Engineering

Filippo Brunelleschi designed Florence Cathedral's famed red-brick dome.

How Renaissance Architects Designed Italy's Imposing Domes

A new study offers key insights into how engineers built the rounded structures without using supports

A deep-sea starfish attached to what is called a polymetallic nodule. These nodules are being targeted by the burgeoning deep-sea mining industry for their mixture of valuable metals including manganese, cobalt, copper and nickel.

Deep-Sea Mining’s Environmental Toll Could Last Decades

A study of microbial communities at the site of a 1989 deep-sea mining test suggests the fragile ecosystem may take half a century to fully recover

A tourist visits Mousa Broch, the tallest known Iron Age broch and one of Europe's best-preserved prehistoric buildings

Why Scottish Archaeologists Are Building a Replica of an Iron Age Stone Tower

By building a new broch, the project aims to better understand how and why the original structures were constructed

A sketch from Eiffel’s workshop appears to show the statue with a bulkier shoulder than the final version has.

Recently Discovered Drawings for the Statue of Liberty Hint at a Last-Minute Change

Sketches from the workshop of French engineer Gustave Eiffel suggest a different plan for Lady Liberty’s upraised arm

Angkor Wat in Cambodia

Angkor Wat May Owe Its Existence to an Engineering Catastrophe

The collapse of a reservoir in a remote and mysterious city could have helped Angkor gain supremacy

Captain Edward J. Dwight, Jr., the first African American selected as a potential astronaut, looks over a model of Titan rockets in November 1963.

Ed Dwight Was Going to Be the First African American in Space. Until He Wasn't

The Kennedy administration sought a diverse face to the space program, but for reasons unknown, the pilot was kept from reaching the stars

Axolotls can regrow lost limbs, again and again, making them appealing to scientists who want to understand regeneration.

Some Salamanders Can Regrow Lost Body Parts. Could Humans One Day Do the Same?

In recent decades, the idea of human regeneration has evolved from an 'if' to a 'when'

MIT researchers develop a mathematical model to predict a knot’s stability with the help of color-changing fibers.

The Mathematics of a Well-Tied Knot

Fibers that change color under pressure helped researchers predict knot performance

(Clockwise from left) Michela Puddu, Elias Sime, Richard Yim and Miranda Wang

Eight Innovators to Watch in 2020

From plastic recycling pioneers to landmine foes, these dreamers have big plans for the coming year

Although ammonoids died out around the same time as most dinosaurs, new computer models are revealing how these marine animals moved through the water.

Video Game-Inspired Models Demonstrate How Prehistoric Squid Relatives Swam Through the Seas

By simulating liquid flows around the shells of ammonoids, scientists study how these ancient animals moved

Purdue University’s INSPIRE Research Institute for Pre-College Engineering works with pre-school, school-age, college undergrads, engineers and parents to test and rate science- and tech-themed products.

The Ten Best STEM Toys to Give as Gifts in 2019

Stretch young learners’ minds with everything from card games to robotic spheres

Lucy Hughes holds a piece of MarinaTex.

This Bioplastic Made From Fish Scales Just Won the James Dyson Award

British product designer Lucy Hughes has invented a biodegradable plastic made from fish offcuts

For last-mile delivery, robots of the future may use a new MIT algorithm to beat a path to your front door.

Helping Delivery Robots Find Your Front Door

With a new navigation system from MIT, robots can decipher common landscape features, even in an unfamiliar environment

Mark Prausnitz holds an experimental microneedle contraceptive skin patch. Designed to be self-administered by women for long-acting contraception, the patch could provide a new family planning option.

Will Microneedle Patches Be the Future of Birth Control?

Researchers are developing a new long-acting, self-administered device that delivers hormones beneath the skin’s surface

NASA astronauts Christina Koch (left) and Jessica Meir (right).

Watch the First All-Female Spacewalk

Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will exit the International Space Station to replace a power controller that failed last weekend

This Smart Cane Helps Blind People Navigate

WeWalk alerts users to obstacles at their body and face level, and can pair with a phone to give GPS directions and take voice commands

Karly Bast with her scale model of Leonardo da Vinci's bridge design

Scientists Prove Leonardo da Vinci’s 500-Year-Old Bridge Design Actually Works

A model created at MIT shows the bridge, which would have been 10 times longer than typical ones, could have spanned the Golden Horn

The Zamboni totally transformed winter sports by giving chopped-up ice surfaces a fresh-frozen smoothness in a matter of minutes.

How the Zamboni Changed the Game for Ice Rinks

Invented by rink owner Frank Zamboni, the ice-clearing machine celebrates its 70th anniversary this year

SmartCan is essentially a pair of robotic wheels that are compatible with any municipal-issued trash receptacle.

This Robotic Trash Can Takes Itself to the Curb

The award-winning invention automates a 'chore that everyone hates'

The Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab will be offshore of Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in Oakland for three years, in an effort to test its viability as a substrate for futuristic floating cities.

Designing Floating Buildings With an Eye to the Marine Species Living Underneath

A prototype deployed in San Francisco Bay imagines the underside of a floating building as an upside-down artificial reef

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