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The 2.5ton calculator: Rebooted, 1951 computer that definitely won't fit in your pocket. The 61-year-old Harwell Dekatron (aka WITCH) computer, was made from parts more commonly found in a telephone exchangeThe mammoth machine, which fills a room, is as heavy as 20,000 iPhones but computed at speeds even humans could keep pace withOnce voted the world's most durable computer, it was found broken up into 50 parts and gathering dust in storage By Andrew Levy Published: 12:05 GMT, 19 November 2012 | Updated: 07:58 GMT, 20 November 2012 With buttons, levers and flashing lights, this looks like a computer control room.

The 2.5ton calculator: Rebooted, 1951 computer that definitely won't fit in your pocket

It is, however, just the computer. The Harwell Dekatron weighs 2.5 tons, contains 10,000 moving parts and can work without a break for 80 hours a week. So what does it do? Scroll down for video The 61-year-old Harwell Dekatron (or the WITCH) computer has clattered back into action after gathering dust for 20 years Weighing an incredible 2.5 tonnes, it was once voted the world's most durable computer When it was built in 1951, this computer was a marvel of technology. Science Research. A Recent Conference Asks: Can Programmers Be Artists, Too? A visualization from researchers at Google shows wind flowing over the United States.

A Recent Conference Asks: Can Programmers Be Artists, Too?

Just as photography was a controversial new art form in the late 19th century (critics questioned the role of the artist if the machine ultimately produced the work), it seems computer programmers have yet to be fully accepted into the art world. This much was clear at the first Leaders in Software and Art (LISA) Conference, which took place at the GuggenheimMuseum in New York last week. The conference grew out of the LISA Salons that conference organizer Isabel Draves has hosted for three years in an effort to create a sense of community among software artists. Panel discussions at the event addressed questions about the place of software art in history. Draves said in her opening remarks that it could even become the next big artistic movement: “something has to come after post-modernism. Of the lightening speakers there were several standouts. Mathematics and Computing. Forces, Elements, & the Periodic Table.

Michael Faraday. Michael Faraday, FRS (22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.

Michael Faraday

His main discoveries include those of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis. As a chemist, Faraday discovered benzene, investigated the clathrate hydrate of chlorine, invented an early form of the Bunsen burner and the system of oxidation numbers, and popularised terminology such as anode, cathode, electrode, and ion. Faraday ultimately became the first and foremost Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, a lifetime position.

Faraday was an excellent experimentalist who conveyed his ideas in clear and simple language; his mathematical abilities, however, did not extend as far as trigonometry or any but the simplest algebra. Personal life Early life Adult life Portrait of Faraday in his late thirties Later life Michael Faraday, ca. 1861 Scientific achievements Chemistry.

100 Years Ago: The Amazing Technology of 1910. The dawn of 2010 promises more amazing developments in the world of technology.

100 Years Ago: The Amazing Technology of 1910

Already, tourists can visit space, for a price, nearly everything and everyone is going digital, and medical science continues to test the boundaries of what makes us truly human. One full century ago, the new technologies that had people talking were considered just as groundbreaking. Electricity led the charge of developments that were changing the way people lived every day, with transportation and chemistry not far behind. As the clocks of 1909 ticked towards 1910, more exciting inventions were just around the corner. 1910 brings new ways to clean, travel The first decade of the 1900s was an exciting time to be alive, with inventors continuing to make major strides in all disciplines.

A History of Vitreoretinal Surgery. Nevermind the Apocalypse: Earliest Mayan Calendar Found. The oldest-known version of the ancient Maya calendar has been discovered adorning a lavishly painted wall in the ruins of a city deep in the Guatemalan rainforest.

Nevermind the Apocalypse: Earliest Mayan Calendar Found

The hieroglyphs, painted in black and red, along with a colorful mural of a king and his mysterious attendants, seem to have been a sort of handy reference chart for court scribes in A.D. 800 — the astronomers and mathematicians of their day. Modern alchemy: Turning a line. Discovery.