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Innovation

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Civil Wrongs

In a painstaking study of 1960s Atlanta, Kevin Kruse takes suburban whites to task

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Keeper of the Keys

Pianist Jason Moran laces his strikingly original music with the soulful sounds of jazz greats

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High Scorer

Composer Nico Muhly wowed them at Carnegie Hall and the New York Public Library

There’s a misperception about prejudice, says Richeson, that “people do bad things because they’re bad people, and there are only a few of these bad apples around.” All of us have prejudices, she adds, but we also have the capacity to change.

The Bias Detective

How does prejudice affect people? Psychologist Jennifer Richeson is on the case

“I wanted to build something that grows from large to huge,” Schachter (at Yahoo!’s Palo Alto office) told the Guardian. “I don’t know if I have another innovation in me, but it would be nice to try.”

Site Seer

Faced with the Internet’s overwhelming clutter, Joshua Schachter invented a deceptively simple tool that helps us all cut to the chase

Tao, 32, does mathematic both pure and practical—from proving that prime number patterns come in every conceivable shape to deriving solutions needed for the next generation of digital camera and MRI scanners.

Primed for Success

Terence Tao is regarded as first among equals among young mathematicians, but who’s counting

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Down to Earth

Anthropologist Amber VanDerwarker is unraveling the mysteries of the ancient Olmec by figuring out what they ate

“His scientific contributions are joyful, spark curiosity and inspire the young,” computer scientist Jeannette Wing says of her colleague Luis von Ahn (on the Carnegie Mellon campus, seated upon one of the “guest chairs” he keeps in his office).

The Player

Luis von Ahn’s secret for making computers smarter? Get thousands of people to take part in his cunning online games

Why does the human immune system sometimes fail to thwart invaders? John Wherry is trying to find out, the better to design a more effective flu vaccine.

Flu Fighter

With a possible pandemic in our future, immunologist John Wherry is racing to develop a once-a-lifetime vaccine

In the Persian Gulf, authorities are concerned about terrorism as well as piracy. Coalition vessels (the Coast Guard cutter Aquidneck, behind Coast Guardsman Zachary Coone) patrol exclusion zones around Iraq's Al Basrah and Khawr Al Amaya terminals, where tankers take on millions of barrels of oil daily.

The Pirate Hunters

As buccanneering is back with a vengeance, stepped-up law enforcement and high-tech tools work to help protect shipping on the high seas

Barbed Wire was designed for "preventing cattle from breaking through wire-fences," Glidden writes in his application.

Patent Pending

The Supreme Court may soon reinvent the rules for invention

Lincoln’s original patent model was acquired by the Smithsonian in 1908. This replica was built by the Smithsonian in 1978 for long-term display to preserve the fragile original.

Abraham Lincoln Is the Only President Ever to Have a Patent

In 1849, a future president patented an amazing addition to transportation technology

Bill Gates (in 2003) has "far surpassed anything I accomplished in engineering and business," says Jimmy Carter, now a fellow philanthropist.

35 Who Made a Difference: Bill Gates

The king of software takes on his biggest challenge yet

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Making Copies

At first, nobody bought Chester Carlson’s strange idea. But trillions of documents later, his invention is the biggest thing in printing since Gutenburg

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New Leash on Life

In an innovative program, prison inmates are raising puppies to be guide dogs for the blind

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A Century of Flight - Taking Wing

From the Wright brothers to the latest robot jets, the past century has been shaped by the men and women who got us off the ground

All Aboard!

A new multimedia exhibition shows how innovations in transportation spurred the growth of the nation

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Wise Guys

From absorbing shocks to shock absorbers

The compass has a symbolic importance transcending its utility.

Useful Gadget

The legendary explorers carried destiny on their expedition. But they could not have fulfilled is without this unprepossessing device

"Electric boats intensify my connection to the water," says Houghton (at tiller).

Batteries Included

Let’s hear it shhhh, not so loud for electric boats

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