The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Imagine that someone gives you a list of five numbers: 1, 6, 21, 107, and—wait for it—47,176,870. Can you guess what comes next? If ...

Ada Lovelace, the pioneering mathematician of the 19th century, dreamed of machines that could do more than calculate. She ...

Remember Microsoft Paint? It’s more perfect than ever. By Jean-Luc Bouchard My generation may be the last to have childhood memories of a family “computer room” — though ours was really more of a ...

A simple computer program that teaches children to distinguish between sounds can dramatically boost their listening skills. It can allow them to progress by the equivalent of two years in just a few ...

President Barack Obama, to kick off the annual Computer Science Education Week, has become the first US president (at least as far as we know) to write a computer program. While this might not seem ...