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Innovation

Winter Olympics

Will We Ever See a Bionic Winter Olympian?

With more sophisticated prosthetics, skiers and snowboarders are trying to break the same ground blazed by Oscar Pistorius at the 2012 Summer Olympics

A ski jumper flashes a V.

Winter Olympics

Five Winter Olympians Who Forever Changed Their Sports

Considered bizarre at first, these athletes’ techniques ultimately became the gold standards for their sports

Winter Olympics

Can a Statistical Model Accurately Predict Olympic Medal Counts?

Data miners have developed models that predict countries’ medal counts by looking solely at stats like latitude and GDP

According to a new study, fruit flies can be genetically modified to glow the moment they come in contact with cancerous cells.

Can Fruit Flies Be Bred to Detect Cancer?

The insects have been engineered to glow in different patterns when they identify the smell of various cancers

Skiers can generally execute a greater number of tricks per jump in the half-pipe than snowboarders.

Winter Olympics

A Primer on the Eight Olympic Events Debuting in Sochi

Study up on the rules and history of the latest competitions to make the Winter Games lineup

Brendan's Bag

Art Meets Science

X-Ray Art: A Deeper Look at Everyday Objects

Brit Hugh Turvey adds his artistic touch to x-rays of suitcases, old shirts and a host of other subjects

Omega's red measuring units can be mounted on the sides of bobsleds to track performance.

Winter Olympics

Five High-Tech Tools to Boost Athletes to Olympic Glory

Athletes are using cutting-edge training devices that they hope will give them a competitive advantage

Coming in the fall, the oPhone is primed to make the smartphone experience about smell, too.

Tech Watch

With an oPhone, You Can Send Scents to Friends

An inventor has come up with a system for embedding smells into movies, music and text messaging

Nike produced parts of its Vapor Carbon Elite (top) and Vapor Laser Talon (bottom) on a 3D printer.

Super Bowl

This Super Bowl, Players Will Be Wearing 3D Printed Cleats

Nike has designed special shoes that make athletes more explosive from a standing position

The Silic shirt features nanotechnology that repels most liquids.

Tech Watch

This T-Shirt Claims To Be Stainproof

A student has invented a durable, liquid-repelling shirt that’s both comfortable and stylish

In Selfmade, microbiologist Christina Agapakis and scent artist Sissel Tolaas made cheese from bacteria collected from people's mouths and toes.

Art Meets Science

Cheese Made From Bacteria Between Your Toes and Other Bizarre Bio Art

With groundbreaking (and controversial) projects, artists are starting a conversation about the future of synthetic biology

Pregnancy feels several months too long? A 3D printed fetus can give you a glimpse of how it is to actually hold your child.

Tech Watch

Expecting? Cradle Your 3D Printed Fetus In The Meantime

A startup offers to create a life-like replica of your gestating child from ultrasound images

Codenamed "Triton," the mysterious concept comes in the form of a small mouthpiece designed to mechanically capture the oxygen gas present in water and store it in a compressed air tank.

Tech Watch

A Student Claims to Have Designed Working Artificial Gills

A mysterious site showcases a detailed blueprint of a wearable device that lets users breathe underwater like fish

Kagoshima Nanatsujima Mega Solar Power Plant.

Is Japan’s Offshore Solar Power Plant the Future of Renewable Energy?

The densely populated nation has found a new way to harness the power of the sun

How Doctors Are Harnessing the Power of Gold to Fight Cancer

Can the precious metal hold the key to killing cancerous cells?

The Tsunami House, on the northern end of Washington's Camano Island, is designed to withstand the impact of high-velocity wave walls with heights of up to eight feet.

This House is Built to Withstand the Force of a Tsunami

A clever idea to let water flow through a home may allow residents in Puget Sound to escape the fate that locals centuries ago could not

Can a lab-made gel, added to foods, actually make it possible to munch your way to a trimmer figure?

Eating This Gel Might Help You Lose Weight

It’s not a diet pill, but researchers have developed an edible substance that makes you feel fuller longer

Before long, artificial intelligence will stop looking to humans for upgrades and start seeking improvements on their own.

What Happens When Artificial Intelligence Turns On Us?

In a new book, James Barrat warns that artificial intelligence will one day outsmart humans, and there is no guarantee that it will be benevolent

A memory-weakening drug has shown promise in mice. Could Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind someday be a reality?

A New Drug Could Help You Forget Long-Term Traumatic Memories

The drug has allowed mice to replace old anxiety-filled memories with new, harmless ones

Alise Ojay claims that a series of routine vocalizations, performed 20 minutes a day over the course of less than a month, can reduce snoring significantly.

The Cure For Snoring Is…Singing?

Choir director Alise Ojay’s vocal exercises have been shown to work throat muscles that help silence the snorer within

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