Innovation

Holograms, even those not carrying secret messages, need to be preserved.

Why Holograms Will Probably Never Be as Cool as They Were in "Star Wars"

But those that do exist must be preserved and archived

Dried cohineal insects from the author's study

The Bug That Had the World Seeing Red

How a Mesoamerican insect once created the globe's most coveted color

Cars are a liability and expensive to maintain for most Americans. The Future Cycles team builds human-powered vehicles that combine the efficiency of a bicycle or moped with the weather protection and carrying capacity of a car.

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These Locally Grown Design Ideas Were Created by the People for the People

A Cooper Hewitt exhibition spotlights the innovative and sustainable designs generated by those in search of solutions

Eight Innovators to Watch in 2017

Meet original thinkers who are breaking ground in medicine, art, drone design, fighting climate change and more

The DF-24 camera, invented in 1932, is one of several that were used by cinematographer Hal Rosson to film the Wizard of Oz.

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Without This Camera, the Emerald City Would Have Been the Color of Mud

That dramatic Dorothy in Oz moment was brought to you in living color by the DF-24 Beam Splitter

A Farm From a Box is capable of feeding 150 people.

Smart Startup

A San Francisco Startup Puts Everything You Need for a Two-Acre Farm in a Shipping Container

Brandi DeCarli, cofounder of Farm From a Box, wants to deploy farm kits to governments, NGOs, schools and individuals

Needle drop is one of the traits plant scientists at the Christmas Tree Research Center at Dalhousie University are hoping to improve.

Can Science Produce a Longer Lasting Christmas Tree?

LED Christmas lights make the needles hold on longer, and other discoveries from the world’s only Christmas tree research center

Iron-thiocyanate complex, droplet on surface

Art Meets Science

Time-Lapse Photos Reveal the Beauty of Metal Crystals Growing

Photographer Emanuele Fornasier spends hours capturing the intricacy of chemical reactions

Andreas Velten and his lab at the University of Wisconsin use this setup, complete with a fog chamber, to test their camera.

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This Camera Can See Around Corners

How a superfast, supersensitive camera could shake up automotive and exploration industries, as well as photography as we know it

Your breath might be bad, but it's also amazing.

New Research

Your Breath Does More Than Repulse—It Can Also Tell Doctors Whether You Have Cancer

An artificial “nose” could be the next tool for diagnosing illnesses from cancer to Crohn's disease

Radio Nurse by Isamu Noguchi, 1937

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After the Tragic Lindbergh Kidnapping, Artist Isamu Noguchi Designed the First Baby Monitor

The six-decade career of the artist and commercial designer is on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Marshall Field's was as much a part of Chicago's soul as the Lakefront and the Cubs.

For Generations of Chicagoans, Marshall Field’s Meant Business, and Christmas

The midwestern mainstay transformed commerce into a communal holiday spectacle

Mersiv is worn around a user’s neck, like a necklace, and features a silver dollar-sized pendant with an embedded camera and microphone.

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This Language-Teaching Device Constantly Whispers Lessons In Your Ear

A conceptual gadget called Mersiv immerses language-learners in their tongue of choice

Swabbing the toads to sample their microbiomes.

Meet the Colorful New Weapon Scientists Are Using to Save Toads From a Devastating Fungus

Researchers are supplementing the amphibians’ natural microbiomes with a fluorescent fungus-fighter they've dubbed "Purple Rain"

A cow is milked by a robotic voluntary milking system.

Rise of the (Cow Milking) Robots

The largest robotic dairy farm in the United States will be up and running in Michigan next year

How Chemicals Left Behind on Your Phone Could Identify You

Mass spectrometry is finding a new role in forensic science

Students of design at the Berlin Weissensee School of Art have prototyped a new device that tracks gestures in an amputated limb and translates them to computer commands.

This Digital Prosthesis Could Help Amputees Control Computers

Designers are developing a new device that tracks gestures in an amputated limb and translates them to computer commands, like scroll and click

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This Device Could Revolutionize How Malaria Is Detected Around the World

The Magneto-Optical Detector (MOD) combines magnets and laser light to determine, in less than a minute, if a drop of blood contains malaria parasites

The Nobel Prize, named after the repentant creator of dynamite, has been awarded nearly every year since 1901.

What Does It Take to Win a Nobel Prize? Four Winners, in Their Own Words

Some answers: Messiness, ignorance and puzzles

Some of the performers are circus-trained, adding authenticity to the aerial acrobatics displayed.

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“Call Me Ishmael” Is the Only Melville Tradition in This Innovative Presentation of “Moby Dick”

Visceral, kinesthetic, cinematic, aural and psychological, Arena Stage’s new show about the 19th-century novel is a 21st-century experience

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