Purdue University’s INSPIRE Research Institute for Pre-College Engineering works with pre-school, school-age, college undergrads, engineers and parents to test and rate science- and tech-themed products.

The Ten Best STEM Toys to Give as Gifts in 2019

Stretch young learners’ minds with everything from card games to robotic spheres

The New Croton Dam at Croton Gorge Park, about 40 miles north of New York City.

How New York City Found Clean Water

For nearly 200 years after the founding of New York, the city struggled to establish a clean source of fresh water

A device circa 1970, when it was still strange for people to talk to machines.

How the Spread of the Answering Machine Got Put on Hold

A telephone monopoly and a fear of wiretapping kept the invention out of homes for decades

E-scooters swarm city streets, but their advent is far from the first personal mobility revolution America has seen.

What the Fight Over Scooters Has in Common With the 19th-Century Battle Over Bicycles

The two-wheelers revolutionized personal transport—and led to surprising societal changes

Top, the Navy’s short-lived USS Macon in 1933; above, a commercial passenger airship in 2014.

Why Zeppelins Are on the Rise Again

A world in a hurry turns to a lumbering early 20th-century technology for a lesson in efficiency

Heidi Schreck encourages a wider view of American justice in her surprising drama What the Constitution Means to Me.

American Ingenuity Awards

Heidi Schreck’s Riveting Play Deconstructs the U.S. Constitution

Her surprising drama about the founding document encourages a wider view of American justice

"It was hot, sweaty, exhausting work. But it was also life-changing and inspiring, channeling our love to do something as simple as this: to feed the people," chef José Andrés writes in We Fed an Island, recounting his nonprofit's effort to feed Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria.

American Ingenuity Awards

José Andrés’ Generous Helping of Humanity

Braving storms, floods and earthquakes, the renowned chef is forging a new way to feed the needy

Ewelina Mamcarz and Stephen Gottschalk developed a treatment for babies born without an immune system.

American Ingenuity Awards

These Scientists May Have Found a Cure for ‘Bubble Boy’ Disease

A newly developed gene therapy is saving young people afflicted by the rare but deadly diagnosis

Left to right, top to bottom: Sheperd Doeleman, Michael Johnson, Sandra Bustamante, Jonathan Weintroub, James Moran, Aleks Popstefanija, Daniel Palumbo; Feryal Ozel, Joseph Farah, Neil Erickson, Peter Galison, Katie Bouman, Dominic Pesce, Garrett K. Keating; Nimesh Patel, Alexander Raymond, Kazinori Akiyama, Vernon Fath, Mark Gurwell, Gopal Narayanan, Peter Schloerb

American Ingenuity Awards

Meet the Global Team That Captured the First Image of a Black Hole

Never before had scientists seen the phenomenon until they rallied colleagues around the world to view a galaxy far, far away

American Ingenuity Awards

How Lil Nas X and ‘Old Town Road’ Defy Categorization

The self-taught 20-year-old musician galloped to global fame with his chart-topping song that fuses country and hip-hop together

American Ingenuity Awards

Inventor Alex Kipman’s Grand Vision for How Holograms Will Change Our Lives

The designer behind Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 predicts a future driven by augmented reality

The researchers turned living human skin cells into a liquid "bio ink."

Scientists 3-D Print Skin That Develops Working Blood Vessels

A promising new technique could lead to lasting skin grafts after burns or other injuries

Lucy Hughes holds a piece of MarinaTex.

This Bioplastic Made From Fish Scales Just Won the James Dyson Award

British product designer Lucy Hughes has invented a biodegradable plastic made from fish offcuts

For last-mile delivery, robots of the future may use a new MIT algorithm to beat a path to your front door.

Helping Delivery Robots Find Your Front Door

With a new navigation system from MIT, robots can decipher common landscape features, even in an unfamiliar environment

Play-Doh has sold more than 3 billion cans since its debut as a child’s toy in 1956.

The Accidental Invention of Play-Doh

The much-loved children’s toy was a desperate spinoff of a putty used to clean soot off of wallpaper

The Human Microbiome Project defined nine sites in the mouth. Each provides a habitat for a distinct set of bacterial communities.

By Studying Mouth Bacteria, Scientists Hope to Learn the Secrets of Microbiomes

Communities of bacteria and other microbes in the human mouth can help researchers learn how these groups of organisms affect human health

The design of "Sesame Street" was based on rows of brownstones found in Manhattan's Harlem and Upper West Side and the Bronx.

The Unmistakable Black Roots of ‘Sesame Street’

Making its debut in 1969, the beloved children’s television show was shaped by the African-American communities in Harlem and beyond

Mark Prausnitz holds an experimental microneedle contraceptive skin patch. Designed to be self-administered by women for long-acting contraception, the patch could provide a new family planning option.

Will Microneedle Patches Be the Future of Birth Control?

Researchers are developing a new long-acting, self-administered device that delivers hormones beneath the skin’s surface

This high-precision GPS station is in the Ford Range of Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. It is part of the Polar Earth Observing Network (POLENET), which collects GPS and seismic measurements to understand ice sheet behavior. It’s one example of the varied data that scientists are gleaning from GPS instruments.

Five Things You Probably Didn’t Know GPS Could Do

Scientists use the navigation system to measure and monitor many aspects of our planet

AlphaStar, playing as the StarCraft race Protoss, in green, dealing with flying units from the Zerg players with a combination of powerful anti-air units. The AI program mastered all three races in the game, Protoss, Terran and Zerg.

A.I. Mastered Backgammon, Chess and Go. Now It Takes On StarCraft II

DeepMind’s AlphaStar learns the complex strategy video game, which has trillions and trillions of possible moves conducted in real time

Page 35 of 153