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Kids today may go through life without ever seeing it. Yet without the typewriter, there would be no computer as we know it. The typewriter is the primate ancestor to the personal computer that we have made part of our lives. Did you ever wonder why computer keyboards have the strange layout that they have, with the QWERTY keys across the top left? The answer lies buried in decisions made more than a hundred years ago, when the typewriter first appeared on the plains of industry.

The typewriter is to the printing press much like the personal computer is to the mainframe computer. The European version of the printing press, known as the Gutenberg press, was first developed in the 15th century. It enabled books to be printed rapidly, and helped promote the spread of literacy (and religion) throughout the world. A personal printing press, or “type writer,” used by a single person to print a legible document dates to the early 18th century.

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With school starting up within the next several weeks, some of you might be wondering, what ever happened to summer? Don’t worry– we’ve compiled a list of exciting activities to finish off your summer.

Remember - always be safe, don’t do anything without first asking your parent or guardian, and having them supervise you when needed.

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You’re one year older and you wake up to a big surprise– your friends are blindfolding you and taking you out to a birthday treat! You drive for a while, walk a couple of blocks, take off your blindfold and find yourself in a grassy park with a cake in front of you. Lucky you! However, you’ve never been here before, so how do you know if you’re actually at a new place or just in front of a huge, detailed picture?

Well, it’s not that likely that you’d be brought to a place where there is such a large image, but being able to tell the difference between a complicated 2-dimensional picture and a 3-dimensional place with objects is something we often take for granted. Thanks to what are called depth cues, we can use these hints to tell that a tree is farther back behind another tree, and not equally far from you as they would be in a flat photograph.

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With Lance Armstrong out of retirement and racing in the current Tour de France, we take a look back at the history of this annual bicycle race.

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One of the most distinctly American contributions to popular entertainment during the 20th century was the pinball machine. Its origins, however, lie in 18th century France. The rise of this gaming platform is the story of clever innovations, technology and social change. This tale is also far from over. As we shall see, the pinball game continues to develop. The machine may be disappearing from arcades, but the concept remains very much alive.

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One of the most intriguing questions humans face is not only whether we are alone in the universe, but whether we alone have a rich language to use on earth. Do other creatures communicate like we do? We know they make sounds, and birds chirp in all sorts of complex ways, but does this count as having a language? We know that parrots mimic our sounds exceptionally well, but are they really talking and understanding the sounds they are making?

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As the discussion of swine flu dominates the media, it is worthwhile to look back at some of the other pandemics that have affected the human race throughout history. A pandemic is an illness that spreads from person to person and affects a large, dispersed population. It usually creates an enormous amount of fear among those not affected. The skeleton on the right represents “Doctor Death” from an engraving made in the 1500s, when the Black Death or Bubonic Plague was common in Europe. It was one of the worst pandemics to ever strike on earth, responsible for tens of millions of deaths.

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Have you ever been to an Earth Day Celebration? Earth Day began on April 22nd, 1970 and has been celebrated every year since. The original purpose of Earth Day was to bring different groups together to raise awareness about environmental issues.

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Have you heard the words venomous and poisonous in reference to animals? Do you know what they mean?

There is a big difference between venomous organisms like this black widow spider and poisonous animals like some frogs. It is easy to tell the difference between a venomous animal and a poisonous animal if you if you understand how they use the toxins.

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The automobile industry has come a long way since Karl Benz designed the first gas powered automobile in 1885. Even more astonishing is how much the designs have changed. As the engineering has advanced and become more sophisticated, so have the exterior and interior designs.

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Titanboa (Titanboa cerrejonensis)

Researchers in Colombia have found fossils of an ancient snake 42-45 feet long, that weighed more than a ton. This huge species of snake, named Titanboa cerrejonensis, lived 58 to 60 million years ago in a warm rainforest setting. So far, fossils from about 24 individual snakes have been discovered. The quest for a Titanboa skull is still underway.

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It is the beginning of February and California’s Central valley is painted vibrant shades of pink and white from millions of almond blooms. While much of the country is white with snow, California is white with blooms.

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