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Innovation

A resident of "Dementia Village" goes grocery shopping with a caregiver.

For People with Dementia, Does It Take a Village?

A community in the Netherlands has become a model for how to help people feel at home even after they’ve lost their memory

Prototypes of the winning design from the 2012 "Reinventing the Toilet Challenge" are now being tested in India.

Tech Watch

Can This Toilet Save Millions of Lives?

A solar-powered toilet is the latest hope for the 2.5 billion people without access to clean water

EEG technology allows people to play music and control vehicles with their minds. But can it translate a dog's thoughts into words?

Tech Watch

Checking the Claim: This Device Would Allow Dogs to Talk Like Humans

A team of oddball inventors claims they are developing a headset that translates a canine’s thoughts into words

Would you want a ring made from the cremated remains of a friend or family member?

Tech Watch

A Startup Claims To Turn the Dead into Diamonds

The Swiss-based company, Algordanza, says it’s developed a technology that transforms the ashes of a deceased loved one into keepsake jewelry

With Avegant Glyph, movies and games are beamed directly into the wearer's eyeballs through a patented "virtual retina" system.

Tech Watch

This Headset Can Beam Movies Directly Into Your Eyes

The Avegant Glyph is the first wearable tech that replicates an evening at the cinema

Fast Forward

Photos: The Rise of the Volocopter

A helicopter has just one rotor to provide lift. This machine has 18

The U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center has developed a prototype for pizza that could be included in soldiers' field rations.

Ultimate Survival Food: Military-Engineered Pizza That’s Good For Three Years

Army scientists have come up with a recipe for a long-lasting pie that can be stored at room temperature

Five years ago, a team of scientists in Iceland, drilling deep within the Earth’s crust, hit upon molten rock.

Can Volcanic Magma Power The Future?

Scientists in Iceland have figured out how to create geothermal energy from super-hot molten rock

A new exhibition explores how failure relates to success.

Why It’s Time to Show Failure Some Respect

An Irish exhibition titled “Fail Better” argues that flubs make success possible

David Datuna's "Portrait of America" is the first artwork in the world to use Google Glass technology.

Seeing Art Through Google Glass

David Datuna became the first artist to incorporate the technology into a public art piece; now, “Portrait of America” is coming to the Smithsonian

An ice maker pebbles the 2014 Olympic curling rink in Sochi.

Winter Olympics

Why Curling Ice Is Different Than Other Ice

There is a science to preparing ice for the shuffleboard-like sport. It’s all about the pebbling

The statistics-crunching Facebook Data Science team has mined the site's vast clearinghouse of status updates for nuggets of insights on love.

What Can Facebook Tell Us About Love?

With data-mining being all the rage these days, our online activity may reveal some intriguing insights about romance in the login era

The Electronic Start System by OMEGA.

Winter Olympics

The Timekeeping Tech that Keeps the Olympics Fair

Modern starting pistols are more Buck Rogers than Dirty Harry

The Pininfarina Cambiano inkless pen stylishly combines wood, aluminum and a special metal alloy to allow the writer to sketch infinite lines.

Tech Watch

This Inkless Pen Lets You Write Forever

A renowned design firm has unveiled a pen with a special metal alloy that creates permanent markings without running dry

This year, Smithsonian magazine's festival is themed "Science Meets Science Fiction."

The Future Is Here 2014

The Future is Here 2014

The XStat is designed so that as many as 97 tiny sponges can be injected into open wounds to stop bleeding in seconds.

Tech Watch

An Injectable Bandage Can Stop Heavy Bleeding in 15 Seconds

A new technology developed for the military has the potenial to save soldiers from fatal gunshot wounds

The Tabby can be customized using different blueprints downloadable online.

Tech Watch

This Car Can Be Assembled In Less Than An Hour

The team behind the OSVehicle project has developed an open-source vehicle that’s easy to build and fully customizable

Zach Lund, a former Olympian and head driving coach for the U.S. bobsled team, films an athlete training in Lake Placid, N.Y. for the Sochi Olympics using Ubersense, an app that allows for real-time video analysis.

Winter Olympics

How Technology is Changing the Way Athletes Train

Apps like Ubersense and AMPSports bring run-by-run data to skiers, bobsledders and other competitors

Do you want to be an Olympics superfan? Turn watching the games into a two-screen experience.

Winter Olympics

The Best Ways to Follow the 2014 Olympic Games

Not in Sochi? Not a problem. Stay connected with these apps and social media-lites

UK-based startup Xeros has created a washing machine that allegedly leaves clothes cleaner while using 72 percent less water.

Tech Watch

This Washing Machine Could Be the Next Game-Changing Appliance

An innovative system that uses stain-sucking plastic beads translates to big savings

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