Discovery

A rock picked up on a Sussex beach in 2004 looked a whole lot like part of a reptile brain. In a manner of speaking, it was.

After a week of reporting and writing on booms and busts—everything from the rapidly expanding world of subscription services to the biggest change in gaming since the introduction of the Atari 2600—Jamie Wiebe considers eight of her favorite recent discoveries, and how they might affect all of our lives.