As big as a football field and nearly as empty, Barack Obama's re-election headquarters looks like a start-up gone wrong. Wires sprout like weeds from the carpeting, legions of bookshelves stand empty, and the swing-state maps hastily pinned to the wall are freebies from the AAA auto club down the street. In one room that could fit hundreds of people, just a few dozen sit at long desks. Most don't look old enough to buy a beer. ...

Although supercomputers are dazzling in their power and engineering virtuosity, hardware alone will only partly achieve the eventual goal of computer scientists: the creation of systems that can mimic the decision- making powers of human beings. This goal is called AI, for artificial intelligence, and it has eluded computer programmers for decades. Now, however, even as supercomputers open up new worlds of possibility, researchers are taking major strides toward making their machines both smarter and more versatile. Their work has ...

Technologist Eric Drexler envisioned a future in which machines far smaller than dust motes would construct everything from chairs to rocket engines, atom by atom; in which microscopic robots would heal human ills, cell by cell. Sixteen years after the publication of Drexler's book Engines of Creation, the molecular-scale technologies most immediately available to consumers are somewhat less fantastic: stain-resistant khakis and more durable tennis balls. Much of the hype is gone from nanotechnology, the term Drexler popularized for his ...

The intensity with which the spiffily attired investment brokers of the African Banking Corp. stare at their computer screens is misleading. A closer look reveals that they're either fiddling with iTunes or playing solitaire. Still, their boss, Seti Shumba, who moonlights as chairman of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, offers them smiles and pats on the back — he's just glad they showed up to work. These men would have once spent their days barking out orders for shares ...

In a secure vault in the U.S. Army's super-secret Intelligence and Security Command in northern Virginia, Colonel Mike Tanksley sketches the barest outlines of the new Armageddons. These are only "What ifs?" he insists, so there cannot really be details. Yet his war scenario resounds with almost biblical force. The next time a tyrant out of some modern Babylon threatens an American ally the U.S. doesn't immediately send legions of soldiers or fleets of warships. Instead Washington visits ...

"You can tell a lie but you will give yourself away. Your heart will race. Your skin will sweat ... I will know. I am the lie detector." Thus began each episode of Lie Detector, a strange cross between a relationship counseling session and an episode of the Jerry Springer Show that ran on British daytime television last year. Against a backdrop of flashing computer screens and eerie blue light, participants--usually feuding couples but sometimes warring ...

Do you always wear underwear? Do you like the smell of gasoline? Sorry to be so nosy, but if you could just take a few minutes to answer these and 98 other quick questions, the folks at thespark.com will kindly help you determine such pressing matters as how "pure" you are and how much longer you have to live. Personality tests, ranging from the silly to the dead serious, are booming online. "Everyone is interested in ...

This is partly a story about a company called Apple Computer. It's also partly a story about a fancy new iPod that plays videos as well as music and that could dramatically change the way people entertain themselves. But it's mostly a story about new things and where they come from, about which there are a few popular misconceptions. Stop and look at Apple for a second, since it's an odd company. It has been around long enough and has ...

As the founder and chairman of his eponymous computer company, Michael Dell changed the way PCs are made and sold. In the past year, though, rivals have gained on him. So this year he's going for a green advantage: he wants to erase some of the environmental cost of running computers by offering a way to neutralize the carbon dioxide emitted by a PC. Dell, 41, spoke with TIME's Bryan Walsh about climate change, the media and small, shiny objects. ...

Some of her fans would pay just about anything to see Barbra Streisand live in concert this summer. But only a few can afford to pay what it takes -- as much as $1,000 to obtain a ticket with a face value of $350 for a seat down front at arenas like Anaheim Pond and Madison Square Garden. When the New York Rangers, who haven't won the Stanley Cup since 1940, looked like they would finally do it on home ...