Writing

Along with Schrödinger’s Cat, the Infinite Monkeys Theorem is one of the most famous thought experiments. A new study, with tongue firmly in cheek, has calculated that you might be waiting seven googol years for your Shakespeare.

Historians have discovered what may be the world's first decimal point, in an ancient manuscript written 150 years before its next known appearance. There have been many ways to split integers, but this little dot has proven uniquely powerful.

A new study suggests handwriting on paper leads to greater brain activity and memory retention than using a stylus on a tablet. The researchers hypothesize the spatial details of writing on paper may explain why it enhances the encoding of information.

Research analyzing brainwave patterns in both children and young adults while they wrote by hand and typed on a keyboard reveals distinct brain activity between the activities, suggesting learning may be more effective when accompanied by handwriting.

A team of Australian researchers has developed a novel early detection test for Parkinson’s disease based on a short series of drawing and writing tasks. The team is aiming to move through final trial stages and bring the new test to market by 2022.

The first written records of the number "0" were believed to be tied between a temple and a manuscript found in India, but now a team from Oxford has used carbon dating to crown the winner. The Bakhshali manuscript appears to be about 500 years older.

The discovery of an ancient Egyptian “billboard” might turn back the clock on when hieroglyphic writing was thought to be introduced to the general population. The inscriptions date back to about 3,250 BCE and show a form of writing that was thought to only be used by the ruling class at that time.

​​Is it possible to receive a newly hand-written letter from Abraham Lincoln? Of course not, but thanks to research being carried out at University College London, you could now get a computer-written facsimile of one.

The symptoms of Parkinson's disease can sometimes lead sufferers to put down their pens forever. The ARC pen is a vibrating writing device that stimulates muscles in the hand, giving those with Parkinson's better control when putting pen to paper.

A new technology developed at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris allows people to write in cursive using only their eyes.

December 16, 2008 A simple but new development of the humble pen might make life easier for almost one in six people on the planet – those who are left-handers. From birth, molly dookers are handicapped compared to right-handers because the world is configured for right-handed people. The perceived