October 2007 Feature Articles

How the U.S. Patent Office's New Patent Rules Affect You

What you need to know about the USPTO's new patent rules to protect your intellectual property

Can plug-in hybrid electric vehicles keep the electric grid stable?

Speakers at an IEEE-USA symposium on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles debate the promises and challenges of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology

Deep-Brain Stimulators for Parkinson's Disease Increase Impulsive Decision Making

Electronic brain implants make it harder to decide what's better than good

Remembering Sputnik 50 Years Later

Three veterans of the early days of spaceflight reflect on the impact a tiny satellite had on the course of history

Remembering Sputnik: Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Remembering Sputnik: Frederick C. Durant III

Remembering Sputnik: Ernst Stuhlinger

Secrets of Sputnik

The Greening of Google

Corporate rooftops are the latest frontier in solar energy generation

All A-Twitter

Smart Parking Systems Make It Easier to Find a Parking Space

From an airport system that directs drivers toward open spaces to cities' replacing meters with pay stations, technology is changing the way we park

Solar Gets Googled

The High-k Solution

Microprocessors coming out this fall are the result of the first big redesign in CMOS transistors since the late 1960s

The iPhone's Missing Buttons

Valuable real estate on the main screen won't stay vacant for long

The Codemaker

Eric Hahn has been an executive, an entrepreneur, and an investor. But he's happiest of all to call himself a programmer.

Space Station: Internal NASA Reports Explain Origins of June Computer Crisis

A mistake like that on the way to Mars would be fatal

Researchers Testing New Electric Treatment for Migraines

A small dc current through the skull seems to interrupt the headaches and may even prevent them

Anatomy of a Crash-Test Dummy

We've been learning a lot from dummies

Cracking GO

Brute-force computation has eclipsed humans in chess, and it could soon do the same in this ancient Asian game

The Technology Behind the Formula One Scandal

A British team got secrets about Ferrari's tech tricks by e-mail

Alternative Knife for Plastic Surgery After Weight Loss

Medical-device manufacturers look to cash in by trimming the fat