Gearfuse Technology, Science, Culture & More

At the Web 2.0 Summit, a look at the emergence of mobile technology and unforeseen twists in the story of the digital divide and the ongoing evolution of the public sphere.

"Just as the shadows in the hollows of the Earth diminish in size as the Sun rises higher, so also these spots on the Moon lose their blackness as the illuminated part grows larger and larger."

Scientists at Tokyo Tech have tapped into the neurons of a male silk moth, connecting its tiny brain to a little wheeled robot. When the moth�s sense organs are exposed to female pheremones, the robot performs the silk moth�s mating dance.

Perhaps the most useful�and certainly the most whimsical�pick on Time�s list of the 50 Best Inventions of 2010, Sugru is a moldable, self-adhesive, self-curing silicone elastomer. That doesn�t sound whimsical? Then you haven�t watched the video yet.

The information-design authority Edward Tufte is selling his multimillion-dollar collection of rare books, which together make up a "Museum of Cognitive Art." For most of us, the slideshow will have to do.

A new network protocol offers a surprising way to make messages travel more efficiently.

"An idiolect is a language (or some part or aspect of a language) that can be characterized exhaustively in terms of intrinsic properties of some single person, the person whose idiolect it is."

The SRZero goes from 0 to 60 in fewer than seven seconds. But this power doesn�t come from stepping on the gas�the race-ready automobile runs on electricity. And in a coup for green technology, tomorrow the car will reach Ushuaia, Argentina and the end of a 16,000-mile journey from Prudhoe Bay in Alaska.

To Kelly, the advance guard of the technium is to be found among the quadrillions of computer chips networked into vast electronic systems. But It may be difficult to discern whether the desires driving that process belong to technology, or are our own.

Talking about the new Facebook mail system at today�s live event, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook director of engineering Andrew �Boz� Bosworth keep using words like �simple, seamless, and informal.� But does the new system promote a dumbed-down version of sociability?