A man holds his mobile phone as he sits in the ruins of a house in Minamisanriku, Japan, after the area was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Getting a Push Notification on Your Cell Phone? It Could Be Warning You About an Earthquake

Sophisticated GPS sensors in the average mobile device could be harnessed for seismic early warning systems around the world

The Innovative Spirit

What is the Nine Millionth Patent?

The landmark announcement is part of the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s celebration of the 225th anniversary of the Patent Act

Azar Nafisi is the recipient of the 2015 Benjamin Franklin Creativity Laureate in the Humanities and Public Service.

Azar Nafisi on Why the Arts and Humanities Are Critical to the American Vision

The author of “Reading Lolita in Tehran” and recipient of a Smithsonian award, discusses why in education art matters as much as science

Building a Bionic Pancreas

A device that tracks blood sugar and automatically administers insulin and glucagon could take some pressure off Type 1 diabetes patients and their parents

Bringing the toolbox into the 21st century.

This Week in Crowdfunding

A Tricked-Out Toolbox, a Teeny-Weeny Coffee Brewer and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

There’s also a pearl necklace that can store photo and audio files

Christopher Gray, one of the Scholly founders, pitches on Shark Tank.

Smart Startup

An App Matches Students with College Scholarships They Can Use

More than $100 million in scholarships go unclaimed every year. Scholly is connecting students with these and other funds

This apparatus can be used to lay Easter bunny tracks. It dispenses flour in a pattern that resembles paw prints. The same device can be repurposed for Christmas, when it lays Santa's tracks or reindeer hoof prints.

14 Easter Inventions That Never Quite Took Off

This holiday take a look at these products, from egg coloring devices to tomb pendants

This dizzying crowd of Douglas fir trees gives off a refreshing scent.

How to Travel by Scent

We tend to privilege our sense of sight, but why not be led by your nose?

Farmers use the machine and provide feedback.

Farmers Can Shell Coffee in a Fraction of the Time With This Bike-Powered Machine

A team at an MIT International Development Design Summit is making coffee production a little easier for small-scale farmers in Tanzania

Duke Ellington with his orchestra.

What to Listen to and Watch for When Enjoying Jazz

For Jazz Appreciation Month, a guide to understanding the nuances, subtleties and surprises of America’s unique music

“I loved this sort of reference to a particular period in my upbringing as a kid," says the artist Nick Cave," and having these amazing, sort of outrageous Easter hunts."

There’s More to This Towering Pink Easter Bunny Than Kitsch

Evoking springtime and rebirth, African burial ritual, rhythm, and identity, the “soundsuit” by artist Nick Cave is packed with iconic themes

More than half of the drivers queried in a 2014 insurance industry survey said their cars had been damaged by potholes.

The War on Potholes Has a New Weapon

Researchers at Northeastern University have outfitted a van with sensors, microphones and cameras that can spot the early stages of potholes

Using millions of images and machine learning, Orbital Insight is able to estimate global oil surplus, weeks ahead of traditional estimates, by analyzing the shadows on the floating lids of oil tanks.

A Startup Wants to Track Everything From Shoppers to Corn Yields Using Satellite Imagery

Orbital Insight, founded by a NASA and Google veteran, is quick to predict crop failures and estimate the current global oil surplus

This structure serves as everything from a climbing wall to a bench to a meditation space.

This Week in Crowdfunding

A Bus Stop Climbing Wall and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

Unbreakable shoelaces? They come in stylish colors and patterns

A digital scan of a human kidney and pelvis.

Medical Holograms Are Now Part of the Surgeon’s Toolkit

Technology hitting the market will help doctors examine heart conditions or check for colon cancer without breaking the skin

Palazzo Italia

Smog-Eating Buildings Battle Air Pollution

Sunlight triggers chemical reactions in the façades of buildings in Mexico City and Milan to improve air quality

The Birth of Eve by Judith Schaechter, 2013 was recently added to the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery.

This Stained Glass Window, New to the American Art Museum, Is Like Nothing You’ve Ever Seen Before

Artist Judith Schaechter is pushing the boundaries of her craft, adding her own twist to age-old techniques

Before it departed from Abu Dhabi, the plane carried out an inaugural flight, taking off from the Payerne airport in Switzerland.

This Solar-Powered Plane is Currently Circumnavigating the World

With 17,000 solar cells in its wing and tail, the aircraft relies solely on sunshine to keep its motors running

The Innovation Handi-hour will be held on the third floor of the Smithsonian American Art Museum on Wednesday, March 25, 2015, from 5:30-9 p.m. Admission is $10 at the door.

The Innovative Spirit - OLD

Innovation Handi-Hour Gives Creative Types the Chance to Dive-in Hands First

These artists blur boundaries between craft and manufacturing, using lasers, computers and 3D printers

Workers with the Nigiri Project head out to test pens in the flooded rice fields near Sacramento.

Anthropocene

Rice Can Help Save Salmon If Farms Are Allowed to Flood

The Nigiri Project aims to restore the beloved fish by cutting a notch in a California levee and letting some floodplains return to nature

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