Rectangular barcode blocks have been slapped on to products for more than forty years now.In fact, the first barcode was used on a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum in an Ohio store in 1974.

The UPC barcode, appearing as a sequence of vertical lines on a product label, revolutionized the retail industry 50 years ago by automating price lookup at checkout. While the technology has endured, ...

To marvel at the choice and convenience of modern shopping, go visit your grocery-store mustard aisle. My local Whole Foods sells more than 20 different kinds: basic yellow mustard and Grey Poupon, ...

In the same way that barcodes on your groceries help stores know what's in your cart, DNA barcodes help biologists attach genetic labels to biological molecules to do their own tracking during ...