December 2006 Feature Articles

It's a Wiki, Wiki World

Showdown On The Energy Frontier

Russia's huge oil and gas fields test relations with foreign investors

Who Dares, Wins

How to act boldly but not foolishly

IBM Takes the Guesswork Out of Services Consulting

Big Blue pushes a new research discipline called services science

How I Got My PlayStation

A Brazilian game-magazine editor came all the way to New York to stand in line for 38 hours for a shiny black box

Virtually Private

A new Swedish network helps you hide online

IBM's New Motto: Think...About How Others Think

Better Safe Than Sorry

This wallet is going to keep high-tech thieves at bay

Forum: Our Readers Write

How Bell Labs Missed the Microchip

The man who pioneered the transistor never appreciated its full potential

Escape From Flatland

Holografika's 3-D display is so good that if you move your head, you can see around a corner

Engineers and Autism

Patently Obvious

The rules about what can—and cannot—be patented may soon change

Bits on the Big Screen

Computer servers and digital projectors are about to replace the canisters of film and spinning sprockets of the world's movie theaters

The Physicist of "Star Trek"

Our Science of Hollywood columnist talks to Lawrence M. Krauss, the scientist who paid the ultimate compliment to a science-fiction series—he took its science seriously

A Genius for Doing Good

The First Electronic Device, Ever?

On 13 December, in London, Christie's will auction off some of Edison's original lightbulbs—including one designed to direct the flow of current