with Short-Term Success
From ACM Opinion

How Microsoft's 1 Percenters Balance Basic Research with Short-Term Success

When Microsoft launched its research labs in 1991, the personal computer was just beginning to blossom into a worldwide phenomenon, thanks in no small part to Windows...

Will Ibm's Watson ­sher in a New Era of Cognitive Computing?
From ACM Opinion

Will Ibm's Watson ­sher in a New Era of Cognitive Computing?

Computers as we know them have are close to reaching an inflection point—the next generation is in sight but not quite within our grasp.
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