Portal:Technology
Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word technology can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible tools such as utensils or machines, and intangible ones such as software. Technology plays a critical role in science, engineering, and everyday life.
Technological advancements have led to significant changes in society. The earliest known technology is the stone tool, used during prehistory, followed by the control of fire—which in turn contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language during the Ice Age, according to the cooking hypothesis. The invention of the wheel in the Bronze Age allowed greater travel and the creation of more complex machines. More recent technological inventions, including the printing press, telephone, and the Internet, have lowered barriers to communication and ushered in the knowledge economy. (Full article...)
- Image 1M-26 is a 96.355-mile-long (155.068 km) state trunkline highway in the U.S. state of Michigan, running from two miles (3.2 km) east of Rockland to its junction with US Highway 41 (US 41) in Copper Harbor. It generally runs southwest-to-northeast in the western half or Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The northernmost segment, which closely parallels the shore of Lake Superior on the west side of the Keweenaw Peninsula, is highly scenic.
M-26 previously reached the Wisconsin border, but a section of the highway became US 45. Other changes on the northern end of M-26 incorporated highways that were previously numbered M-111 and M-206 in the Eagle Harbor and Eagle River area. (Full article...) - Image 2M-53 is a north–south state trunkline highway in the US state of Michigan that connects Detroit to The Thumb region. The highway starts in Detroit at a connection with M-3 and ends in Port Austin, Michigan at M-25. In between, the trunkline passes through the northern suburbs of Metro Detroit, connects to freeways like Interstate 69 (I-69) and provides access to rural farmland. In Macomb County, M-53 follows the Christopher Columbus Freeway and POW/MIA Memorial Freeway, while the remainder of the highway is known as Van Dyke Avenue in the metro area or Van Dyke Road elsewhere. The highway has also been named the Earle Memorial Highway for one of the pioneers of the Good Roads Movement and Michigan's highway system.
When the first state highways were signed in the field in 1919, M-53 was one of them, running from Detroit to Elkton. In the 1920s, the highway was extended northward to connect with Port Austin. Later improvements through 1940 realigned a section of the roadway near Imlay City and completed paving. With planning and construction during the 1950s and 1960s, the state converted portions of the road north of Detroit to have divided highway and freeway segments. The freeway bypass of Romeo was started in the 1990s and finished to its current state in 2003. (Full article...) - Image 3Pennsylvania Route 179 (PA 179) and Route 179 is an 8.7-mile (14.00 km) north-south state highway in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States, running along an old alignment of U.S. Route 202 (US 202) from west of New Hope, Pennsylvania, northeast through Lambertville, New Jersey, to Ringoes, where it ends at an intersection with US 202/Route 31. Past this intersection, the road continues east as County Route 514 (CR 514). It is two-lane, undivided highway for most of its length with the exception of a four-lane stretch in Lambertville. The route crosses the Delaware River on the New Hope-Lambertville Bridge, where the designation changes from PA 179 to Route 179.
PA 179 and Route 179 follow a part of the 18th-century Old York Road which ran between Philadelphia and New York City. Prior to 1953, the road was Route S29 from the Delaware River to downtown Lambertville, a part of Route 29 between Lambertville and Ringoes, and a concurrency of Route 29 and Route 30 in Ringoes. The route was also part of US 202, which was designated over 1926-created US 122 in the mid-1930s. In 1953, the Route S29 and 29 designations were removed in favor of US 202 and Route 30 became Route 69 (now Route 31). Route 179 was formed in 1965 when a bypass for Ringoes was built for US 202 and Route 69. Route 179 extended to Lambertville and PA 179 was created in 1974 when the new US 202 freeway, running over the New Hope-Lambertville Toll Bridge, was completed. (Full article...) - Image 4Piccadilly line eastbound platform at the station
Hounslow West is a London Underground station in locality of Hounslow West in Hounslow within the London Borough of Hounslow, West London. It is on the Heathrow branch of the Piccadilly line, between Hatton Cross and Hounslow Central stations. It is in Travelcard Zone 5. The station is located on Bath Road, close to the Great West Road (A4). The station has an island platform, with step-free access via a stairlift for manual wheelchair users only.
Opened as Hounslow Barracks in 1884, it was initially served by the District Railway (now part of the District line). The Piccadilly line was extended here in 1933, and District line services were fully withdrawn in 1964. The station building was rebuilt to a design by Charles Holden in 1931. The line was extended again in phases to Heathrow Airport in the 1970s, which resulted in the station's platforms being relocated. (Full article...) - Image 5
Kenneth David Nichols CBE (13 November 1907 – 21 February 2000) was an officer in the United States Army, and a civil engineer who worked on the secret Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb during World War II. He served as Deputy District Engineer to James C. Marshall, and from 13 August 1943 as the District Engineer of the Manhattan Engineer District. Nichols led both the uranium production facility at the Clinton Engineer Works at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the plutonium production facility at Hanford Engineer Works in Washington state.
