The category of “specialist” seems to be ingrained deeply both in the history of evolution, and the development of modern society. Homo sapiens is, in its own ways, a specialist:…

The history of Artificial Intelligence,” said my computer science professor on the first day of class, “is a history of failure.” This harsh judgment summed up 50 years of trying…

Gryffindor and Slytherin are about to play their annual badminton match. The best players from each house are supposed to face off on court one, the second best on court two, and so…

In 2009, more than 47 million computers in the U.S. were ready for “end-of-life management”—so hopelessly outmoded that no reasonable amount of refurbishment could redeem them.…

Waste looks like the pile of plastic, Styrofoam, and cardboard that your tiny new earphones came in. It looks like plastic bottles overflowing in the waste bin beside a water fountain.…

Sean Rice first spoke to us on the phone from Texas, where he studies evolutionary theory. Is it possible for an evolving system, we asked, to avoid wasting any resources? His reply…

The VENONA project represents one of the most successful counter-intelligence attacks of the Cold War. It revolved around an encryption system, called the “one-time pad scheme,”…

Our humble toilet has shaped civilization. Starting in 19th-century Britain, it spread throughout the industrialized world, eliminated recurring cholera epidemics, and contributed…

Nine years ago, I was sitting in a college math physics course and my professor spelt out an idea that kind of blew my mind. I think it isn’t a stretch to say that this is one of…

Back in the 1840s, Morse code was a ground-breaking approach for sending messages over a hot, new communications medium called the electrical telegraph. Earlier this year, the last…