In his 1949 book The Concept of Mind, Gilbert Ryle, an English philosopher, introduced the term “category mistake.” He gave the example of a visitor to the University of Oxford who sees colleges and a splendid library and then asks, “But where is the university?” The category mistake is obvious: A university is an institution, […]
“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution,” the eminent geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote in 1973. That goes for the human diet. We are omnivores, not herbivores. Natural selection has formed us to eat both plant and animal foods and to like doing so. Chimpanzees, the primates that are genetically the closest […]
The rising number of components on a microchip is the go-to example of roaring innovation. Intel’s first microprocessor, the 4004, released in 1971, had 2,300 transistors; half a century later the highest count surpasses 50 billion, for the Apple M1 Max—an increase of seven orders of magnitude. Most other technical advances have lagged behind: During […]
Plate glass, like steel, is all around us. It is taken for granted, and most people have no idea how it is made. Although both materials are ancient, their production was fundamentally improved only after World War II—primary steelmaking with the introduction of basic oxygen furnaces, and plate-glassmaking by the successful application of the old […]
This month Mojo Vision unveiled its latest AR contact lens. Still a prototype, the device has clinical testing and further development ahead before it can apply for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval needed to sell to consumers. But Mojo’s engineers are steadily ticking off engineering milestones. Last week I got to literally […]
Three months ago the Glasgow Climate Pact (COP26) declared that by 2030 the world must cut total carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent relative to the 2010 level, which was 30.4 billion tonnes. This would bring annual emissions to less than 20 billion tonnes, a level last seen more than 30 years ago. What are […]
LCDs may be the mainstay of consumer displays, but when it comes to picture quality, including high contrast ratio, brighter colors, and wider viewing angles, OLEDs have the edge. These organic light-emitting diode displays are so-called because of their self-emission capabilities, using organic carbon-based compounds and other ingredients to create colors. Because each pixel produces […]
There is a fundamental difference between what can be designed and built and what makes sense. History provides a lesson in the shape of record-setting behemoths that have never since been equaled. The Egyptian pyramids started small, and in just a few generations, some 4,500 years ago, there came Khufu’s enormous pyramid, which nobody has […]
45 years ago, mass produced computers exploded onto the global stage as a harbinger of the digital future. And they’ve never really lost that futuristic shine, with every major announcement in hardware or software touting how the latest product will shape the world of tomorrow, albeit most likely in the form of a new phone […]
My editor at IEEE Spectrum is convinced that in the future smartphones will have spectrometers to probe the world around them [True-Ed.]. As an experimental preview into this era, he obtained a spectrometer with a higher resolution than budget-minded makers have access to today, the Hamamatsu C12880MA, available in small quantities as a US $350 […]