Thought Innovation

New apps and gizmos are helping pets out.

Pet Tech Gears Up

Pet products are already a huge business. Innovations like pet GPS and remote feeding devices are making it even bigger

There are as many as 7,000 drones in service; apparently manufacturers are struggling to keep up with demand.

Drones Get Smarter

We're moving closer to the day when flying robots will make decisions on their own

Are these machines making us stupid?

Are Machines Dumbing Us Down?

The idea that technology is causing us to lose our mental edge won't go away

Solyndra offices

Can Solar Survive the Solyndra Swirl?

Following the collapse of the ballyhooed solar firm, these are dark times for renewable energy. But big players are betting it's treehugger fantasy

Apple accused Samsung of copying their tablet design.

When Patents Cramp Innovation

Patents supposed to turn ideas into inventions. But in the tech world, they've become the weapons of choice when companies like Google and Apple face off

The smart helmets of the future?

Football Tech to Protect Players

From "smart helmets" to "intelligent mouthguards," football tackles the challenge of high technology to reduce injury and improve the game

Car sharing in Rome

Will Sharing Replace Buying?

Thanks to social media and wireless networks, we have less reason to own things. Welcome to the sharing economy

"This is what we do every day," says Kirkkojarvi Comprehensive School principal Kari Louhivuori, "prepare kids for life."

Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?

The country's achievements in education have other nations, especially the United States, doing their homework

Your book, now with sound

E-Books Get a Soundtrack

A company called Booktrack Introduces a new kind of e-book. It plays music or sound effects to accompany your reading

What can our schools do to better prepare students for the workplace?

A Cheat Sheet to Help Schools Foster Creativity

Corporate execs say they're looking for independent thinkers, but schools are stilled geared to assembly lines. Here are ideas to spur imaginative learning

An underwater system generates power through blades that mimic the swaying motion of coral and kelp.

How Nature Makes Us Smarter

The M-dress

Clothes Encounters

Clothing embedded with nanotechnology taps into our growing desire to turn everyday things into electronic gadgets

Ancient cultures used an array of ingredients to make their alcoholic beverages, including emmer wheat, wild yeast, chamomile, thyme and oregano.

The Beer Archaeologist

By analyzing ancient pottery, Patrick McGovern is resurrecting the libations that fueled civilization

Body hackers can get all sorts of information about their personal health.

Me, My Data and I

With the rise of information theory, ideas were seen as behaving like organisms, replicating by leaping from brain to brain, interacting to form new ideas and evolving in what the scientist Roger Sperry called "a burstwise advance."

What Defines a Meme?

Our world is a place where information can behave like human genes and ideas can replicate, mutate and evolve

Chuck Norris became an Internet sensation when late night host Conan O'Brien featured clips from "Walker, Texas Ranger" on his show.

Ten Unforgettable Web Memes

Cats and failures highlight this list of the memes that have gone mainstream. Which ones did we miss?

Could the same dryer sheets that keep your towels fresh and static free also repel bugs?

Dryer Sheets as Bug Repellant?

Testing the myth

"Much of the innovation reshaping our world comes from the private sector," President Obama writes.

President Barack Obama: Why I’m Optimistic

Looking ahead to the next 40 years, President Obama writes about our nature as Americans to dream big and solve problems

Artists will move beyond the "four walls of established institutions," says Richard Koshalek, director of the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum.

Art's Bold New Direction

The director of the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum predicts how art will engage us as never before

Kevin Kelly worries devices like Apple's iPad, shown here with Smithsonian's first cover, nurtures action over contemplation.

Reading in a Whole New Way

As digital screens proliferate and people move from print to pixel, how will the act of reading change?

Page 10 of 11