This may provide some comfort to parents who have recently sent in deposits and are worrying about the futility of a liberal arts education versus more practical degrees in engineering, computer science or say, nursing.

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If practical, development of a quantum computer could create a supercomputer with a billion-fold increase in performance.

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Though the temperature at which this effect occurs is too low for it to have any obvious practical consequences for the operation of computer chips, it is hot stuff for the theorists.

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Synaptics initially moved toward its first practical product in 1992, when Swiss computer-peripherals maker Logitech commissioned a chip for a touchpad.

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Synaptics initially moved toward its first practical product in 1992, when Swiss computer peripherals maker Logitech commissioned a chip for a touchpad.

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Greedy takes its name from a kind of computer algorithm that emphasizes the virtues of the practical over the precise in problem-solving.

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For instance, a calligraphy course that he took on a lark after dropping out of Reed College found practical application 10 years later in designing the first Macintosh computer, and influenced the typefaces used in other computers.

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Although it doesn't quite have the wow factor of Cornell's invisibility project, the thermal research may prove to be more practical because it also can be used to manage heat and improve cooling in components such as computer chips.

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