Science

Take a scenic flight over the summit of Mount Vesuvius in Italy, and the view below is chilling. A dense patchwork of urban sprawl from the nearby city of Naples laps at the flanks of one of the most violent volcanoes on Earth. Since A.D. 79, when Vesuvius exploded with little warning and entombed Pompeii and its 3,000 townsfolk under 15 feet of scalding ash, the volcano has erupted at least 30 times.

It takes Scott Kiser only a split second to name the one city in the U.S., and probably the world, that would sustain the most catastrophic damage from a category-5 hurricane. "New Orleans," says Kiser, a tropical-cyclone program manager for the National Weather Service. "Because the city is below sea level-with the Mississippi River on one side and Lake Pontchartrain on the other-it is a hydrologic nightmare." The worst problem, he explains, would be a storm surge, a phenomenon in which high winds stack up huge waves along a hurricane´s leading edge.

Agendus Professional Don´t confuse this powerful personal management tool with the anemic programs that come stock. Calendar, messaging, meeting planner and a rollover To-Do application are all bundled into one integrated product in which they share information and operate together seamlessly. It also integrates with desktop applications such as Outlook and Act.

For years, the phrase â€PDAâ€phone combo†brought to mind clunky bricks that appealed to only the most connectivity-crazed early adopters. But the latest incarnations of these devices, now known by the more marketing-friendly tag â€smartphone,†are finally fit for the rest of us. So why do you want one?Beyond the obvious calling capabilities, smartphones keep your calendar and address book close at hand (and ever more easily synced with your PC), provide access to e-mail and the Web,

A few months ago I got a voicemail from my seven-year-old nephew informing me that he needed help building a satellite communication device. He had most of the necessary parts, he assured me, including aluminum foil, some wires and cables, and AA batteries. All we needed to get started was a radio or remote control.

Nothing came of our project, but the imaginative reach of his idea made me wonder: Where did this itch for invention come from? Was my sister sprinkling something in his cereal? Reading him Arthur C. Clarke at bedtime?

It's a slow-motion horror movie: Nuclear waste leaks from underground storage shafts and seeps toward a river, where it contaminates drinking water used by millions of people. That's exactly the scenario unfolding at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in rural Washington State.The solution, too, sounds like a page ripped from a Hollywood screenplay: Insert two industrial-strength electrodes deep into the ground, and melt the soil-along with everything around it-into solid glass, trapping the toxic waste for thousands of years. The U.S.

In January, the

You´re not fooling anyone by â€borrowing†a kid´s toy-least of all the kid
himself. Please, grow up and get your own. There´s certainly no shame in playing
with this fleet of innovative remote-controlled toys. Engineered with serious
technology from the consumer electronics and automotive industries, these
unmanned vehicles are guaranteed to bring out the child in anyone.Draganflyer V Ti ProWhy is this 30-by-30-inch carbon-fiber whirlybird so easy

As much as I would love to get rich quick, increase my stamina,
and receive that pesky degree that I never got (I dropped out of four universities in two years), I have never bought a single item as a result of an

On the Las Vegas Strip, home of the biggest and most extravagant hotels in the world, shell-shocked tourists file past one stunningly ostentatious display after another. In the desert city, water says wealth like nothing else, and there’s a lake of it in front of the Bellagio, with fountains blasting 240 feet in the air in time to Broadway show tunes. Just up the street, the Mirage demonstrates that it has money to burn with a fiery volcano erupting from the top of a 119,000-gallon waterfall.

In San Jose, the unofficial capital of Silicon Valley, technology companies employ more than 300,000 people—practically a third of the populace. The city generates 30 percent more patents than its closest competitor (Boise, Idaho, home to Micron) and receives more than a third of the nation’s venture capital: $5 billion. Headquartered in Silicon Valley are Google, eBay and Cisco Systems; the world’s leading biotech company, Genentech, is up the road.

In Seattle, it seems, citizens have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of connectivity. The most wired (and wireless) city in the nation, Seattle has 57 Wi-Fi hotspots per 100,000 people; the national average is more like 18. A full 83 percent of Seattle homes have at least one computer, and almost all those homes are online, surpassing the national average by 21 percent.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone here. Bill Gates studied here (before dropping out). The sewing machine, vulcanized rubber, the Polaroid camera, the microwave oven, artificial limbs, synthetic penicillin, the first computers, Arpanet, e-mail, inertial guidance systems—all are products of Boston ingenuity. Not so surprising when you consider that the city boasts more than 60 colleges and universities.

Click here for the alphabetized list with overall rank and 6 subcategories

To determine which U.S. cities can claim the designation “high-tech,” we chose 36 technology indicators—our raw data—based on expert and staff opinion. Items such as “robotic surgery,” “number of Wi-Fi hotspots” and “R&D budgets at local universities” all qualified.

THE SUPERMARKET

Charlotte, NC
At Food Lion’s new pilot store, Bloom, shoppers get an RFID scanner along with their cart and total up their groceries on the go. Changed your mind about the frozen pizza? Just press “delete” and your tally will automatically adjust. Can’t find your favorite marinade? Stop at one of Bloom’s eight information stations and get a map pinpointing your item’s location. Paying at the self-service checkout takes about 60 seconds.

THE PLANETARIUM