Summer 2003

Ruth Schwartz Cowan has made a career of discovering unlikely truths about our material world and how it got that way—and still finds colleagues who think the subject isn’t quite legitimate

More than a century ago, an innovative word-processing device combined a single removable type element, an unconventional, scientifically designed keyboard, and the latest in lightweight materials

THE HELMET IS OLDER THAN THE CITY-STATE AND NEWER THAN THE AIRPLANE

HOW TECHNOLOGY THAT WAS DEVELOPED FOR SECRET INTELLIGENCE-GATHERING BECAME A KEY TO BETTER MAMMOGRAPHY

EVEN BEFORE THEY ARRIVED ON CONSUMERS’ PLATES, THEY SHOWED GREAT PROMISE-AND ATTRACTED GREAT OPPOSITION

SEVENTY YEARS AGO IT WAS THE CUTTING EDGE OF AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY. NOW IT’S BACK.