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Thu, 07/23/2020 - 09:29
Weizenbaum
Joseph Weizenbaum.

CAMBRIDGE, MA — 1966 — A woman sits at a computer terminal. No screen, no mouse, just a keyboard linked to some mainframe somewhere across campus.

“This is ELIZA,” Joe says. “It’s a computer program.You can ask it anything you want. Just type in a question.”  

Wed, 07/08/2020 - 19:38
mars rover
Scheduled to launch in July, the Mars 2020 mission will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize Mars' climate and geology, collect samples for future return to Earth, and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. Courtesy of NASA.
Fri, 06/26/2020 - 15:51
The Dreibelbis Station Bridge is a classic Burr arch truss covered bridge spanning Maiden Creek south of Lenhartsville, Pennsylvania.
The Dreibelbis Station Bridge, spanning Maiden Creek south of Lenhartsville, Pennsylvania. was constructed with a Burr Arch truss, which employs both an arch and a multiple kingpost truss design.
Mon, 06/22/2020 - 22:08
Lewis_Latimer
Born in Massachusetts in 1848, Latimer served in the U.S.
Sat, 06/20/2020 - 17:49

Editor's Note: Michael J. Boyle is Associate Professor  of Political Science at Rutgers Camden and a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.

Fri, 06/19/2020 - 15:31
paul allen
Allen died from Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2018. He was 65. 

My friendship with Paul started with a computer. I was in 8th grade, Paul was in 10th (although he seemed a lot more than two years older to me, because he was tall and had a really cool beard). 

Wed, 05/13/2020 - 17:59

STRASBURG, PA. Replica sailing ships and historic buildings are commonplace; I have lost count of the number of reproduced Santa Marias . Locomotive replicas are much more rare. During the past 70 years or so, only three have been built in the United States, so it was newsworthy when Stanley P. Gentry, an industrialist of Ribbing, Minnesota, decided to build a replica of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad’s first locomotive, the Lyon .

Mon, 05/11/2020 - 07:43
Marc Chavannes (above) and Alfred Fielding invented bubble wrap in 1957 as a high-end wallpaper.
Marc Chavannes (above) and Alfred Fielding invented bubble wrap in 1957 as a high-end wallpaper.

Emily Prokop is the author of 

Thu, 01/16/2020 - 14:17
Arlyne Simon, Patent Holder
Name: Arlyne Simon, PhD
Birthdate: March 30, 1986
Hometown: Laudat Village, Dominica
Mon, 12/30/2019 - 12:07

Mary Phelps Jacobs was only 19 when she became dissatisfied with the confining corset-style under-garments of the era.  It was 1910, and the wealthy socialite wanted to wear a revealing gown to a debutante ball.  But her tight and restrictive corsets, a typical fashion of the day, poked out from under the plunging neckline.  

Struck with inspiration, she asked a maid to bring her two silk handkerchiefs and a pink ribbon and transformed them into a comfortable undergarment suitable for backless gowns.   

Mon, 12/30/2019 - 07:09

We are so pleased to be able to once again produce an issue of Invention & Technology, especially one chronicling the lives of 50 women inventors.

Sun, 12/29/2019 - 15:19

Photos of patent models at the Hagley Museum.

Photos of patent models at the Hagley Museum.

Sun, 12/29/2019 - 14:08

In early September 1900, a tropical storm crossed Cuba, its precise location and intensity largely unknown to weather services, and intensified over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It smashed into the Texas coast as a Category 4 hurricane, destroying the low-lying town of Galveston with a 12-foot storm surge. An estimated 8,000 people died.

Sun, 12/29/2019 - 12:10
Nanodropper Team
Mackenzie Andrews, Jennifer Steger, and Allisa Song of the Nanodropper Team. Photo by Matt Hagan/UW Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship

 

Sun, 12/29/2019 - 12:09
Photo of Brooke Martin, inventor of iCPooch
Name: Brooke Martin
Birthdate: Dec. 2, 1999
Hometown: Spokane, Washington
Education: Stanford University, Class of 2021, Majoring in Management Science and Engineering
Sun, 12/29/2019 - 12:08
Katy Flannery and Gwen Burlingame, Founders of Beckon Ice Cream
Name: Katy Flannery (left)
Born: December 11, 1989
Hometown: North Attleboro, Massachusetts
Education: Villanova University, Class of 2012, Nursing Major
Name: Gwen Burlingame (right)
Sun, 12/29/2019 - 12:07

As a child, Vera Rubin spent hours peering through a telescope at the stars visible from her bedroom window. Her parents weren’t sure what to do about this interest in stargazing. Her mother felt young Vera was wasting her time spending hours gazing at the stars through a little cardboard telescope. Her father – a mathematician and electrical engineer – recognized that she had a gift for science, but he knew women weren’t welcome in technical fields, and that she’d encounter hostility and rejection if she pursued her interest in astronomy.

Sun, 12/29/2019 - 12:06
Helen and Alfred Free in their laboratory
Helen and Alfred Free in 1948 at the Miles-Ames Research Laboratory (now Bayer), where they developed the first dip-and-read test strip.

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

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