We use this blog as a vehicle to highlight many of our big ideas and discoveries. Today we're pleased to share with you Stephen Wolfram's talk from the 2010 TED Conference in Long Beach, California, where he talked about the tools and methods he's spent the last 30 years developing in his quest to explore computational knowledge. TED, an organization devoted to bringing together the technology, entertainment, and design industries' most innovative thinkers to present "Ideas Worth Sharing", recently shared Stephen's ideas with the world as a "TED Talk of the Day". In the signature 18-minute video, Stephen discusses how his lifelong scientific pursuits led to the development of Mathematica, A New Kind of Science, and the computational knowledge engine Wolfram|Alpha. He continues, asking new questions and proposing a fourth project---discovering our physical universe through our computational universe. "Will we find the whole of physics? I don't know for sure. But I think at this point it's sort of almost embarrassing not to at least try." ---Stephen Wolfram Click to view the transcript and slides from Stephen's talk.

In 2002, Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science (NKS) was published. Soon after, Wolfram Research began hosting annual Summer Schools centered around doing research on the topics and methods introduced by the book. The first NKS Summer School was held in 2003 at Brown University. It's that time of year again—when interested individuals all around the world apply to the NKS Summer School. By 2008, the NKS Summer School was already well established. I was one of those interested individuals, having completed my master's degree in mathematics the year before. I had been introduced to A New Kind of Science by a good friend, back when I was taking advanced undergraduate courses in physics. So when I came across the NKS Summer School in the winter of 2007, I was eager to apply.

Over the last few weeks, we've shared with you highlights from Stephen Wolfram's keynote at the International Mathematica User Conference 2009. These highlights included a look at what's in the research and development pipeline for Mathematica and future directions of Wolfram|Alpha. In this final video of our series, Stephen shares how the developments of Wolfram|Alpha will be integrated with Mathematica. (For more of Stephen's keynote, please see parts 1, 2, and 3 of the series.)

Stephen Wolfram highlighted several future directions of Wolfram technologies during his keynote address at the International Mathematica User Conference 2009. Among them were new developments surrounding Wolfram|Alpha. In the following video, Stephen outlines some of the directions in the works for Wolfram|Alpha and gives a sneak peek at one soon-to-be-released service. (To hear more of Stephen's keynote, please see part 1 and part 2 of this series.)

Stephen Wolfram kicked off the International Mathematica User Conference 2009 with an inside look at what he calls an incredible research and development pipeline for Mathematica. During last year's keynote address, Stephen surprised attendees with news about the release of Mathematica 7---just 18 months after Mathematica 6. This year, he said our development pace has become even faster. The following video clip includes a few examples of what our R&D team has in the pipeline for future versions of Mathematica. (You can see the first part in our series of highlights from Stephen's keynote here.)

Future Mathematica features, new directions for Wolfram|Alpha, and how the two Wolfram technologies will be integrated were highlights of Stephen Wolfram's keynote address at the International Mathematica User Conference 2009. Stephen says Wolfram Research will follow up an extremely successful 2009 with a remarkable "breakout year for our company" and the Mathematica community. Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing video highlights and transcript excerpts with you from Stephen's conference keynote. In the first part of this series, Stephen shares the history and trajectory of Mathematica, including some insight on what he calls the "most dramatic" development for him.

There's a lot going on in the Wolfram|Alpha project these days—and this week there's a remarkable convergence of events. Late last week we introduced the Wolfram|Alpha Webservice API, allowing outside developers to call Wolfram|Alpha from their websites or application programs. Then yesterday we released the first mobile implementation of Wolfram|Alpha, in the form of an iPhone app. Tomorrow, we're doing something completely different: Wolfram|Alpha Homework Day—a 14-hour live webcast event for students and educators. Oh, and starting on Thursday is the International Mathematica User Conference, which will show many advances in the core Mathematica technology on which Wolfram|Alpha is based.