Nichols remained with the Manhattan Project after the war until it was taken over by the Atomic Energy Commission in 1947. He was the military liaison officer with the Atomic Energy Commission from 1946 to 1947. After briefly teaching at the United States Military Academy at West Point, he was promoted to major general and became chief of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, responsible for the military aspects of atomic weapons, including logistics, handling and training. He was deputy director for the Atomic Energy Matters, Plans and Operations Division of the Army's general staff, and was the senior Army member of the military liaison committee that worked with the Atomic Energy Commission. (Full article...) - Image 6Macassa before she was rebuilt in 1905
SS Manasoo (originally named Macassa) was a steel-hulled Canadian passenger and package freighter in service between 1888 and 1928. She was built in 1888 in Port Glasgow, Scotland, by William Hamilton & Company for the Hamilton Steamboat Company of Hamilton, Ontario, who used her as a passenger transport between Hamilton and Toronto, Ontario. Macassa was lengthened in Collingwood, Ontario, in 1905. She was sold twice before being sold to the Owen Sound Transportation Company, Ltd., and was rebuilt and renamed Manasoo; after the sale, she mainly operated between Sault Ste. Marie and Owen Sound, Ontario.
After a lucrative shipping season in 1928, Manasoo was open to take on special commissions. On September 14, she left the Manitoulin Island port of Manitowaning, Ontario, under the command of Captain John McKay. There were nineteen crewmen, two passengers, 115 cows and one bull on board. By the time Manasoo had cleared the North Channel of Lake Huron, a sizeable storm had developed. By 2:00 a.m. the next day, Manasoo had begun to list to port. Despite efforts to correct it, the list worsened. As she was off Griffith Island, Manasoo rolled over and sank. Five crewmen and one passenger climbed onto a life raft; one of the crew later died of exposure, while the rest were rescued by the steamer Manitoba. Sixteen people died in the wreck. (Full article...) - Image 7A CSX Transportation freight train in Cordele, Georgia on the former Waycross Air Line Railroad mainline
The Waycross Air Line Railroad, chartered in 1887, was an air-line railroad in Georgia. It began operations between Waycross and Sessoms in 1890. In 1901, the railroad had extended as far as Fitzgerald, Georgia, at which time its charter was amended for an extension to Birmingham, Alabama, and it was renamed the Atlantic and Birmingham Railroad. That company purchased the Tifton and Northeastern Railroad and Tifton, Thomasville and Gulf Railway on December 3, 1903, changing its name to the Atlantic and Birmingham Railway. In 1906, the Atlantic and Birmingham Railway was in turn purchased by the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railway, which continued expansion towards Birmingham.
The Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railway changed hands again in 1926, becoming the Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad, a subsidiary of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. The original Waycross Air Line Railroad main line survived the 1967 ACL and SAL merger into the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, the acquisition of the Family Lines (CRR, L&N, GA, AWP) into the Seaboard System Railroad in 1982 and finally absorption into the Chessie System to become part of CSX in 1987. As of 2022, it remains in service as an important CSX Transportation line, known as the Fitzgerald Subdivision. (Full article...)
- Image 1Credit: Mike McGregorThe OLPC XO-1 is an inexpensive subnotebook laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries.
- Image 2Image credit: Søren Peo PedersenTwo TRS connectors (also known as jack plugs or phone plugs), a common audio connector. They are cylindrical in shape, with two or more contacts. Originally invented for use in telephone switchboards, jack plugs are still widely used, both in the original ¼-inch (6.3 mm) size and in miniaturized versions. The top plug in this image is for stereo connections, while the bottom is for mono.
- Image 3Photo: Evan AmosThe GameCube is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo beginning in 2001. Meant as a successor to the Nintendo 64, the GameCube sold approximately 22 million units worldwide. It was the third most-successful console of its generation, behind Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox. The GameCube was succeeded by the Wii in 2006.
- Image 4Photo: Evan AmosThe Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced in 1982 by Commodore International. Its low retail price and easy availability led to the system becoming the market leader for three years. It remains the best-selling single personal computer model of all time.
- Image 5Photograph: UberprutserA windmill is a mill that converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Traditional windmills were often used to mill grain, pump water, or both. Most modern windmills take the form of wind turbines used to generate electricity, or windpumps used to pump water, either for land drainage or to extract groundwater.
Here, the smock mill Goliath is viewed in front of the wind farm Growind in Eemshaven in the Netherlands. - Image 6Photograph: David GublerRail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. The oldest, man-hauled railways date to the 6th century B.C.; the method grew more popular after the introduction of steam locomotives in the 19th century. Here we can see four BNSF GE C44-9W diesel locomotives hauling a mixed freight train along the Columbia River in the US.
