Technology

#97: CIA Said to Exploit Vaccine Drive in Pakistan

To get DNA in their hunt for Osama bin Laden, the CIA may have gone too far. 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

#31: First Stealth 
Helicopter Crashes Into Public View


New secret weapon emerges: A chopper with quiet rotors and radar-absorbing skin. 12.29.2011

#34: World’s Smallest Electric Motor


Single-molecule motor is 60,000 times thinner than a human hair. 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

#57: XXL Invisibility Cloak


Two advances usher the age of the invisible within sight. 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

#86: Silicon’s Next Wave


A re-worked form of silicon may be the next smallest, fastest thing in computer chip design. 12.29.2011

#92: 3-D Chips Make Computers Faster


New waffle-like construction of chips does more with less. 12.29.2011

#37: Today’s Forecast: Cloudy, 
80 Percent Chance of a Sunspot

The next time the Sun releases a destructive magnetic belch, we may have some warning to protect the electric grid. 12.27.2011

#7: Japan Quakes; Nuke Power Stays Steady

This year enthusiasm for nuclear power in some developed nations 
seemed to vanish after Japan’s nuclear disaster. But while those countries 
recoil from atomic energy, others are committing to a nuclear future. 12.20.2011

The Computer Program That Draws Realistic Exoplanets

Accurate, pretty, and faster than any artist 12.19.2011

Discover Interview: Newt Gingrich

The former Speaker—now a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination—talked to DISCOVER in 2006 about evolution, stem cells, Washington's two cultures, and why kids should be paid to take science and math. 12.09.2011