An illuminating vision of the next information revolution, centered on a fiber-optic infrastructure The world of 5G, the next generation of telecommunication technology, will be as different from what came before as the world after the advent of elec...

The future of smart cities has arrived, courtesy of citizens and their phones. To prove it, Daniel T. O'Brien explains the transformative insights gleaned from years researching Boston's 311 reporting system, a sophisticated city management tool that...

As a vehicle to convey both the history of modern China and the complex forces still driving the nation's economic success, rail has no equal. "Railroads and the Transformation of China" is the first comprehensive history, in any language, of railroa...

In modern life, technology is everywhere. Yet as a concept, technology is a mess. In popular discourse, technology is little more than the latest digital innovations. Scholars do little better, offering up competing definitions that include everythin...

"Living with Robots" recounts a foundational shift in the field of robotics, from artificial intelligence to artificial empathy, and foreshadows an inflection point in human evolution. Today's robots engage with human beings in socially meaningful wa...

With lines extending from Bosnia to Baghdad to Medina, the Ottoman Railway Network (1868-1919) was the pride of the empire and its ultimate emblem of modernization – yet it was largely designed and bankrolled by German corporations. This exemplifies...

An exploration of the changing conceptions of the iconic Space Shuttle and a call for a new vision of spaceflight. The thirty years of Space Shuttle flights saw contrary changes in American visions of space. Valerie Neal, who has spent much of her c...

Tracing the long pre-history of five twentieth-century inventions which have transformed our lives, Gavin Weightman reveals a fantastic cast of scientists and inspired amateurs whose ingenuity has given us the airplane, television, bar code, personal...

Humans have been preserving food for millennia, but the refrigerator is a relatively new addition to our homes. Just before the Second World War, only 3 per cent of British households had one. In the interim years the fridge has become accepted as a...

From silver spoons to silver bullets, silver permeates our everyday culture and language. For millennia we've used it to buy what we need, adorn our bodies and trumpet our social status. Silver vanquishes our insecurities, as well as vampires, werewo...