Contemplating the Eiffel Tower in 1895, Russian mathematician Konstantin Tsiolkovsky got an idea. He imagined a huge tower anchoring a cable that reached up to a way- station parked in a geostationary orbit. People and materials could ascend the cable into space without rocket propulsion. As recently as 15 years ago, the idea of such […]

A lot of today’s engineers got their start as kids playing with electronics kits, wiring together resistors or capacitors. Depending on how you put the pieces together, you could build a simple switch or make bulbs blink like a movie marquee.

Scientists are now starting to tinker in a similar way with a new sort of […]

Here’s what we’re learning with our cell phones, sensors and Wi-Fi: losing the wires is only the beginning. What happens next is unpredictable, empowering and sometimes a bit unnerving.

Sawing open someone’s skull for research purposes is a no-no, but brain scientists have found the next best thing. By projecting an electrical charge through the skull, they can now flick neurons on and off without ever breaking the skin.

Security guru Bruce Schneier says that the only way to stop phishers and identity thieves is to make financial institutions solely responsible: “Push the responsibility — all of it — for identity theft onto the financial institutions, and phishing will go away.

Women may not like men who are cry babies, as they do not conform to the macho male stereotype, but in mice, crying males attract females by releasing pheromones in tears.

A study that began in 1943 and ended in 1999 shows that teenage girls are having sex at a younger age than ever before and are taking the lead in dismantling sexual taboos.

Thomas Sowell:
During my first semester of teaching, many years ago, I was surprised to encounter the philosophy that the brightest students did not need much help from the teacher because “they can get it anyway” and that my efforts should be directed toward the slower or low-performing students.

Recent studies have confirmed that two-thirds of motorists suffer from permanent stress as they torture their way through endless traffic jams with blood pressure rising in anger over situations they cannot control.

Nine out of 10 US men aged over 60 years are now overweight, according to the first study to assess the long-term risk of piling on the pounds. The study ran from 1971 to 2001 and involved people aged between 30 and 59 at the beginning.

We have already been promised smart cars that automatically transmit an alarm call after a crash. Now US chip-maker Texas Instruments has plans for a personalised equivalent - a cellphone or PDA that does the same job no matter which vehicle you’re travelling in.