The batteries in our phones and headphones only last a few years. NPR's Daniel Estrin asks The Washington Post's tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler about the life span of today's gadgets and why they die.

When I was growing up, magnets were the enemy of technology. They could erase your homework on a floppy disk, make your tube TV's colors go funny, and most of the time you probably wanted to avoid ...

Some medieval gadgets still kick modern tech’s butt, thanks to ingenious design and crazy-tough materials. You’re looking at implements refined between the 5th and 15th centuries—the OG era of ...

I read Andy Kessler’s “My Attempt at Tuning Out the World” (Inside View, Nov. 21) with much curiosity. Thousands of years ago, Moses taught the Jewish people the Ten Commandments, and ever since we ...