FLOW-MATIC was the first programming language resembling the English language

The first compiler to facilitate communication with computers was developed by Grace Hopper

The A-0 program linker automatically translated mathematical symbols into machine-readable binary code. Although it took two years for computer executives to get on board with the idea, the technology was foundational to future programming languages that allowed computers to understand commands written in word-based languages.

COBOL was partly derived from Grace Hopper's FLOW-MATIC programming language

The Common Business-Oriented Language was developed for business data processing, supporting precise decimal calculations and an English-like syntax. Able to work across operating systems and hardware environments, COBOL and its newer versions support 80% of in-person credit card transactions and 95% of all ATM transactions.

Grace Hopper was inspired to join the armed forces after the attack on Pearl Harbor

Despite being too old to enlist and weighing below the required minimum to serve, Hopper was granted an exemption and assigned to work on the first electromechanical computer produced in the US. She and her team spent three months using the device to solve equations needed to design the implosion mechanism for the atomic bomb.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

The story of two female programmers running the simulations behind chaos theory's discovery

Margaret Hamilton and Ellen Fetter worked on MIT's 800-pound Royal McBee LGP-30 computer, which was fed binary code on paper tape to perform computations. Among the computations performed were those involving equations describing the motion of gas in a circulating fluid for Edward Lorenz, widely considered the father of chaos theory.

The US Navy used The 'Harvard Calculator' to solve advanced physics problems

Designed in 1937 by Harvard graduate student Howard H. Aiken, the IBM Mark I was a groundbreaking machine used to solve ballistic trajectories and other mathematical problems whose solutions were needed for the design of the atomic bomb in World War II. The device was one of the first mechanical computers.

The first computers performed calculations using lightbulb-like tubes

Before transistors, the first electronic computers relied on vacuum tubes—components that switched signals on and off. Despite machines like ENIAC—the first programmable, general-purpose, electronic computer—utilizing nearly 18,000 tubes that generated massive amounts of heat and frequent failures, they laid the foundation for modern computing hardware.

The foundation for computer viruses was published after its creator's death

In the late 1940s, Hungarian American mathematician, scientist, and engineer John von Neumann gave a series of lectures where he explained the theoretical framework for a computer program that could replicate itself—the von Neumann Universal Constructor. His lectures were later compiled and published in 1966, nine years after his death from cancer.

The terms 'bug' and 'debugging' were popularized by Grace Hopper's team

Engineers working on the Mark II computer at Harvard University identified a moth in one of its components in 1947, which caused it to malfunction. Describing the incident as the "first actual case of bug being found," the term first used by Thomas Edison in 1878 to describe faults in an apparatus caught on.

Microsoft's initial successes came from promising products that did not yet exist

In discussions with teams responsible for MITS's Altair 8800 and IBM's PC, Bill Gates and Paul Allen claimed to have created ready-to-use software. Code for the former was not completed until Paul Allen's flight to MITS' headquarters, where the software was successfully tested for the first time.

VisiCalc was the first electronic spreadsheet, released with Apple II's personal computer in 1979

Before 1979, managers were essentially information processors working off paper ledgers. Scenario modeling was slow, manual, and expensive. Companies were understood as organizations that built things with financial analysis as secondary. VisiCalc made calculation so cheap that you could work iteratively, setting out forecasts and tweaking assumptions until you got the answer you wanted. Oks argues It created a new way of seeing the world.

NVIDIA named several computer chip architectures after Grace Hopper

Unveiled in 2023, the GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip, designed for generative AI applications in data center-scale systems, combines a Grace CPU with a Hopper GPU to create a coherent memory model. This allows the Hopper to access Grace data directly, reducing the need to repeatedly copy data back and forth and vastly improving performance.

The Macintosh popularized GUI and mouse navigation for personal computing

A graphical user interface that utilized windows, icons, and pull-down menus, rather than text-based commands, contributed to the device's success after its January 1984 launch. Its original sound system—capable of playing four voices—was developed after non-technical staff suggested the machine should play music.

Transformer architecture was the breakthrough that made AI chatbots possible

It changed how text was translated from a sequential, "one word at a time" method to one where every word in a text is processed in parallel. Advances in positional encoding and self-attention also helped models recognize context and word order better.

Python is an interpreted programming language that is growing in popularity

Python is used for web and software development, task automation, machine learning, data science, and financial analysis due to its simplicity, readability, and versatility across various applications. It was named after the BBC TV show "Monty Python's Flying Circus."

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

Explore Anthropic Academy, which provides courses on using Claude

The online courses include Claude Code in Action, which teaches software developers how to integrate Claude Code into existing workflows; Claude 101, to learn how Claude can be used to complete everyday tasks; and an AI Fluency series to help educators, instructional designers, and students learn to apply AI in academic settings.

The fast Fourier transform breaks down wave signals into discrete components

The algorithm was initially discovered by German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1805, but his notes were not found until after his death. Today, FFTs form the basis for most compression software in media and are essential to technologies such as radar, sonar, and telecommunications.

Amazon sold its first book on April 3, 1995

Before selling everything on the internet, Amazon started as an online bookstore. The company's first customer was a man named John Wainright, who purchased "Fluid Concepts And Creative Analogies: Computer Models Of The Fundamental Mechanisms Of Thought" by Douglas Hofstadter. There's a building named after Wainwright on Amazon's Seattle campus.

The first federal student loan program began in 1958

As the Cold War heated up, federal officials recognized the need to provide financial aid to students pursuing degrees in areas critical to national security, like science, math, and engineering. These programs evolved to broadly support the general population, both increasing access to college while acting as a driver of increased costs. This six-part series takes a deep dive into the history of federal student aid.

The game 'Counter-Strike' was developed in a dorm room

College student Minh Le designed the game through "modding," effectively building on the code of a preexisting game, the game "Half-Life" in his spare time.

The speech software's origins at MIT led to Hawking's trademark voice being American

Stephen Hawking's trademark voice is called "Perfect Paul," but it mimics Dennis Klatt, an American researcher at MIT who developed the speech synthesis technology. Klatt used his voice during this development, which was immortalized through Hawking.

The process of electronic funds transfer was approved in the US in 1978

An electronic funds transfer is the transfering of money from one bank account to another via computer-based systems. When it was first introduced, it was revolutionary. A video from 1980 aimed to explain the value of electronic funds transfer to consumers at the time.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

The Fair, Isaac and Company (FICO) was founded in 1956

When they created FICO, William Fair, an engineer, and his cofounder, Earl Isaac, reasoned that financial data could help a wide variety of companies improve business decisions. FICO created the first credit scoring system to help lenders be more objective.

ChatGPT may struggle with factual inaccuracies, despite writing accurately in English

In a classroom experiment, a journalist enrolled in an AP English Literature course submitted an essay written by ChatGPT, which confused characters and setting when comparing two texts. The tool was also unfamiliar with texts outside of its training data.

Famicom was the predecessor to the NES

Before the Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the US, Nintendo released a similar console in Japan with some interesting differences, including a Delorean-like exterior and a built-in microphone for karaoke.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Venture capital is a form of funding provided to early-stage companies with high growth potential, typically in exchange for an equity (or ownership) stake

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

Planarian flatworms are small, aquatic worms with exceptional regenerative capabilities. When cut, the worms can regenerate multiple bodies in a matter of weeks.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.