Innovation

Kelp cultivated in underwater forests could help curb climate change, both because of the carbon these forests capture and because products made from kelp can reduce carbon emissions.

Could Sinking Tons of Seaweed to the Ocean Floor Help Combat Climate Change?

Submerged seaweed can store carbon at the bottom of the sea, but how effective the strategy will be remains unclear

The original Macintosh computer may seem quaint today, but the way users interacted with it was game-changing.

Forty Years Ago, the Mac Triggered a Revolution in User Experience

When it was introduced in 1984, Apple's Macintosh didn't have any striking technological breakthroughs, but it did make it easier for people to operate a computer

CES 2024, the world's largest annual consumer technology trade fair, was held in Las Vegas January 9-12.

The Eight Coolest Inventions From the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show

A solar-powered electric vehicle, an at-home “multiscope,” an office bike that charges your devices and more were unveiled at the annual Las Vegas trade show

Paola Magni in 2022, taking a water sample from Italy’s Lake Bracciano—the site of the mysterious death of a local teenager, ten years before.

The Scientist Using Bugs to Help Solve Murders

At crime scenes around the world, the forensic entomologist Paola Magni is taking her field into uncharted waters

Sunlight illuminates a plaque in Charleston, South Carolina, honoring 36 likely enslaved people—ranging in age from 3 to over 50—whose remains were discovered in 2013.

Tracing a Lost Ancestry

A New Project Uses Isotopes to Pinpoint the Birthplaces of the Enslaved

In South Carolina, members of the local Black community are teaming up with scientists to produce a novel study of the trans-Atlantic slave trade

A player serving on an outdoor court. In 2022, the Association of Pickleball Professionals estimated there were 36.5 million pickleball players in the U.S.

How the Obscure Sport of Pickleball Became King of the Court

With origins dating back to the 16th century, paddle sports have always had an unmistakable allure

Nubian giraffes in South Sudan during an aerial survey in April 2023. The area is home to what is probably the planet’s largest land mammal migration.

Giraffes Are Notoriously Hard to Track, But New Technology Is Helping Scientists Protect the Beloved Species

As populations plummet across Africa, researchers have designed an ingenious method to study the graceful creatures

Monarch butterflies' signature white spots could help them fly—and inspire better drones.

Seven Scientific Discoveries From 2023 That Could Lead to New Inventions

Biologists learned lots about animals and plants this year, and their findings could inspire better robots, medicine and environmental technologies

Malus sieversii is a wild apple native to the mountains of southern Kazakhstan.

Saving the Apple's Ancient Ancestor in the Forests of Kazakhstan

Found in the Tian Shan mountains, <em>Malus sieversii</em> could hold the secret to making other species of the fruit more stress-resistant

A pneumatic mail tube at the main Post Office Department branch in New York City, circa 1914 or 1915

When a Labyrinth of Pneumatic Tubes Shuttled Mail Beneath the Streets of New York City

Powered by compressed air, the system transported millions of letters between 1897 and 1953

See-through wood has a number of interesting properties that researchers hope to exploit.

The Surprising Possibilities of See-Through Wood

Stronger than plastic and tougher than glass, the resin-filled material is being exploited for smartphone screens, insulated windows and more

As a museum artifact, Lillian Vernon&#39;s kitchen table, where she started her multimillion-dollar catalogue business, is &quot;an evocative piece of material culture that speaks to female entrepreneurship and the &#39;second shift,&#39; or running a business while simultaneously running a household,&rdquo; says curator Kathleen Franz.

Lillian Vernon’s Catalog Empire Got Its Start at a Kitchen Table

A keen sense of what shoppers wanted made her eponymous company the first woman-owned business on the American Stock Exchange

This year&#39;s titles include 100 Mighty Dragons All Named Broccoli, Superpowered Animals and Once Upon a Book.

The Best Books of 2023

The Ten Best Children's Books of 2023

This year’s top titles include an art history primer, a collection of silly poems and a mathematical word problem in disguise

The visionary British stage designer and artist Es Devlin is herself the creator of a multimedia exhibition now on view at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City.

Meet the Woman Who Set the Stage for Beyoncé, the Olympics and the Royal Opera House

The award-winning set designer Es Devlin explores the art of creating spectacle

Example predictions of smell-related objects from the object detection models developed by the Odeuropa project computer vision team. Image credits: J.P. Filedt Kok, 2007, &#39;Floris Claesz. van Dijck, Still Life with Cheeses, c. 1615&#39;, in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8296 (accessed 23 October 2023 11:21:47). &nbsp;

A New Encyclopedia Explores Europe's Smelly History

Odeuropa is an online database of scents from 16th- to early 20th-century Europe culled from historical literature and art

Pressurized water shoots from the drill&rsquo;s head to cool the marble and prevent excessive dust (detail).

Can Robots Replace Michelangelo?

In the birthplace of Italian sculpture, a powerful automated machine tries its hand at an ancient craft

Why can&#39;t machines process CO2 the way trees do?

Why Can't Machines Process CO2 Like Trees? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts

The products range from measuring games to coding activities&mdash;and even include a robot that introduces children to artificial intelligence.

Ten Engineer-Selected STEM Toys to Give as Gifts in 2023

From coding to building to circuitry, these educational activities support basic skills to serve children in science, engineering and beyond

A screenshot of the 3D model

An Interactive 3D Model of the JFK Assassination Site, Grassy Knoll and All

A Danish graphic designer has pieced together historic photos and maps to create an interactive digital diorama of the fateful moments

The OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule (foreground) landed in the Utah desert on September 24, carrying samples collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu (background).&nbsp;

There's More to That

How NASA Captured Asteroid Dust to Find the Origins of Life

The sample of the space rock Bennu that OSIRIS-REx collected could unlock an ancient existential mystery

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