Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

Check out these four second-generation touchscreen desktops, and find out which one is right for you. When all-in-one touchscreen desktops debuted a couple of years ago, they were criticized for being sluggish and not responding well to gestures. These second-generation machines, all of which run on the Windows 7 operating system, come with faster processors and more responsive screens.

Mike McQueary's failure to stop the crime he witnessed was tragic, but not unusual. How can you be sure your employees would have done better?

Economists are trying to quantify both the spread of the 15-year-old biomimicry industry and its economic effects, and the results are eye-opening. Introduced in 2010, the Da Vinci Index is an attempt to quantify the impact of biomimicry in the U.S. Compiled by Lynn Reaser , chief economist at Point Loma Nazarene University's Fermanian Business & Economic Institute in San Diego, the Da Vinci Index measures the use of terms unique to biomimimetic thinking in scientific publications, patents, and grants ( PDF )

The Living Building Standard--which requires buildings to create all their own energy and recycle all their own water--is so hard to meet that only three buildings are "living buildings." Two, in the Pacific Northwest, are vying for the title of world's most sustainable. Ever since the invention of the skyscraper, the contest between cities to see who could be home to the tallest building has had a symbolic potency on par with the space race

That natural cereal you're eating isn't so natural. It's filled with GMO and nonorganic ingredients

Editor's note: This article was originally published in the September 1997 issue of Scientific American (a PDF version of the original is available for purchase below). We have resurfaced this article to commemorate the end of the Tevatron

A series of startups want to reboot selflessness with new ways to give gifts. The Internet, by and large, is a selfish place.

The iconic brand returns--with a 21st-century upgrade for iPads. LeVar Burton, a children's literacy advocate and the former star of Star Trek: The Next Generation, plans to make an ambitious comeback, giving the once-loved Reading Rainbow brand a 21st-century upgrade.

First, though, the British government is going to put a normal sized balloon in the sky to see if spraying water to refract the sun's light can really prevent climate change. Maybe we'll need a Plan B

Governors are in a conundrum. How can their states toe the line on spending for vital health care services without killing the health care job creation engine?
 President Obama will address the nation tonight on the vital topic of how to create more jobs in America. I can’t help thinking that politicians on both sides of the aisle face a stark choice when it comes to jobs versus rising health care costs.

 Health care has been a reliable job creator during the recession

If we are to improve the quality of life in our cities--27 of which are expected to have more than 10 million people by 2020--we will have to find a better way to build them. MIT's new software will help.

By asking peers to decide who deserves the most government aid--instead of using empirical measurements--money can have more lasting effects. When governments and NGOs plan on giving assistance to the most needy, how do they know who needs the most assistance? It's a question people are at great pains to answer, yet social welfare programs around the world are still plagued by error and abuse

Delta Airlines has deployed 22 iPads into its global pilot workforce, as a preliminary trial of the iPad's ability to act as an electronic flight bag. They're not the first to do so, with American Airlines bagging that title after they gained FAA approval back in 2010, but Delta's move points to a growing trend among fliers--if you're job or pastime involves gliding through the air, then the iPad is about to revolutionize the experience

More salmon, please! A new study shows how biomimicry can help generate energy. A new source of inspiration for wind farm engineers has come from an unlikely place: the sea. By imitating schools of fish, engineers can increase wind farm output--potentially getting up to 10 times more power from the same site compared to traditional wind farms

Charles Monnet is responsible for you being concerned about polar bears drowning in ice-less Arctic waters. But did his support for wildlife get him suspended from his government post?