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Wikipedia Turns 15
From ACM Opinion

Wikipedia Turns 15

It must be difficult for the roughly half a billion people who visit Wikipedia every month to remember a world without the free online encyclopedia.

­sing Technology to Break the Speed Barrier of Reading
From ACM Opinion

­sing Technology to Break the Speed Barrier of Reading

I grew up in a tiny New York City apartment, packed in alongside our four cats and my father's immense personal library of some 3000 books.

Why Neuroscience Needs Hackers
From ACM Opinion

Why Neuroscience Needs Hackers

There was a time when neuroscientists could only dream of having such a problem.

How to Choose the Form of an Infographic: It's All About Context
From ACM Opinion

How to Choose the Form of an Infographic: It's All About Context

As a graphics designer, I have a love/hate relationship with circles.

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 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...

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.

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.

'net Neutrality' Ruling Opens Door For Two-Tiered Internet Market
From ACM Opinion

'net Neutrality' Ruling Opens Door For Two-Tiered Internet Market

An "Open Internet" became endangered this week at a time when the U.S. increasingly relies on Internet services to deliver everything from education to entertainment...

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...

Online Courses Can Improve Life on Campus
From ACM Opinion

Online Courses Can Improve Life on Campus

The future of on-campus learning lies in the right combination of digital and traditional tools.

How Moocs Can Help India
From ACM Opinion

How Moocs Can Help India

Online courses have the potential to dramatically transform Indian higher education by alleviating faculty shortages and delivering education on a scale and at...

The Youtube Tutor
From ACM Opinion

The Youtube Tutor

In 2006 Salman Khan logged on to YouTube and uploaded a handful of videos he had made to help his cousins with their homework. Today six million students visit...

Science in an Election Year
From ACM Opinion

Science in an Election Year

More than a dozen science and engineering organizations worked with ScienceDebate.org to draft 14 top science questions to ask the two main presidential candidates...

Bring It: A Call For Candidates to Debate Science Policy
From ACM Opinion

Bring It: A Call For Candidates to Debate Science Policy

Innovation, economic growth, and climate change are just a few of the challenges and opportunities that face the U.S. They are also firmly linked to science.

Intel Futurist on Why We Should Not Fear the Future
From ACM Opinion

Intel Futurist on Why We Should Not Fear the Future

Much of Intel's success as a microprocessor manufacturer over the past four decades has come from the company's ability to understand and anticipate the future...

How to Make Science and Tech Jobs More Enticing to Undergrads
From ACM Opinion

How to Make Science and Tech Jobs More Enticing to Undergrads

The number of U.S. undergraduate degrees being awarded in most STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math) has risen steadily in recent years...

Howard Stern Calls Out Rick Perry For His Anti-Science Views
From ACM Opinion

Howard Stern Calls Out Rick Perry For His Anti-Science Views

No shortage of articles have been published about the deep distrust exhibited by most 2012 Republican presidential candidates toward specific scientific findings—notably...

Howard Stern Calls Out Rick Perry For His Anti-Science Views
From ACM Opinion

Howard Stern Calls Out Rick Perry For His Anti-Science Views

No shortage of articles have been published about the deep distrust exhibited by most 2012 Republican presidential candidates toward specific scientific findings—notably...

From ACM Opinion

I'm Not a Real Scientist, and That's Okay

What kind of discipline is computer science? I thought it was a science when I received my bachelor's degree. I believed its subdiscipline software engineering...
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