In 1843, Ada Lovelace published the first nontrivial program. How did it work?

A recent study has revealed which kinds of tech have stood the test of time – in terms of recognition, if not use. Would your children recognise these? (And would you?).

A V8-engined Cygnet aside, Aston Martin clearly never jokes about its work, because this is quite serious indeed. The storied British carmaker has announced a run of 25 brand-new DB5s, modelled after one of the world’s most famous movie cars.

How much do you change between high school and retirement? The answer depends on whether you’re comparing yourself to others or to your younger self. The results of a new study, the first to test how personality might change over 50 years and relying on the same data source at both time points, finds that broad patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors – personality – do change, and this change appears to accumulate with time. But don’t compare yourself to others; those who are the most emotionally stable when young are probably going to continue being the most stable as they age.

The colour survives in the work of 17th Century Spanish colonial painters, a symbol of the wealth that ultimately doomed the Mayans, writes Devon Van Houten Maldonado.

NASA solves a Mars mystery after analyzing a strange flake-like object.

The global dust storm on Mars could soon let in enough sunlight for the Opportunity rover to recharge.

This Haldol Is For You (from "Tonight (I'm Loving You)")I messed up the formatting and don't know how to fix it. Anyway,here is something totally different than what I usually post.

IN 1979, a strange ‘double flash’ was observed by a satellite as coming from between South Africa and Antarctica. It was a telltale cue. That kind of flash was usually a nuclear explosion.

The telephone swept into Americans’ lives in the first decades of the 20th century. At first, no one knew exactly how to telephone. Alexander Graham Bell wanted people to start conversations by saying, “Ahoy-hoy!” AT&T tried to prevent people from saying “hello,” arguing in Telephone Engineer magazine that it was rude. But eventually, Americans learned to say “hello.” People built a culture around the phone that worked. Etiquette magazines tried to prevent women from inviting people over for dinner via telephone, then gave in.

How vanilla became one of the world's most expensive - and dangerous - ingredients

In November 2017, a gunman entered a church in Sutherland Springs in Texas, where he killed 26 people and wounded 20 others. He escaped in his car, with police and residents in hot pursuit, before losing control of the vehicle and flipping it into a ditch. When the police got to the car, he was dead. The episode is horrifying enough without its unsettling epilogue. In the course of their investigations, the FBI reportedly pressed the gunman’s finger to the fingerprint-recognition feature on his iPhone in an attempt to unlock it.

A massive new study finds everyone dates aspirationally—and offers seven other lessons about digital romance.

A Nasa spacecraft is rocketing towards the sun on a quest to get closer to our star than anything ever sent before. The Parker solar probe will fly straight through the wispy edges of the corona, or outer solar atmosphere, which was visible during last August’s total solar eclipse. It eventually will get within 3.8m miles (6.1m km) of the sun’s surface, staying comfortably cool despite the extreme heat and radiation, allowing scientists to explore the sun in a way never before possible.

Weeks of dry, hot weather have exposed the outlines of several archeological sites across the U.K., dating back thousands of years. Drier soil conditions have allowed archeologists to capture aerial photographs of previously hidden features from ancient times, to reveal farms, burial monuments, ditches, walls and vegetation patterns, or cropmarks. The patterns of these structures can be seen from the air as the vegetation dies back in dry conditions.

A new blood test can help emergency room doctors more quickly determine whether patients with chest pain are having a heart attack. The test is a more sensitive version of one that emergency physicians have been using. The conventional troponin test takes three hours, the high-sensitivity version can give results in less than an hour. High-sensitivity troponin tests have been available in Europe and elsewhere for years. But the first such test in the United States was just approved last year.

You might think that conspiracy theorists like the flat earthers don't really think about things. But if you've ever argued with one, you'll find that they do. They have an answer for everything. So how do we reconcile their irrationality with their rational thinking?

Stop looking for the key to success in life. The ultimate key is already within you. Answer these questions to find the key you're looking for.

You want to treat yourself with a beautiful jewelry or get your friend a fancy gift but don’t want to spend much money, here are some cute…

When a meteor screams through our upper atmosphere, it’s a silent show for us here on the ground. Most meteors burn up dozens of miles above the surface, and even if a sonic boom reaches us it comes minutes after the visual spectacle.

We talked to the head of one of New Orleans's oldest funeral homes about why some families are drawn to "extreme embalmings."

The future of the space station is up in the air—or rather, a vacuum.

 "Dear Alex," I've been asked more than once, "How did you get so wise?" I never answer the question because I'm not going to sit here and blow a lot of smoke up my own butt. For one thing, it burns; also, I'm not that limber. And, with the exception of telling stories that relate to particular questions, I don't really like talking about myself that much.

One of the traits that tops many women’s must-haves in a partner is a sense of humor. But, of course, almost everyone has a sense of humor: it’s really the type of humor we make and appreciate that separates us. Some people like observational comedy, others split their sides for slapstick comedy, and surreal comedy can have an audience rolling in the aisles. But one really basic aspect of comedy is how clean or dirty it is.

Ant parasite turns host into ripe red berry, biologists discover

You may think of people with high self-control as having enviable reserves of willpower, but recent findings suggest this isn’t the case. Instead it seems the strong-willed are canny folk, adept at avoiding temptation in the first place. A new study in the journal Self and Identity builds on this picture, showing that people high in self-control tend to experience less intense visceral states, like fatigue, hunger and stress (states that are known to encourage impulsive behaviour).

A pair of elderly German men escaped from their nursing home to go to a heavy metal festival, it was reported. After the home reported them missing, police found the two at 3 a.m. at Wacken Open Ai…

Very comprehensive video of this misunderstood mammal.

If you happen to have a box of spaghetti in your pantry, try this experiment: Pull out a single spaghetti stick and hold it at both ends. Now bend it until it breaks. How many fragments did you make? If the answer is three or more, pull out another stick and try again. Can you break the noodle in two? If not, you’re in very good company.

A Dr. explains why this fad is not a good idea.

This year marks the golden anniversary of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood — 50 years since the children’s TV staple was first broadcast nationally — and a flood of high-profile tributes is well underway. There’s a postage stamp commemorating Fred Rogers, the show’s affable host; a star-powered PBS special; a documentary; and coming later this year, a Rogers biography and a biopic starring Tom Hanks as Rogers.

Self-proclaimed "cartonerd" Ken Field published a gallery of alternative election maps designed to reveal markedly different stories about the US.

In a new Taschen book, the photographer Massimo Listri travels around the world to some of the oldest libraries, revealing unique architecture

At the end of “On Writing” Stephen King lists 150+ books he believes are worth reading. Check out the list and let me know whether or not you agree with his choices.