Technology coverage from across the Slate Podcast network
The first ever computer program was written in 1843 by Ada Lovelace, a mathematician who hoped her f
In the 19th century, young people wooed each other over the telegraph. But meeting strangers on the
Polar exploration was the Victorian equivalent of the space race. Major powers vied to outdo each ot
The potato seemed strange and unappetizing when it first arrived in Europe. But it grew into a wonde
In the early 20th century a new forensic technique—fingerprinting—displaced a cruder form of identif
For thousands of years we sailed our cargo across oceans using zero-emission, 100 percent renewable
The 19th century invention of the phonograph left composers worried they might not be paid for recor
What can 19th century polar exploration teach us as humans plan missions to Mars? Do modern online d
The Renaissance scholars couldn’t keep up with new information (“Have you read the latest Erasmus bo
Some people thought the laying of the transatlantic cable might bring world peace, because connectin
In the Victorian era, plaster casts became a way to preserve important artifacts in 3-D. Now, virtua
In 1714, British parliament offered a huge cash prize to anyone who could find a way to determine lo
In 1969, an anthropologist introduced photographs and films to people in Papua New Guinea who’d neve
The French telegraph system was hacked in 1834 by a pair of thieves who stole financial market infor
The first pedestrian killed by a car in the western hemisphere was on New York’s Upper West Side in
It took a long time for the fork to go from weird curiosity to ubiquitous tool. How long will it tak
We’ve used electricity to treat our brains for thousands of years, from placing electric fish on our
In the 18th century, a device called the Mechanical Turk convinced Europeans that a robot could play
Examine the history of tech to uncover stories that help us illuminate the present and predict the f
