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Innovation

A demonstration of the technology, with the light fabric sewn into a onesie

These Light-Emitting Pajamas Could Help Treat Newborns With Jaundice

The method has an advantage over traditional phototherapy in that it allows babies to receive treatment in the comfort of their parents’ arms

Little Children on a Bicycle

How Instagram Is Changing the Way We Design Cultural Spaces

As neighborhoods, restaurants and museums become more photogenic, are we experiencing an “Instagramization” of the world?

The minimLET toilet kit

A Sleek Portable Toilet and Other Design Solutions for Disaster Victims

The toilet kit, from a Japanese design studio, is part of wave of interest in design fixes for the problems created by disasters

The Next Pandemic

Watch: Experts Discuss “The Next Pandemic: Are We Prepared?”

Thought leaders gathered at the National Museum of Natural History on November 13 to discuss the past, present and future of the flu

The herbarium of Washington, D.C.'s Natural History Museum teems with pressed specimens of thousands of distinct plants.

How Artificial Intelligence Could Revolutionize Archival Museum Research

A new study shows off a computer program’s specimen-sorting prowess

Existing cars can stop when they detect pedestrians.

Computer Systems and Sensors Could Put a Stop To Car-Based Attacks

Driver aid systems and self-driving vehicle control systems could override a driver who is trying to strike people

How a Ripped-Off Sequel of Don Quixote Predicted Piracy in the Digital Age

An anonymous writer’s spinoff of Cervantes’ masterpiece showed the peril and potential of new printing technology

An illustrated depiction of a scene of Lincoln lying in state

When You Die, You’ll Probably Be Embalmed. Thank Abraham Lincoln For That

The president was an “early adopter” of embalming technology, helping to bring the modern death industry to the mainstream

El Greco: Apocalyptic Vision {The Vision of St. John)

Where Do New Ideas Come From?

With close study, the genealogies of even the most original ideas can be traced

Water-strapped cities with growing populations and energy needs could benefit the most. Greater Phoenix, for instance, is served by this reservoir and irrigation system fed by the Colorado River.

Five Questions You Should Have About Evaporation as a Renewable Energy Source

What’s the big deal with evaporation-driven engines?

Wine grapes grow in the shadow of Mount Ararat.

Armenia

How Mobile Wine-Tasting Rooms Could Revolutionize Armenian Wine Country

“Wine Cubes” will be popping up on Armenian vineyards—and building up the country’s enotourism industry

Students and advisers in a class at the new Vaux Big Picture High School in Philadelphia

This Philly Transformation Plan Rethinks the Neighborhood School

The city housing authority’s designs for a mixed-income community include a once-shuttered high school that could guard against displacement amid change

“And bats with baby faces in the violet light / Whistled, and beat their wings”—T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

How a Deadly Flesh-Eating Fungus Helped Make Bats Cute Again

A silver lining to the worldwide epidemic of white nose syndrome: People like bats more now

That black light you had as a teenager might help put an end to that foul barnyard odors in the future.

Is Black Light the Path to a Stink-Free Livestock Farm?

Researchers at Iowa State University are using a new technique involving the UV-light producing device to curb bad odors

This pumpkin is eventually going to hold about 250 gallons of beer.

How Elysian Brewing Company Turns a 1,790-Pound Pumpkin Into a Keg

And is this insane thing really a pumpkin?

The molds responsible for aflatoxins grow on a number of staple crops, including corn, peanuts, millet, wheat, cottonseed and tree nuts.

Could Video Gamers Make Our Food Supply Safer?

An effort to combat poisonous molds that contaminate crops is looking to tap the puzzle-solving skills of amateur gamers

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The Next Pandemic

The Next Pandemic

With Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the National Museum of Natural History, we look at the past, present and future of the flu

Flu pandemics begin when novel animal viruses start spreading between people.

The Next Pandemic

How to Stop a Lethal Virus

With tens of millions of lives at stake, medical researchers are racing to create a revolutionary flu vaccine before the next devastating epidemic

A woman sells live poultry at the market in Gaosheng Township, where Long purchased chickens and later died from bird flu.

The Next Pandemic

Is China Ground Zero for a Future Pandemic?

Hundreds there have already died of a new bird flu, putting world health authorities on high alert

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