Seven Inspiring Innovations In Education From Around the Globe

American schools, start taking notes! There may be some things to learn from these successful programs

Capsules of limestone-producing bacteria are embedded in the concrete.

With This Self-Healing Concrete, Buildings Repair Themselves

A concrete developed by Dutch scientists and embedded with limestone-producing bacteria is ready to hit the market

BioTech students prepare a solution for orchids.

Can Young Botanists at a Magnet School Play a Vital Role in Protecting an Urban Ecosystem?

Miami’s BioTech, the country’s first ever botany-focused magnet high school, is teaching kids real-world plant science

Cellulose nanofibril (CNF) chips made from wood could lead to flexible, biodegradable electronics that leach far less potentially toxic chemicals into the environment.

These New Computer Chips Are Made From Wood

A new technique replaces the bulk of smartphone-friendly microchips with a transparent, flexible material made from wood pulp

25 Millennials Just Crossed the United States By Rail Hoping to Leave Their Marks in Cities Along the Way

Young leaders take a 10-day whistle-stop tour with on-train seminars and service projects in communities across the nation

A monarch feasting on milkweed.

Migrating Monarch Butterflies Might Actually Take to the Highway

Threatened pollinators get a trans-continental right of way

The Grevy's zebra (left) and the plains zebra may be tough to tell apart—until you examine their dietary preferences via their poop.

New Research

Big African Animals Are Pickier Eaters Than We Imagined

To the surprise of ecologists, plant-eaters manage to coexist on the savanna by each choosing different favorite foods

Texas longhorn cattle.

How “Meat Banks” Are Helping Farmers Preserve Precious Livestock

Frozen sperm and tissue are being stored to protect commercial animals and help save rare heritage breeds

Tech Watch

Forget Credit Cards, Now You Can Pay With Your Eyes

A new Japanese phone with an iris scanner may mark a new era of password-free mobile payments

Not pretty, but still edible.

Smart Startup

To Cut Down on Food Waste, a San Francisco Startup Is Selling Ugly Fruits and Vegetables

Looks aren’t everything, say the founders of Imperfect, a CSA-type service that delivers odd-shaped produce to customers’ doors

All Is Not Lost

At the Intersection of Dance and Portraiture, Vulnerability and Intimacy Prevail

Dance troupe Pilobolus and video portrait artist Bo Gehring teamed up to defy boundaries

IBM Watson Makes Things Elementary, Indeed

The cognitive computing system makes for an ideal sidekick—in museums, kitchens, hospitals and classrooms

If a lobster’s home territory is written into its genetic code, it just may be possible to distinguish a legally captured lobster from one with a shady background—maybe even after it’s made it to the dinner plate.

To Make Lobster Fisheries More Sustainable, Scientists Attempt to Decode Crustacean DNA

As the battle escalates to combat illegal fishing, Smithsonian scientists offer up a possible genetic tool

The SE200 kit, which includes the chlorinator, salt and measuring tools.

The Developing World Could Be One Step Closer to Quick, Easy Water Treatment With This New Device

Outdoor retailer MSR and global health non-profit PATH have teamed up to create on-demand chlorine to fight waterborne illness in Africa

Maze-like landscaping has cut the decibel level of the ambient noise at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport in half.

This Crazy Land Art Deflects Noise From Amsterdam’s Airport

To drown out flight noise, the Amsterdam Airport turned to large-scale landscaping

Industrial designer Shin Kuo thinks everyone in a building should be able to live in the penthouse for a time.

Six Architectural Ideas That Could Change the Way We Live in Cities

Whether in response to polluted air or shrinking space, architects keep coming up with novel approaches to reshaping urban life

EcoLogicStudio's 430-square-foot gazebo, called the Urban Algae Folly, is on display at the Expo 2015 world's fair in Milan.

Will Buildings of the Future Be Cloaked In Algae?

Built by a London architecture firm, a new gazebo has a living “skin” that produces oxygen and absorbs considerable amounts of carbon dioxide

Make New Memories But Keep the Old, With a Little Help From Electrodes

Matthew Walker thinks there may be a way to simulate deep sleep—vital for memory—by sending a low current to a person’s brain

Did This Map Guide Columbus?

Researchers decipher a mystifying 15th-century document

Nude dancer Micheline Bernardini models the first bikini in Paris, France.

How the Summer of Atomic Bomb Testing Turned the Bikini Into a Phenomenon

The scanty suit’s explosive start is intimately tied to the Cold War and the nuclear arms race

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