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In its early years, information theory was dominated by research on error-correcting codes: How do you encode information so as to guarantee its faithful transmission, even in the presence of the corrupting influences engineers call "noise"? Recently, one of the most intriguing developments in information theory has been a different kind of coding, called network coding, in which the question is how to encode information in order to maximize the capacity of a network as a whole. For information theorists, it was natural to ask how these two types of coding might be combined: If you want to both minimize error and maximize capacity, which kind of coding do you apply where, and when do you do the decoding?

By analyzing 600,000 tweets sent on the night US Special Forces captured Osama bin Laden, researchers studied how Twitter broke the story and spread the news. Their data also shows that the Twitterverse was overwhelmingly convinced the news of bin Laden's death was true, even before it was confirmed on television.

Small investors snubbed the Facebook IPO. It's the 'smart money' that's crying.

Quest Software could give Dell the software boost it needs to diversify away from PCs.

A grid of 25,000 "invisibility cloaks" shows how to slow light down and spread out its constituent colours in an advance dubbed "trapping a rainbow".

As he receives his knighthood, Apple's design head Sir Jonathan Ive tells the BBC of his desire to stay at the firm.

There is only one problem with common sense; it’s not very common. - Milt Bryce

It’s OK to figure out murder mysteries, but you shouldn’t need to figure out code. You should be able to read it. - Steve McConnell