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Innovation

This hardware innovation will make it easier for conservationists to identify where illegal deforestation efforts are happening and stop them before the trees have been taken down.

Tech Watch

How Solar-Powered Recycled Smartphones Could Save the Rainforest

A Silicon Valley non-profit is ready to give the forests of Africa and the Amazon ears to listen for loggers—and the ability to phone the authorities

A mock-up of what GE's calorie-counting device might look like.

Tech Watch

A Device That Counts Calories for You

GE researchers are developing a system that calculates the exact calories in food using microwaves

A wearable wireless radio replaces your PIN code.

Tech Watch

This Temporary Tattoo Can Unlock A Phone

Motorola and VivaLnk release an electronic sticker that replaces your passcode

The Verrückt, which opened this summer at the Kansas City Schlitterbahn Waterpark, is the tallest waterslide in the world.

How Do You Build the World’s Tallest Water Slide?

From conceptualization to the first plunge, building the world’s tallest water slide takes more trial-and-error than you might believe

The E-Fan 2.0 completes a demonstration flight at the Farnborough International Airshow.

Tech Watch

Airbus Demos A Near-Silent, Zero-Emission Plane

The E-Fan 2.0 is the first step on the road to all-electric and hybrid flight

Pedestrians cross London's Millennium Bridge at dusk toward the lit dome of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Tech Watch

How to Plan the Most Beautiful Stroll Through a City

A team of researchers has used crowdsourcing to develop an algorithm that can map out the most eye-pleasing walks

Maureen Yancey donated her late son’s Akai MIDI Production Center 3000 Limited Edition (MPC) and his custom-made Minimoog Voyager synthesizer to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Breaking Ground

The Legacy of Hip-Hop Producer J Dilla Will Be Recognized

The late producer’s mother announced she is donating his synthesizer and beat machine to the African American History Museum

Materials scientist Huolin Xin, shown here at Brookhaven Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials, is optimistic that his team will find ways to improve batteries for future electric vehicles and portable electronics.

Tech Watch

Next-Generation Electric Cars May Never Need A Battery Swap

U.S. Department of Energy researchers pinpoint the reasons why rechargeable batteries lose their ability to hold a charge over time

New traffic-light timing software could put an end to gridlock.

Tech Watch

Better Traffic-Light Timing Will Get You There Faster

New algorithms from MIT researchers keep gridlock at bay by predicting traffic before it starts

An attendee at the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo, in Los Angeles, California, tries out an Oculus VR headset kit.

Can’t Picture a World Devastated by Climate Change? These Games Will Do it for You

Augmented and virtual reality games may help crack the code of getting humans to do something about the environment

The 3D-print surface on Orange Maker's prototype heliolithography printer.

Tech Watch

Coming in 2015: A Faster, Sharper Way to 3D Print

Orange Maker’s Helios One prints in a spiral, as opposed to layer by layer, making the entire process more efficient

Actor Andy Serkis's motion-capture performance rendered into a photo-perfect computer-generated ape.

How New Motion Capture Tech Transformed Actors Into Creatures for “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”

The special effects team behind Gollum and King Kong took on its most-challenging feat yet: animating 2,000 apes in a real forest

Scientists are looking to restore memory by stimulating neurons deep in the brain.

Tech Watch

Could Implants in the Brain Revive Memory?

The Defense Department is funding research to see if “neuroprosthetics” implanted in the brain can heal damaged memory.

Looking for a New Place to Live? This Man Chose an Airplane

Oregon man Bruce Campbell created a home in a salvaged 727 aircraft

Legos can not only build great castles and towers for play — they could also offer the most affordable way to study plant root growth yet.

How Legos Could Change What We Know About Plants

Researchers are using toy bricks to study how plants react to environmental factors.

Willowsford is the first neighborhood to take Development Supported Agriculture mainstream.

Bringing the Farm to Your Backyard

Development Supported Agriculture is a growing trend in the housing world, and one subdivision is taking it mainstream

A doctor administers a common glaucoma test.

Tech Watch

A Smart Sensor Could Detect Glaucoma Before Your Doctor Does

A pair of Washington researchers could be first to implant an electronic sensor—designed to give real-time analysis of the disease—directly into the eye

Anyone with a touchscreen can help shape the constantly evolving Universal Typeface.

The Universal Typeface Project Averages the World’s Handwriting to Produce an Incredibly Average Font

With your help, ballpoint pioneer BIC aims to create a font as common as their pens

The clip-on Bluetooth device guides you through less-stressful days by keeping tabs on how you're breathing.

Tech Watch

Stressed? The Latest In Wearables Could Help Keep You Calm

Spire, a clip-on Bluetooth device available this fall, keeps tabs on stress by monitoring how you breathe

The TellMeDave robot is designed to take orders.

Tech Watch

Robots Are Smart—But Can They Understand Us?

Researchers at Cornell are developing a new way for the machines to interpret the imprecise way humans speak

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