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An unusual invitation.A party invitation you cannot refuse..., Author(s): John GilbeyAuthor Affiliations:Solstice Illustration by Jacey [see PDF for image]Artistic image of a hexagonal box with a glowing light inside itThe letter on my desk wasn't from Human Resources, [...]

An error of judgement?Your past mistakes will come to haunt you., Author(s): John GilbeyAuthor Affiliations:Breakthrough Illustration by Jacey [see PDF for image]After years of fairly pointed silence, it was a surprise to get an e-mail from my old institute. When I [...]

A mid-twentieth-century science-fiction writers image of the City of the Future: that is how the approach to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in California can seem. On [...]

The guard at the gate of the Citadel nodded acknowledgement as I walked up the worn stone steps towards her, my boots crackling in the frost. 'A cold night, pilgrim,' [...]

The Man Who Invented the Computer: The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital Pioneer JANE SMILEY Doubleday: 2010. 256 pp. $25.95 Who invented the digital computer? Depending on your definition, mathematical [...]

I was looking for a man with a small dragon perched on his shoulder, but the low atmospheric pressure made even the short walk from the shuttle to the concourse [...]

Author(s): John Gilbey (corresponding author) [1] Seveneves Neal Stephenson William Morrow: 2015. Neal Stephenson writes big science fiction, literally and figuratively. Weighing in at some 900 pages and stretching nearly [...]

I've read the Daily Bulletin religiously every work day since I started at the Accelerator Division. It gives me a picture Of what is happening on the site, who is [...]

Networking Peripheries: Technological Futures and the Myth of Digital Universalism ANITA SAY CHAN MIT Press: 2013. Many see the development of Internet access in a country as a series of [...]

I turned the tinted glass tablet over in my hands, looked at the perfectly ground edges, felt the silk-like quality of the cool surface and finally held it up and [...]

The third-brightest object in Earth's night sky is the International Space Station (ISS), according to NASA. The station's cultural impact on humanity has perhaps been less brilliant--until this year. From [...]

All in all, 2062 hasn't been such a bad year by modern standards. The aftermath of the Silicon Valley debacle is still with us, of course. You will remember the [...]

On Computing--The Fourth Great Scientific Domain PAUL S. ROSENBLOOM MIT Press; 2012. 312 pp. $35, 24.95 £) In On Computing, Paul Rosenbloom examines the case for computing to enter the [...]

We'd been dating for years, but we were still tiptoeing around the question that faces many couples in our situation. It was, we agreed very late one night, a matter [...]

One of the great advantages of being a writer is the fascinating folk you meet. Take Bob, for example. I first talked to him in Palo Alto about eight years [...]

I almost met Neal Stephenson once, at a conference in Silicon Valley, California. The author was sitting in a melee of scientists and technologists, but seemed oddly detached. If I [...]

The marquee outside Building 40 sizzled quietly in the late afternoon Californian sun, a touch of retro flair on a starkly modern building. In front of me in the queue [...]

From the window of our coffee room you get an excellent view of the Gothic, vaguely sinister, Registry building. My colleagues and I, the hardcore survivors of the New Year [...]

I was the only passenger in the 16-seat shuttle for the last leg of the journey. When we finally landed at Sentinel Observatory--after a low-G ballet that left my lunch [...]

The symptoms are always the same. You don't see anyone around the unit for a few days, then the locksmith's van appears outside and is met by a couple of [...]

Wired for Innovation: How Information Technology is Reshaping the Economy Erik Brynjolfsson and Adam Saunders MIT Press: 2009. 134 pp. $18.95, 14.95 £ Information technology has clearly had an impact [...]

He who fell from grace was called the Professor--that is to say, one who professed grand skill and art. The term is now ironic, as his fall was great and [...]

The Privacy Advocates: Resisting the Spread of Surveillance by Colin J. Bennett MIT Press: 2008. 259 pp. 18.95 £ Privacy: A Manifesto by Wolfgang Sofsky (Translated by Steven Rendall) Princeton [...]

It was the pain that woke me, something that has happened increasingly often over the past couple of months. I thought at first that it was some residual effect from [...]

After running out of postdoc money, and then running out of sofas to sleep on, it was a great relief to get offered work by the Institute. Only a short-term [...]

It was inevitable that Emma would find out about phase two of the project, but I really didn't think she would react the way she did. She called me a [...]

Author(s): John Gilbey [1] It seemed an excellent idea at the time, and I thought it would look suitably impressive on the CV. No extra money, of course, but you [...]

Author(s): John Gilbey [1] The lab meeting droned on through the blazing, fetid April afternoon. Air conditioning is for systems, not people, according to Tim -- my department head -- [...]

Author(s): John Gilbey [1] Jim and I are a pretty good double act. He's the modeller and I'm the data wrangler -- I don't criticize his code and he doesn't [...]