(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Kai James, Georgia Institute of Technology (THE CONVERSATION) Imagine you’re a copper ...

In 1941, physicist John Mauchly visited his colleague John Atanasoff at Iowa State University for a few days, during which they discussed the computer Atanasoff was working on, later called the ...

Tech bloggers are fuming over a comment by an IBM vice president taking credit for the invention of the personal computer. But who actually invented the PC anyway? Turns out it's more complicated than ...

The novelist Jane Smiley has written an interesting and informative book called The Man Who Invented the Computer, which is marred chiefly by its title. Smiley herself clearly has mixed feelings about ...

Imagine you’re a copper miner in southeastern Europe in the year 3900 B.C.E. Day after day you haul copper ore through the mine’s sweltering tunnels. You’ve resigned yourself to the grueling monotony ...