Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Increased access to high-speed Internet connections helps create jobs, though it doesn't always result in higher wages, according to a new research report from the Public Policy Institute of California.

A former Seagate Technology employee says the company improperly used technology gleaned from Convolve Inc. and tried to cover up evidence of it after Convolve sued, according to a filing made in the case.

The two companies have sparred in court for nearly a decade over allegations that Seagate and Compaq Computer stole Convolve technology that improves the performance and cuts the noise level of hard drives.

Claudia Dreifus interviews Frank A. Wilczek in the New York Times:

From Nature:

From Nature:

At Harvard, Carrie Grimes majored in anthropology and archaeology and ventured to places like Honduras, where she studied Mayan settlement patterns by mapping where artifacts were found. But she was drawn to what she calls "all the computer and math stuff" that was part of the job.

"People think of field archeology as Indiana Jones, but much of what you really do is data analysis," she said.

Now Ms. Grimes does a different kind of digging. She works at Google, where she uses statistical analysis of mounds of data to come up with ways to improve its search engine.

Good news, folks. Microsoft founder Bill Gates has turned his attention to controlling the weather.

Five U.S. Patent and Trade Office patent applications, made public on July 9, propose slowing hurricanes by pumping cold, deep-ocean water in their paths from barges. If issued, the patents offer 18 years of legal rights to the idea for Gates and co-inventors, including climate scientist Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

From The New York Times: