education

With this free education app, knowledge is literally at your fingertips. The Khan Academy iPad app features more than 3,200 videos from the nonprofit organization's extensive library.

Think you're a history buff? Put yourself to the test with the DocsTeach app for iPad that presents challenges based on documents from the U.S. National Archives.

A new social language app for the iPhone takes learning out of the classroom. The free PlaySay app connects English and Spanish speaking players in a game setting where the goal is to practice real phrases and improve pronunciation.

Imagine taking Ivy League courses without stepping foot inside a classroom or paying a dime. Thanks to the iTunes U app, you can access thousands of free classes from universities and schools around the globe right on your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch.

For my February 2010 article, I interviewed members of the Defense Department's Human Spaceflight Payloads Office and Space Test Program about the experiments they help put into space. The projects impressed me, as did the sources' firm belief in the importance of what they do to help warfighters. At the end of our interview, I asked the gentlemen to indulge me on a personal question: "What would you recommend to a child like my son, who wants to grow up to become, as he calls it, 'a space scientist?'"