The history of railroading is a saga of epic proportions: North meets South; Ocean meets Ocean. Track and trains and the locomotives that power them have long held Americans' fascination and fancy.

The concept is simple enough. Take the traditional rocking chair, the one you’d find on a front porch or the corner of the living room, and give it a 2012 twist.

Defined in rudimentary terms, an electric motor is a device that uses electricity to create mechanical force. But in 1834, when our story takes place, most people would have trouble understanding the ramifications. That was the year that one of the earliest DC electric motors was invented—by a blacksmith.

Nook Customized Components Fit Talk Show Set…By a Thread

NASA launches Third Rock Radio.

Remember Paul Winchell? Sure you do - if you are a child of the ’50s. Who of that period does not recall ventriloquist dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff?

There are no alchemists at the California Institute of Technology, but a team of research scientists at the Pasadena-based institution is doing some pretty remarkable things "transforming something common into something special."

I robot. You robot. He robot. Robots are everywhere. For decades, they have been as prevalent on TV and in science fiction novels and movies as they are now on the world’s factory floors—and operation rooms. Fiction is now fact.

What did you learn in school today? This typical parental inquiry is met with several responses but rarely followed with, “The complete and total annihilation of robotic machines in a no-holds-barred death match.”

Nowadays, you can find scientists and engineers creating micro-robotic creatures for a slew of fascinating research projects.