Smart News Ideas & Innovations

A familiar-looking image from the Uncrustables patent.

Can a Sandwich Be Intellectual Property?

This is the story of a patent war over PB&J

Why Saudi Arabia Giving a Robot Citizenship Is Firing People Up

Saudi Arabia’s newest citizen is a robot named Sophia and she already has more rights than human women who live in the country

The Abbey Road crosswalk, which has been moved slightly since 1969, in modern times.

A Short History of the Crosswalk

Pedestrian crosswalks and roads have a complicated relationship

This paper log for Interface Message Processor shows the very first online communication.

These Two Small Letters Heralded the Beginning of Online Communication

Their message is far more profound in retrospect than it was at the time

Cool Finds

Watch This RoboBee Surge From Water to Sky

Researcher hope that someday similar robots could help with everything from biological monitoring to search and rescue

The Boston Public Library Is Digitizing 200,000 Vintage Recordings

With the help of the Internet Archive, the recordings from the Sound Archives Collection will one day be available for free streaming and download

Quick, durable and environmentally friendly, 3-D printing is becoming an increasingly popular technique in construction.

3-D Printed Cycling Bridge Unveiled in the Netherlands

It is reportedly the first-ever civil infrastructure project built with a 3-D printer

A Hybrid III model crash test dummy.

These Dummies Gave Us a Crash Course on Auto Safety

Many of your car's safety features owe a lot to these inanimate people

None

John Z. DeLorean Thought He Was Designing the Car of the Future

Instead its almost-instantly out-of-date styling made it a legend

Google Trekker in Quttinirpaaq National Park

Cool Finds

Now You Can Virtually Visit Quttinirpaaq National Park, One of the Most Remote Places on Earth

Google Street Views records the wonders of the northerly jewel

A researcher uses a pipette to remove DNA from a micro test tube.

Trending Today

The Navajo Nation Might Lift a Longstanding Ban on Genetic Research

A policy written by tribal officials could help alleviate ethical concerns and guide genetic research and data sharing

Using "visual fingerprints" in works of art, Smartify can quickly ID that painting you want to know more about

App Aims to be the "Shazam" of the Art Museum

With a database of 30 museums worldwide and growing, Smartify can use your phone camera to identify and explain works of art

Eight hundred pounds of dynamite exploding.

The Man Who Invented Nitroglycerin Was Horrified By Dynamite

Alfred Nobel–yes, that Nobel–commercialized it, but inventor Asciano Sobrero thought nitroglycerin was too destructive to be useful

H. J. Heinz started a condiment empire. His savvy marketing helped.

There Never Were 57 Varieties of Heinz Ketchup

The '57' doesn't actually refer to <I>anything</i>

Trending Today

Virtually Explore a World War II Shipwreck in 360 Degrees

High-resolution video and 3D scanning brings the SS <i>Thistlegorm</i> to armchair archaeologists everywhere

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's famed painting "Luncheon of the Boating Party" is the focus of a new exhibit in Washington, D.C.

Exhibit Sheds New Light on Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party"

More than 130 years after it was completed, "Renoir and Friends" returns to the famed painting

A mid-century Band-Aid tin.

Get Stuck on Band-Aid History

Small injuries are a commonplace problem, but before the Band-Aid, protecting papercuts and other such wounds was a huge hassle

The British Navy was a big deal in the 1700s.

Jane Squire and the Longitude Wars

The sixteenth-century debate over how to determine longitude had a lot of participants—and one woman

A line of men in green in the United Arab Emirates

Agoraphobic Photographer Captures the World With Some Help From Google Street View

A new exhibition shows how Jacqui Kenny has photographed stunning images of the planet without leaving her London home

The late 19th and early 20th centuries were full of inventions such as this--the "Pinkert Navigating Tricycle," which was meant to be used on water.

People in the 1800s Dreamed of Bicycling on Water

Despite numerous patents, nothing really ever came of this fad

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