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Last week, an artificial intelligence computer named Cleverbot stunned the world with a stellar performance on the Turing Test — an IQ test of sorts for "chatbots," or conversational robots. Cleverbot, it seems, can carry on a conversation as well as any human can. In the Turing Test — conceived by British computer scientist Alan Turing in the 1950s — chatbots engage in typed conversations

inShare1 Historically, knowing where you are on the surface of the Earth has been a very difficult problem to solve. Finding an accurate position without landmarks has been a matter of dead-reckoning, astral navigation and complex calculations of longitude and latitude.

The Internet, boiled down to its most basic description, is a series of computers that are all connected through a series of Transmission Control Protocols (TCP) and Internet Protocols (IP). This network is better known as the TCP/IP network. The Internet was originally called ARPANet and was created by the United States government in the 1960s, and improved upon in the 1970s. ARPANet's

You use a URL or "uniform resource locator" every time you open a website, send an email, or download a file. URLs are very important that without the use of this addressing scheme, it will be very hard for ordinary users to use the Internet   and all its services. We normally call URLs as web address, which is in fact, the perfect description of what URLs do. Valid URLs

Both netbooks and laptops have LCD screens and keyboards that are connected by hinges. They both run on rechargeable batteries. That’s where the similarities between these two types of computer end. Although netbooks and laptops are both designed for mobile use, the netbook is a significantly scaled-down version of a traditional laptop. Most laptops are powerful enough for everday

Both plasma and LCD TVs offer higher-definition images than the original CRT TV technology, but they each take a different route to get that pivotal scene from a movie or sporting event to the screen. Plasma TVs generate the image using small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases between two panes of glass. These are essentially tiny lamps that are luminous when electrodes “electrify”

While both LCD and LED televisions are lighter and thinner than the cathode ray tube technology they replaced, there are some key differences in how they each create high-definition output. As its name implies, liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions rely on a combination of liquid crystals and cold cathode florescent lamps (CCFLs). The white light illuminates crystals and an imact is

A handful of jets have been blown up by lightning, including a Pan American flight in 1963 that killed 83 people. But scientists have since figured out how to mostly harness Nature's fury. In the early 1980s, NASA (whose shuttle launch pad was struck by lightning the other day) flew a jet into a thunderstorm at 38,000 feet. It was hit 72 times in 45 minutes, and much was learned.

  Percy Spenser was conducting radar experiments during World War II when he leaned up against a microwave-emitting tube and accidentally melted the candy bar in his pocket. Eureka. His dry cleaners were furious, but Spenser quickly understood the sweeter implications of the event, and he went on to patent the first microwave heating device. The secret to his sticky mess? Let's

  The first website on the World Wide Web went live 21 years ago, in August 1991. The site explained the concept and history of the Web, provided links to all "the world's online information" — a list that lengthened as the Web grew — and outlined the process by which people could improve and expand the Web. It was created by Tim Berners-Lee, then a computer scientist at the European

  Because there are no angles for alignment, the round shape makes these heavy covers easier to put back on once they're taken off. Round covers are also easier to manufacture. But the main reason manhole covers are round is so they won't accidentally fall into the subterranean abyss. With a round cover, no matter how you hold it, you can't shove it in. It just won't go. If it

  Large airports are slightly different all over the world, but one constant is the ubiquitous air traffic control tower, which always has windows that slope toward the tower at the base. Many people assume that they are designed that way to prevent the sun's reflection or glare from blinding incoming pilots. But this explanation doesn't fly, because surrounding buildings (and the

Quartz, made up of silica and oxygen, is one of the most common minerals on Earth. Billions of people use quartz every day, but few realize it because the tiny crystals they use are hidden in their watches and clocks. But what do the clear or whitish crystal rocks found all over the world have to do with timekeeping? Some materials, such as certain ceramics and quartz crystals, can

  What do stars and hydrogen bombs have in common? They're both powered by nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion occurs when the nuclei of two or more light atoms, like hydrogen, combine to create one big nucleus, like that of a helium atom. This process also results in the conversion of mass into energy. In order for nuclear fusion to occur, protons and neutrons must be exposed to temperatures

  You can learn more about this from Hollywood than the Halls of Science. In movies, a wheel spinning onscreen may appear to rotate slowly in the wrong direction. This is because movie cameras capture still images of a scene at a finite rate (usually 24 frames per second) and the brain fills in the gaps between these images by creating the illusion of continuous motion between the