Gearfuse Technology, Science, Culture & More

A Microsoft patent filed in May (and published yesterday) describes a �topography-changing� display in which shape-memory polymers would react to light signals to change the texture of a display surface, a technology that may be used to develop tactile touchscreens or other controls.

A visual cut-up poem and a paean to the technological imagery of the urban night.

Half a millennium before Columbus' calamitous 1492 arrival in the Caribbean, DNA from the Americas may have infiltrated the European genome by way of a woman brought to Iceland by Vikings. Like the semimythical Pocahantas, her impact may have been far-reaching.

A morning on the slow but effective internet of the crows.

It's time to gather round the table and give thanks for the wonders of technology.

Don't say, "too bad it's not an iPhone app." I mean, it's free! It's fun! It's on the World Wide Web! News of the death of which has been greatly exaggerated.

From Steve Martin to the shield of Achilles, considering the relationship of image and text in a networked age.

The obligatory holiday post scares up some hair-raising ways to roast a bird.

"We were forcing acoustic guitars through a cassette player, and what came out the other end was electric as hell."

With the power of massively concentrated sunlight, you could teach those giant ants in the old scifi thriller Them! a thing or two.