Touching the Virtual Frontier

If you’ve never been stung by imaginary gunfire, sent a texture sample by email, or had a sleeve teach you how to move your arm, Katherine Kuchenbecker’s Haptics Lab is a Pandora’s box of tactile trickery and strange sensations.

Alone Together

Vivian Seltzer has spent decades developing and testing a theory that she believes is “the first roadmap through adolescence.”

The History Buffer

Stephen Fried says we have Fred Harvey to thank for retail chains, Western tourism, and our model of exemplary customer service. He also suggests that his just-published book about the man and the “railroad hospitality empire” he embodied represents a new nonfiction genre: history buffed.