- Image 7An overhead power line is a structure used in electric power transmission and distribution to transmit electrical energy along large distances. It consists of one or more conductors suspended by towers or utility poles.
- Image 8A telephone, or phone, is a telecommunications device that converts sound, typically the human voice, into electronic signals suitable for transmission via cables or other transmission media over long distances through satellite.
- Image 9Image credit: Prolineserver/TomiaThis diagram of four pulley systems illustrates how increasing the number of pulleys increases the mechanical advantage, making the load easier to lift. MA is the factor by which a mechanism multiplies the force put into it. In this diagram, 100 newtons is required to lift the weight off the ground. Each additional pulley increases the MA such that the four-pulley system only needs 25 newtons to accomplish the same task, but the rope must be pulled four times as far.
- Image 10Credit: fir0002A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axial bearing. The wheel is one of the main components of the wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines.
- Image 11Photo credit: Christian KuhnaThe rotor of a modern steam turbine , which converts steam (heat) energy into kinetic (mechanical) energy. The steam path is from the smallest blade, expanding through progressively larger blade elements. Steam turbines are used in power plants to extract mechanical work from pressurized steam and benefit from their high efficiency and high power-to-weight ratio compared to other technologies, leading to their widespread deployment from electricity generation to marine propulsion.
- Image 13Photograph: Donald Y TongBurj Khalifa is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and currently the tallest man-made structure in the world, at 829.8 m (2,722 ft). It was designed to be the centerpiece of a large-scale, mixed-use development known as Downtown Dubai. Construction took over five years, and the skyscraper was officially opened in January 2010.
- Image 14Image credit: Lewis HineA structural worker bolts beams on the framework during the construction of the Empire State Building in New York City. The 1,250-foot (380 m) building opened on May 1, 1931, at the time the tallest building in the world, overtaking the Chrysler Building (seen to the right), which had just been completed the year before. The addition of a pinnacle and antennas later increased its overall height to 1,472 feet (449 m).
- Image 15Photograph: Diego DelsoThe Assut de l'Or Bridge is a white single-pylon cable-stayed bridge in the City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia, Spain. Completed in 2008, it was designed by Valencian architect and civil engineer Santiago Calatrava as a variant of his cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge in Seville.
- Image 16Photograph: David ShankboneDavid Faiman is an Israeli engineer and physicist recognized for his expertise on solar power. He is the director of the Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center and Chairman of the Department of Solar Energy & Environmental Physics at Ben-Gurion University's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research in Sde Boker.
- Image 17Photograph: NACAKitty Joyner (1916–1993) was an American electrical engineer with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and then the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She was hired in 1939 as the organization's first woman engineer, shortly after she had become the first woman to graduate from the University of Virginia's engineering program.
- Image 18Photo: Benh Lieu SongThe Eiffel Tower as seen from the Champ de Mars. At 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, the tower, an iron lattice tower, is the tallest building in Paris, the most-visited paid monument in the world, as well as one of the most recognizable structures in the world. Named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel, it was built as an entrance arch for the 1889 Exposition Universelle and has since become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France.
- Image 19Photograph credit: Michael MainieroThe SOCATA TBM (now Daher TBM) is a family of high-performance single-engine turboprop business and utility light aircraft manufactured by Daher. This SOCATA TBM 900 was photographed in flight during the 2015 EAA AirVenture Oshkosh airshow in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The aircraft features a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-64 engine, and a five-blade carbon-fiber propeller, which increases performance and decreases cabin noise. In a passenger configuration, the pressurized cabin is typically fitted with highly finished interiors, featuring luxury materials such as leather and wood veneers.
- Image 20Photo credit: Hans HillewaertWind turbines belonging to the Thorntonbank Wind Farm located in the North Sea, 28 km (17 mi) off the coast of Belgium. Electricity generation started in early 2009, with an initial capacity of 30 MW, and that number is expected to rise to 300 MW by 2015. A 37 km (23 mi) 150 kV undersea cable connects the wind farm to the shore.
