Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Innovation

Hurricane Harvey unexpectedly flooded large parts of Houston despite abating wind speeds.

How Satellites and Big Data Are Predicting the Behavior of Hurricanes and Other Natural Disasters

Leveraging machine learning could help diminish the damages of storms and wildfires

Janelle Monáe at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on her summer Dirty Computer tour

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

What Makes Janelle Monáe America’s Most Revolutionary Artist

The musical virtuoso leaves her old persona behind with her third album, Dirty Computer

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

Tracy K. Smith, America’s Poet Laureate, Travels the Country to Ignite Our Imaginations

Like Johnny Appleseed, Smith has been planting the seeds of verse across the U.S.

The co-founders of the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Mily Treviño-Sauceda and Mónica Ramírez (foreground), stand with members of Líderes Campesinas on a farm in Oxnard, California.

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

The Time’s Up Initiative Built Upon the Work Done by These Labor Activists

How the leaders of a farmworkers’ alliance reached across cultural divides to fight sexual harassment

March for Our Lives student activists. Top row: David Hogg, Jammal Lemy, Samantha Deitsch, Bradley Thornton, Daniel Williams, Jaclyn Corin; Middle row: Kyrah Simon, Sofie Whitney, Ryan Deitsch, Delaney Tarr, Diego Pfeiffer, Emma González, Brendan Duff; Bottom row: Matt Deitsch, Kirsten McConnell, Kaylyn Pipitone, Cameron Kasky, Chris Grady, Dylan Baierlein

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

The March for Our Lives Activists Showed Us How to Find Meaning in Tragedy

After the massacre at a Florida high school, these brave students provided a way forward

To Krasinski’s relief, the audience at his film’s premiere “stood up and made the craziest noise” when the screening was over.

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

How John Krasinski Created ‘A Quiet Place’

The actor turned director creates a genre-busting horror movie with a terrifying twist—silence

John Krafcik (left) and Dmitri Dolgov

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

Why Waymo’s Fleet of Self-Driving Cars Is Finally Ready for Prime Time

Your driverless car is already here, thanks to the visionary engineers behind a bold experiment

Scott Bolton says he first dreamed of traveling through the galaxy when he was a boy camping out under the stars.

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

Meet Scott Bolton, the Visionary Behind the NASA Mission to Jupiter

The Juno project will take on the mysteries of the gas giant that may in turn help us understand our own planet’s origins

The Magformers Sky Track was a favorite for testers.

The Ten Best STEM Toys to Give as Gifts This Year

Experts and kids of all ages recommend these tech toys, which inspire year-round curiosity

A time-lapse image showing the plane flying across a gymnasium.

MIT Flies Model Airplane Powered by the Blue Glow of Electric Fields and Ionic Winds

The model plane, with no moving parts, could pave the way for new flight technology that emits no pollutants

The Patents Behind Pumpkin Pie

This Thanksgiving, when you take a bite of the traditional pie, take a moment to think about the inventions that have gone into the making of it

Once NASA's InSight lander touches down on the surface of Mars, it will use a seismometer to measure "Marsquakes," and a self-hammering heat probe will burrow five meters below the surface to study the internal heat of the planet.

NASA Will Attempt Its Eighth Mars Landing on Monday

Touching down on the surface of the Red Planet is one of the most difficult engineering challenges ever attempted, and InSight is about to give it a go

None

Ingenious Minds

Jose Gomez-Marquez Wants to Turn Doctors and Nurses into Makers

Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter interviews the co-founder of MIT’s Little Devices Lab about democratizing health technology

The Telharmonium is considered to be the first electromechanical musical instrument.

The World’s First Synthesizer Was a 200-Ton Behemoth

Thaddeus Cahill’s Telharmonium may not have been a huge success, but it was an important achievement in music history

This Apartment-Size Wind Turbine Makes Use of Gusts Coming From All Directions

Winner of this year’s James Dyson Award, the O-Wind Turbine is designed for the chaotic wind patterns of urban environments

None

Ingenious Minds

AOL Co-Founder Steve Case Talks With Smithsonian Geologist John Grant About the Search for Life on Mars

In the near future, we are going to know if life exists elsewhere in the universe

The NIST-4 Kibble balance, an electromagnetic weighing machine that is used to measure Planck's constant, and in turn, redefine the kilogram.

Scientists Are About to Redefine the Kilogram and Shake Up Our System of Measures

After more than 100 years of defining the kilogram according to a metal artifact, humanity is preparing to change the unit based on a constant of nature

None

Ingenious Minds

A Smithsonian Sports Curator Explains How Athletes Turn Social and Political Issues into National Conversations

Atlantic staff writer Frank Foer interviews Damion Thomas about athletes moving from a position of apathy to engagement

None

Ingenious Minds

The Future Is Bright If More Teens Could Think About High School the Way Kavya Kopparapu Does

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma talks with the founder of the Girls Computing League about the promise of her generation

None

Ingenious Minds

Astrophysicist Michelle Thaller on Understanding Our Place in the Universe

Autodesk vice president Brian Mathews talks with the NASA science communicator about the search for life on other planets and why it’s important

Page 48 of 155