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Innovation

Naked mole-rats are unusual for their long lives and resistance to cancer. Now, researchers suggest the rodents not only tolerate but prefer to be in low-oxygen air.

Naked Mole-Rats Prefer Low-Oxygen Air That Would Kill Most Mammals, Adding to Their List of Death-Defying Superpowers

These underground rodents are the first mammals found to actively choose air with lower-than-normal oxygen levels. Their remarkable ability to survive these conditions could offer a key model for researchers studying new treatments for stroke or lung diseases in humans

The Strutt EV1 electric motorized chair is marketed to everyone, whether they have mobility challenges or simply want a cool, voice-controlled ride.

Seven Fascinating Inventions Unveiled at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show

A smart wheelchair, an A.I.-powered tennis ball launcher, a mirror that reports on your health and more were on display at the annual Las Vegas trade show

Golden apple snails have eyes that are similar to humans’—and they can regenerate an amputated eye in just a month. Scientists uncovered a gene related to that process, laying the groundwork for more research that could help humans with eye injuries.

Eight Fascinating Scientific Discoveries From 2025 That Could Lead to New Inventions

By studying the natural world, scientists find blueprints for innovations that can improve human lives—in the genes of a shark, the fur of a polar bear and the flipper of an extinct reptile

A rinkhals (Hemachatus haemachatus) in Hluhluwe, South Africa, performs a threat display. These snakes tend to live on the edges of human communities.

The High-Stakes Quest to Make Snakebites Survivable Took Leaps Forward This Year, With Promising New Avenues to Safer Antivenoms

A wave of fresh science is challenging a century-old treatment and offering hope to the people snakebites harm most—often far from hospitals and help

Juvenile sunflower sea stars at the Sunflower Star Laboratory in Moss Landing, California. At this phase, each is less than an inch wide, but they can grow to be more than three feet across as adults.

A Deadly Pathogen Decimated Sunflower Sea Stars. Look Inside the Lab Working to Bring Them Back by Freezing and Thawing Their Larvae

For the first time, scientists have cryopreserved and revived the larvae of a sea star species. The breakthrough, made with the giant pink star, gives hope the technique could be repeated to save the imperiled predator

Robots still struggle with the unpredictable ways that fabric crumples and creases. But newer approaches offer the hope of better robotic household help.

When Will Robots Take Over Laundry Folding?

For this chore, the human touch still beats machines. But maybe not for long

A digital illustration of an HIV-infected T cell. Once infected, the immune cell is hijacked by the virus to produce and release many new viral particles before dying. As more T cells are destroyed, the immune system is progressively weakened.

New Trials Hint That ‘Functional Cure’ for HIV May Be Within Reach, Helping Some Patients Achieve Lasting Remission

People infected with HIV must take antiretroviral drugs for life. But engineered antibodies appeared to suppress the virus for certain participants in recent trials in Africa and Europe

From a book to robots, the products all focus on microelectronics.

Engineers Say These Ten Holiday Gifts Will ‘Make Kids Think’

A team of Purdue students and faculty recommends these microelectronic-focused toys for developing STEM skills

Nineteen-year-olds Marta Bernardino and Sebastião Mendonça are developing a robot capable of reaching and reforesting areas where humans have been unable to.

Two College Students Are Building a Robot to Replant Burned Forests

Marta Bernardino and Sebastião Mendonça invented Trovador, a four-legged, A.I.-powered robot that can plant trees in hard-to-reach, wildfire-damaged terrain

Students learn anatomy from an Asclepius AI Table, which merges interactive elements and artificial intelligence.

Medical Students Are Learning Anatomy From Digital Cadavers. Can Technology Ever Replace Real Human Bodies?

From interactive diagrams to A.I. assistants, virtual tools are beginning to supplant physical dissections in some classrooms

Bonneville is one of the flattest natural runways on the planet, a surface so smooth and open that racers have been coming here for generations to see how far they can push the machines they build.

Rooted in the American West: Food, History and Culture

Meet the Daredevils Chasing Down Speed Records at the Bonneville Salt Flats

Race officials, tinkerers and competitors converge in Utah every fall to test both metal and mettle

Boise Whitewater Park includes two adjustable wave features spread over a mile apart. The first is suitable for those beginning to surf, while the second phase is better for advanced levels to put on a show.

Rooted in the American West: Food, History and Culture

How Landlocked Idaho Became a Leader in Urban Surfing

Boise’s wave park is attracting outdoor adventurers—and the innovative public works project is inspiring other cities

The new world of information supplied by drones hovering above is allowing researchers to more easily measure whale size, body condition and health; to identify individual animals from features on their bodies; and more.

From Collecting Whale Snot to Capturing Surprising Behaviors, Aerial Drones Are Giving Scientists a New View of Sea Life

The robots can hover over marine mammals and gather all sorts of information in a way that’s less invasive to the animals than researchers trying to approach them by boat or plane

Some computer vision programs have been thrown off by tricks such as manipulating the pixels in an image.

Computers Are Getting Much Better at Image Recognition

The machine-learning programs that underpin their ability to “see” still have blind spots—but not for much longer

Isaque Carvalho Borges won $12,500 in the Central and South American category of the 2025 Earth Prize, the world’s largest environmental sustainability competition for students between 13 and 19 years of age.

This 16-Year-Old Invented an A.I. Tool to Help Cool Down the World’s Hottest Cities

Isaque Carvalho Borges experiences the urban heat island effect in his home of Palmas, Brazil, and he wants to do something about it

An aerial view of Altadena on March 11, 2025, shows surviving trees and new greenery amid homes destroyed in the Eaton Fire.

After the L.A. Fires, Locals Turn to Native Plants to Help Shield Homes From Flames and Clean Contaminated Soil

Scientists and community members in Altadena are testing ways that California species can assist efforts to rebuild

Postpartum depression affects some one in eight women in the United States. It typically occurs in the first weeks after childbirth, after a sudden drop in levels of estrogen and progesterone.

A Blood Test Can Now Predict a Mother’s Risk of Postpartum Depression

Scientists are learning more about this leading complication of childbirth, and treatments are improving

The earwig’s delicate, paper-thin wings open to more than ten times their folded size, thanks to its origami-like creases.

Studying Clever Creases in Nature May Inspire Foldable Structures for Drones and Robots

Engineers are turning to animal origami, from insects that tuck away wings to a protist with an accordion-like neck, for design help

Young football players locked in a huddle in the 1960s, jealously guarding their strategy for the next play.

How a Deaf Quarterback Changed Sports Forever By Inventing the Huddle

Paul Hubbard called for the football team at Gallaudet University to circle around him back in 1894

A listener selects “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley & His Comets on a classic Wurlitzer “bubbler.”  

The Colorful, Scandalous, True History of the Machine That Created American Pop

The jukebox got its start earlier than you might think, but it truly became iconic when rock ‘n’ roll took over in the 1950s

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