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Innovation

San Francisco-based entrepreneur Antony Evans plans to insert genes from bioluminescent bacteria into a species of flora as a first step to creating glowing trees.

Cracking the Code of the Human Genome

Creating a New Kind of Night Light: Glow-in-the-Dark Trees

A group in California is starting to engineer plants that could one day replace streetlights

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Powering the 21st Century

Tour the Country’s Energy Infrastructure Through A New Interactive Map

Examining the network of power plants, transmission wires, and pipelines gives new insights into the inner workings of the electrical grid

Harnessing the swift tides of the Pentland Firth, a waterway along Scotland’s Northern coast, could generate enough electricity to meet half of the country’s needs.

Energy Innovation

Is Scotland the “Saudi Arabia” of Tidal Power?

The Pentland Firth, a seaway along Scotland’s Northern coast, could generate enough electricity to meet half of the country’s needs, new research finds

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This New Device Can Sterilize Medical Tools Using Solar Power Alone

An invention called the solarclave could help prevent millions of annual infections that result from improperly cleaned medical equipment

Educating Americans for the 21st Century

The Rise of Blended Learning

How a new trend in education rethinks the role of computers in the classroom and lets each student learn at a different pace

How do we resist when burgers and bacon beckon?

Can We Be Tricked into Not Eating So Much?

Just posting calorie counts isn’t very effective. What may work, though, is framing overeating in terms everyone understands

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Coming Soon: The Dream Chaser, a Nimbler Space Shuttle

This NASA-funded project could head into orbit within just a few years

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The Education of a Bomb Dog

A top training academy works double time to meet skyrocketing demand for canines who can sniff out danger

Jeannette Paillan, a Mapuche documentary filmmaker, was the inspiration for this 2012 textile, titled Lukutuwe (Fertility). Scanning the QR code embedded in the tapestry reveals a quotation from Paillan, in Spanish, about the importance of sustaining the Mapuche language.

What’s a QR Code Doing on That Blanket?

Artist Guillermo Bert is weaving together technology and Native American tradition

The annual value of Japan's Manga Publishing Industry is $6 billion.

How Do You Rebrand a Country?

A look at Japan’s attempt to call itself “cool”

New digital identification technology is able to identify a person based on his or her typing patterns.

How You Type Could Become Your New Password

New technology can identify an individual just from keystrokes

Fueling the trip to the exoplanet Gliese 667Cd, discovered earlier this week, would be one of humankind’s greatest challenges to date. Above is an artist’s rendering of a view from the planet.

Powering the 21st Century

Can We Power a Space Mission To An Exoplanet?

Ion engines, solar sails, antimatter rockets, nuclear fusion—several current and future technologies could someday help us fuel an interstellar journey

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Why Living in a City Makes You More Innovative

Research suggests that the more opportunities you have to connect with different people—and fresh ideas—the more creative and productive you tend to be

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Tesla at the Smithsonian: The Story Behind His Genius

A new biography looks to document how the scientist thought of so many inventions, some of which are housed at the American History Museum

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Educating Americans for the 21st Century

The Scientist Comes to the Classroom

Partnerships that pair schools and working scientists are helping kids think about science—and science careers—in ways they never imagined

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How Solar Can Save India’s Farmers

Water pumps powered by the sun could solve a host of problems for rural farmers and the nation’s power grid

Research says dogs have learned to behave like children.

Are Dogs Now Just Furry Kids?

Research is showing how much the bonds between dogs and their owners have become like a parent-child relationship

The early 20th-century obsession with child prodigies was well documenting in tabloid newspapers, turning the kids into national celebrities.

The Child Prodigies Who Became 20th-Century Celebrities

Every generation produces kid geniuses, but in the early 1900s, the public was obsessed with them

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Why We Should Study Cancer Like We Study Ecosystems

Like pine beetles sickening a forest as they spread, cancer can be seen as a disruption in the balance of a complex microenvironment in the human body

Points interactive directional signpost

A Sign For the Times: Digital Wayfinding Adapts to Your Needs

Design agency BREAKFAST is creating the street sign of the future

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