So you may have heard of Moore's Law and while it isn't truly a law it has pretty closely estimated a trend we've seen in the advancement of computing technologies. Moore's Law states that we'll see approximately a 2x increase in...

Lexie is an active, healthy 2-year-old and already lending a hand, or more specifically her wrist to science. She's helping researchers test sensors designed to gauge something particularly difficult to measure scientifically --...

In our SERIES FINALE of Crash Course Computer Science we take a look towards the future! In the past 70 years electronic computing has fundamentally changed how we live our lives, and we believe it’s just getting started. From ubiquitous...

There's a list of the 500 most powerful computers on Earth, and we're downloading the details on the top five.

Learn about the history of computer technology, from the abacus of the ancient world to smartphones of the modern age.

Imagine if engineers could build a computer to be millions of times faster than anything that exists today, yet so small it's microscopic. John Preskill, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, explains the...

Today we’re going to go a little meta and talk about how computer science can support learning with educational technology. We here at Crash Course are big fans of interactive in-class learning and hands-on experiences, but we also...

Today we start a three episode arc on the rise of a global telecommunications network that changed the world forever. We’re going to begin with computer networks, and how they grew from small groups of connected computers on LAN networks...

Today we begin our discussion of computer graphics. So we ended last episode with the proliferation of command line (or text) interfaces, which sometimes used screens, but typically electronic typewriters or teletypes onto paper. But by...

Since Joseph Marie Jacquard’s textile loom in 1801, there has been a demonstrated need to give our machines instructions. In the last few episodes, our instructions were already in our computer’s memory, but we need to talk about how...

So we’ve talked about computer memory a couple times in this series, but what we haven’t talked about is storage. Data written to storage, like your hard drive, is a little different, because it will still be there even if the power goes...

The image of a rat sniffing around for food with its little whiskers moving back and forth to help satisfy it's appetite is enough to make most people lose theirs! But those whiskers play a valuable role in helping rats determine what...

Two developments in quantum computing in the past couple of weeks are the harbingers of a whole new era of smart technology. Google announced that it's building a quantum computer designed by a company called D-Wave in partnership with...

A quantum computer isn't just a more powerful version of the computers we use today; it's something else entirely, based on emerging scientific understanding -- and more than a bit of uncertainty. Enter the quantum wonderland with TED...

In many ways, our memories make us who we are, helping us remember our past, learn and retain skills, and plan for the future. And for the computers that often act as extensions of ourselves, memory plays much the same role. Kanawat...

The transistors that power the phone in your pocket are unimaginably small: you can fit more than 3,000 of them across the width of a human hair. But to keep up with innovations in fields like facial recognition and augmented reality, we...

What is consciousness? Can an artificial machine really think? For many, these have been vital considerations for the future of artificial intelligence. But British computer scientist Alan Turing decided to disregard all these questions...

In this glimpse into our technological future, cryptographer Craig Costello discusses the world-altering potential of quantum computers, which could shatter the limits set by today's machines -- and give code breakers a master key to the...

In the early 19th century, a French weaver named Joseph-Marie Jacquard was searching for a better way to make fabric. And in so doing, he managed to invent a loom that inspired the first proper computer.



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What happens when technology knows more about us than we do? Poppy Crum studies how we express emotions -- and she suggests the end of the poker face is near, as new tech makes it easy to see the signals that give away how we're feeling....

What if we could grow delicious, nutrient-dense food, indoors anywhere in the world? Caleb Harper, director of the Open Agriculture Initiative at the MIT Media Lab, wants to change the food system by connecting growers with technology....

We've been promised a future of chrome -- but what if the future is fleshy? asks biological designer Christina Agapakis. In this awe-inspiring talk, Agapakis details her work in synthetic biology -- a multidisciplinary area of research...

Increasingly unconstrained by the limits of their lifeless, emotionless construction, computers are being used more and more to improve our understanding of human emotions. This trend is due, in part, to the work of Shaundra Daily, who —...

Quantum computers are still years away, but a trio of theoretical physicists has already figured out at least one talent they may have. The theorists, including one from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), have...