Reference Terms
from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Search engine
A search engine or search service is a document retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system, such as on the World Wide Web, inside a corporate or proprietary network, or in a personal computer. Search engines use regularly updated indexes to operate quickly and efficiently. The very first tool used for searching on the Internet was Archie. The name stands for "archive" without the "v". It was created in 1990 by Alan Emtage, a student at McGill University in Montreal. The program downloaded the directory listings of all the files located on public anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol) sites, creating a searchable database of filenames; however, Archie could not search by file contents. While Archie indexed computer files, Gopher indexed plain text documents. Gopher was created in 1991 by Mark McCahill at the University of Minnesota: Gopher was named after the school's mascot. Because these were text files, most of the Gopher sites became websites after the creation of the World Wide Web.
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Computers & Math News
March 23, 2026
Mar. 21, 2026 Scientists at Harvard have built a miniature device that can twist and tune light in real time. By rotating two stacked photonic crystals and adjusting their spacing with a tiny mechanical system, they can control how light’s “handedness” ...
Mar. 21, 2026 A routine quantum optics technique just revealed an extraordinary secret: entangled light can carry incredibly complex topological structures. Researchers found these hidden patterns reach up to 48 dimensions, offering a vast new “alphabet” for ...
Mar. 18, 2026 AI’s growing energy use sounds alarming, but its global climate impact may be far smaller than expected. Researchers found that while AI consumes huge amounts of electricity, it barely moves the needle on overall emissions. The real impact is more ...
Mar. 18, 2026 A new tomato-picking robot is learning to think before it acts. Instead of simply identifying ripe fruit, it predicts how easy each tomato will be to harvest and adjusts its approach accordingly. This smarter strategy boosted success rates to 81%, ...
Mar. 17, 2026 Researchers have pushed quantum chip design into a new era by simulating every physical detail before fabrication. Using a supercomputer with nearly 7,000 GPUs, they modeled how signals travel and ...
Mar. 17, 2026 A new study put ChatGPT to the test by asking it to judge whether hundreds of scientific hypotheses were true or false—and the results were far from reassuring. While the AI got it right about 80% of the time on the surface, its performance ...
Mar. 15, 2026 Artificial intelligence is often portrayed as a tool that replaces human work, but new research from Swansea University suggests a far more exciting role: creative collaborator. In a large study with more than 800 participants designing virtual ...
Mar. 15, 2026 A new AI framework called THOR is transforming how scientists calculate the behavior of atoms inside materials. Instead of relying on slow simulations that take weeks of supercomputer time, the system uses tensor network mathematics and ...
Mar. 13, 2026 As AI systems began acing traditional tests, researchers realized those benchmarks were no longer tough enough. In response, nearly 1,000 experts created Humanity’s Last Exam, a massive 2,500-question challenge covering highly specialized topics ...
Mar. 5, 2026 Researchers at Cornell University have developed a powerful imaging technique that reveals atomic scale defects inside computer chips for the first time. Using an advanced electron microscopy method, the team mapped the exact positions of atoms ...
Mar. 4, 2026 Choosing the right method for multimodal AI—systems that combine text, images, and more—has long been trial and error. Emory physicists created a unifying mathematical framework that shows many AI techniques rely on the same core idea: compress ...
Mar. 4, 2026 Scientists at the University of Tokyo have captured something never seen before: a frame-by-frame view of how electron spins flip inside an antiferromagnet, a material once thought to be magnetically “invisible.” By firing ultrafast electrical ...
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Mar. 4, 2026 Researchers have built the smallest OLED pixel ever made—just 300 nanometers across—without sacrificing brightness. By redesigning the pixel with a nano-sized optical antenna and a protective ...
Mar. 4, 2026 Researchers at Kobe University have developed an AI system that can detect acromegaly, a rare hormone disorder, by analyzing photos of the back of the hand and a clenched fist. The disease often ...
Mar. 3, 2026 Researchers at the University of Basel and the ETH in Zurich have succeeded in changing the polarity of a special ferromagnet using a laser beam. In the future, this method could be used to create ...
Mar. 2, 2026 As millions turn to ChatGPT and other AI chatbots for therapy-style advice, new research from Brown University raises a serious red flag: even when instructed to act like trained therapists, these ...
Mar. 2, 2026 Twisting atomically thin magnetic layers does more than reshape their electronics—it can create giant, topological magnetic textures. In chromium triiodide, researchers observed skyrmion-like ...
Mar. 1, 2026 Scientists have pulled off a feat long considered out of reach: getting light to mimic the famous quantum Hall effect. In their experiment, photons drift sideways in perfectly defined, quantized ...
Feb. 26, 2026 Researchers have discovered new ways to shape quantum light, creating high-dimensional states that can carry much more information per photon. Using advanced tools like on-chip photonics and ...
Feb. 25, 2026 Quantum computers need special materials called topological superconductors—but they’ve been notoriously difficult to create. Researchers have now shown they can trigger this exotic state by ...
Feb. 24, 2026 CU Boulder researchers have designed microscopic “racetracks” that trap and amplify light with exceptional efficiency. By using smooth curves inspired by highway engineering, they reduced energy ...
Feb. 21, 2026 Scientists may have spotted a long-sought triplet superconductor — a material that can transmit both electricity and electron spin with zero resistance. That ability could dramatically stabilize ...