Traffic control centers like this one in Boston—a room cluttered with computer terminals and live video feeds of urban intersections—represent the brain of a traffic system.

Will We Ever Be Able to Make Traffic Disappear?

City engineers make changes in the timing of signals to keep cars moving, but cell phone data and vehicle-to-vehicle communication could ease the task

The Lusitania leaves New York on its final voyage in 1915.

This Map Shows the Full Extent of the Devastation Wrought by U-Boats in World War I

On the anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania, a look at how “unrestricted submarine warfare” changed the rules of war

In a recent ad campaign, portraits of litterers made from DNA taken from tossed cigarettes, coffee cups and condoms were posted in public places around Hong Kong.

DNA Testing Could Identify Litterbugs and Dog Poop Miscreants

Anonymous crimes may not be quite so anonymous anymore

New Research

Veggie Power? Artificial Muscles Made From Blinged-Out Onions

Turning root vegetables into working muscles requires gold, electricity and imagination

This smartphone-controlled lock could replace your keys.

This Week in Crowdfunding

A Lock that Opens When You Say “Open Sesame” and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

A company is designing athletic apparel with colorful prints based on micrographs of chicken pox and muscle cells

Evan Creelman, Newlight COO; Mark Herrema, Co-Founder and CEO; and Kenton Kimmel, Co-Founder and CTO, with a few products made of AirCarbon.

Smart Startup

Creating Plastic From Greenhouse Gases

Newlight Technologies is turning carbon emissions into plastic for everyday items

Future of Energy

6 Projects That Make a Sustainable Future Seem Possible

From an algae-powered building to a playground of recycled steel drums, these spots give designers, urban planners and others hope

With Semios, Farmers Can Monitor Their Fields Remotely and Keep Pests Away

Paired with wireless sensors and cameras, aerosol pheromone pesticides have entered a new era of effectiveness and affordability

This UH-1, on view at the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, compiled a distinguished combat record in Vietnam from 1966 to 1970.

The Huey Defined America’s Presence in Vietnam, Even to the Bitter End

The 40th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon presents a chance for one Vietnam War correspondent to look back at the iconic helicopter

Flower power—how viable an option is it?

Turning Energy Plants Produce Into Usable Electricity

Plant-e, a company in the Netherlands, is placing conductors in the soil underneath plants to collect excess energy from photosynthesis

Designer Ross Atkin has created pieces of street furniture—lights, signs and seats—that can adapt in the moment to fit a pedestrian’s particular need.

What If City Streetlights Brightened and Signs Spoke As You Passed?

A British designer has found a way to make urban areas work for all types of pedestrians

Using dirt containing bacteria that generate electricity, kids can build their own mud batteries.

This Week in Crowdfunding

A Kit to Build Your Own Mud Battery and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

Also, a campaign to build a Little Free Museum

A shuttle astronaut's view of the International Space Station.

To Get Rid of Space Junk, Shoot It Down With Lasers

Proposals to send debris-targeting craft into orbit are piling up, and one mission may soon start test firing from the space station

David Lerner uses a conductivity and temperature meter to test for sewage in water, a method that's more costly and less effective than using tampons.

How Scientists Are Monitoring Water Quality With Tampons

The feminine hygiene products glow under ultra-violet light after absorbing pollutants called optical brighteners

An early draft of the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Personal Writings of Arthur C. Clarke Reveal the Evolution of “2001: A Space Odyssey”

Works donated from the author’s archives in Sri Lanka include letters to Kubrick and an early draft of his most famous novel

At least 300 buildings at Tajalei village in Sudan's Abyei region were intentionally destroyed by fire, according to Satellite Sentinel Project analysis of this DigitalGlobe satellite image, taken March 6, 2011 and analyzed by UNITAR/UNOSAT and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.

The U.N. Uses Satellites to Track Humanitarian Crises Around the World

With help from George Clooney, the United nations embarks on a new frontier in monitoring the world from above

This device makes it possible to communicate with your mind.

This Stroke of Genius Could Allow You to Write With Your Brain

Not Impossible Labs has developed a breakthrough approach to communication

Garrett Foshay rides the Hendo, which hovers about an inch off the ground.

The Hoverboard Fantasy Comes True, Just As “Back to the Future” Predicted

Hold onto your flux capacitors; the future is here

A 2013 satellite view of a settlement of uncontacted people in Acre, Brazil.

Protecting the World’s Last Isolated Communities From Above

Advances in satellite technology mean that untouched villages can remain that way

An X-ray of the knee bone.

We’re Not That Far From Being Able to Grow Human Bones in a Lab

The company EpiBone could be on the verge of a major breakthrough

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