When the New York Times ran a major week-long exploration of downsizing in America earlier this year, it sponsored conferences at its Web site. Elizabeth Osder, content development editor, says the printed edition actually included some quotes and information from the electronic discussions in the stories that ran later that week. Also, Microsoft's joint venture with NBC News points to a similar blending of TV news and Web sites for information delivery. Nevertheless, printed publications won't disappear anytime soon. The Web is great for conferencing, research, or for poking around randomly for information, but newspapers and magazines are still more convenient to read and faster to browse.
Paper has great bandwidth.
All of this relies on microprocessors in desktop machines and in modems that move the information. Scott Adams, the comic strip's creator, uses e-mail to receive ideas for future cartoons from readers. DNA's Mysteries Unzipped Biologists still don't completely understand DNA, but they've made great strides in the last decade, thanks to microprocessors. The mathematics of sequencing large parts of the genom e has spawned a new field of computational molecular biology. Special silicon chips make it possible to speed sequencing even more.