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- Image 2Walls at Sacsayhuaman (from History of technology)
- Image 33D printer (from Emerging technologies)
- Image 5Self-replicating 3D printer (from Emerging technologies)
- Image 7Edison electric light bulbs 1879–80 (from History of technology)
- Image 10Ford assembly line, 1913. The magneto assembly line was the first. (from History of technology)
- Image 11Newcomen steam engine for pumping mines (from History of technology)
- Image 12Agriculture preceded writing in the history of technology. (from History of technology)
- Image 14The preserved Rocket (from History of technology)
- Image 16'BUILD YOUR OWN TELEVISION RECEIVER.' Science and Invention magazine cover, November 1928 (from Invention)
- Image 17A rare 1884 photo showing the experimental recording of voice patterns by a photographic process at the Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Many of their experimental designs panned out in failure. (from Invention)
- Image 18The wheel, invented sometime before the 4th millennium BC, is one of the most ubiquitous and important technologies. This detail of the "Standard of Ur", c. 2500 BCE., displays a Sumerian chariot. (from History of technology)
- Image 20Top 30 AI patent applicants in 2016 (from Emerging technologies)
- Image 21Thomas Edison with his second phonograph, photographed by Levin Corbin Handy in Washington, April 1878 (from History of technology)
- Image 23Johannes Gutenberg's printing press was voted the most important invention of the second millennium. (from Invention)
- Image 24A variety of stone tools (from History of technology)
- Image 25Alessandro Volta with the first electrical battery. Volta is recognized as an influential inventor. (from Invention)
- Image 26Eric M. C. Tigerstedt (1887–1925) was known as a pioneer of sound-on-film technology. Tigerstedt in 1915. (from Invention)
- ... that ice XVII (structure shown) potentially has a use in green technology as a medium for storing hydrogen?
- ... that the Illinois Institute of Technology created Chicago's smallest park by deeding a 54-square-foot (5 m2) granite slab to the city?
- ... that Justin Yu, the current Classic Tetris World Champion, is also a cellist in MIT's video game orchestra?
- ... that it was Caltech experimental physicist Rana X. Adhikari's idea to build a gravitational-wave observatory in India?
- ... that OPTi Inc. won a patent suit against Apple for unauthorized use of "predictive snooping" technology?
- ... that Kathanar – The Wild Sorcerer is being shot on a custom-built studio spanning 45,000 square feet (4,200 m2), utilizing the virtual production technology?
- ... that Criccieth Castle combined the "latest advances in military technology" with the "haphazard Welsh castle building style"?
- ... that Peter Corby's electric trouser press used technology designed for Concorde?
- Image 1ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI and released on November 30, 2022. It uses large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4o as well as other multimodal models to create human-like responses in text, speech, and images. It has access to features such as searching the web, using apps, and running programs. It is credited with accelerating the AI boom, an ongoing period of rapid investment in and public attention to the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Some observers have raised concern about the potential of ChatGPT and similar programs to displace human intelligence, enable plagiarism, or fuel misinformation. (Full article...)
- Image 2YouTube search results, May 2025
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in San Bruno, California, it is the second-most-visited website in the world, after Google Search. In January 2024, YouTube had more than 2.7 billion monthly active users, who collectively watched more than one billion hours of videos every day. As of May 2019, videos were being uploaded to the platform at a rate of more than 500 hours of content per minute, and as of mid-2024, there were approximately 14.8 billion videos in total. (Full article...) - Image 3Musk in 2022
Elon Reeve Musk (/ˈiːlɒn/ EE-lon; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in the world since 2021; as of May 2025, Forbes estimates his net worth to be US$424.7 billion. (Full article...) - Image 4WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an American social media, instant messaging (IM), and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content. WhatsApp's client application runs on mobile devices, and can be accessed from computers. The service requires a cellular mobile telephone number to sign up. WhatsApp was launched in February 2009. In January 2018, WhatsApp released a standalone business app called WhatsApp Business which can communicate with the standard WhatsApp client. (Full article...)
- Image 5Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, its name derives from the face book directories often given to American university students. Membership was initially limited to Harvard students, gradually expanding to other North American universities. (Full article...)
- Image 6The Google logo used since 2015
Google LLC (/ˈɡuːɡəl/ ⓘ, GOO-gəl) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial intelligence (AI). It has been referred to as "the most powerful company in the world" by the BBC and is one of the world's most valuable brands. Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., is one of the five Big Tech companies alongside Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft. (Full article...) - Image 7
A QR code, quick-response code, is a type of two-dimensional matrix barcode invented in 1994 by Masahiro Hara of the Japanese company Denso Wave for labelling automobile parts. It features black squares on a white background with fiducial markers, readable by imaging devices like cameras, and processed using Reed–Solomon error correction until the image can be appropriately interpreted. The required data is then extracted from patterns that are present in both the horizontal and the vertical components of the QR image. (Full article...) - Image 8Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of research in computer science that develops and studies methods and software that enable machines to perceive their environment and use learning and intelligence to take actions that maximize their chances of achieving defined goals. (Full article...)
- Image 9Aerial view of Apple Park, the company's headquarters, in Cupertino, California
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Company by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, the company was incorporated by Jobs and Wozniak as Apple Computer, Inc. the following year. It was renamed Apple Inc. in 2007 as the company had expanded its focus from computers to consumer electronics. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue, with US$391.04 billion in the 2024 fiscal year. (Full article...) - Image 10Logo used since 2014.
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple languages. (Full article...)
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