Jon Van

It was nearly a decade ago when Chicago's dominant local phone company, then known as Ameritech, proposed launching a new area code here strictly for wireless phones. Ameritech's idea was...

There seems to be at least one universal truth about any technology-based industry: No matter how things change or how bad they get, you always need better software. So far...

In March 2000, when Universal Access Inc. became a public company, Internet mania was in full swing, and investors showered the Chicago firm with money. Universal's business model was simple...

Few people bring as much enthusiasm to their work as those in the biotech industry who seek to devise cures for disease and find new ways to provide food to...

In a ceremony at the White House next week, several innovators will be honored as President Bush presents them with the National Medal of Technology. But for one of the...

Few innovations have been embraced as enthusiastically as the cell phone, and many may marvel that it was just 20 years ago that the first commercial cell phone call was...

The attitude that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is rampant in factories where managers are reluctant to reprogram computer-controlled machines to handle tasks more efficiently. Once the machines...

Solar cells that convert light to electricity are widespread in powering small devices like hand-held calculators and can be an excellent solution to bringing energy to remote locations with abundant...

Even though they may have the same malady, some people will respond well to a given treatment while others will experience little effect. If it were possible to know in...

About a generation ago, product labels took a giant step in technological sophistication by embracing bar codes. The codes added a new dimension to the information possibilities. The labeling industry...