The utility and power of Natural Language Processing (NLP) seems destined to change our technological society in profound and fundamental ways. However there are, to date, few accessible descriptions of the science of NLP that have been written for a popular audience, or even for an audience of intelligent, but uninitiated scientists. This paper aims to provide just such an overview. In short, the objective of this article is to describe the purpose, procedures and practical applications of NLP in a clear, balanced, and readable way. We will examine the most recent literature describing the methods and processes of NLP, analyze some of the challenges that researchers are faced with, and briefly survey some of the current and future applications of this science to IT research in general.