The smart bin prototype

The Innovative Spirit fy17

A Smart Recycling Bin Could Sort Your Waste for You

It’s sometimes difficult to know where to put different types of plastic, but computer vision could remove any confusion

Developers are breathing new life into indoor shopping malls.

The Transformation of the American Shopping Mall

Headlines claim malls are dying, and some are. But many others are having second lives as churches, schools, hospitals, even farms

A new startup is making it easy for customers to shop their local family farmers—right from their homes.

New Startup WildKale Lets Farmers Sell Directly to Customers Through an App

Yes, it’s like “Uber for farmer’s markets.”

Rebecca Richards-Kortum was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow of 2016.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

The Professor With a Genius For Global Health

Rebecca Richards-Kortum and her students at Rice University are designing low-cost devices that can help mothers and babies in a big way

Bullwinkle J. Moose. © Jay Ward Productions

How Bullwinkle Taught Kids Sophisticated Political Satire

Culture critic Beth Daniels argues the cartoon moose even allowed viewers to reckon with nuclear war

Could this brace alleviate "crouch gait?"

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This Robotic Exoskeleton Helps Kids With Cerebral Palsy Walk Upright

Children with cerebral palsy often walk in a crouched position, which is difficult to maintain over long distances. A robot suit can help.

The National Design Awards honor 11 individuals and organizations described by Cooper-Hewitt director Caroline Baumann as having “elevated our understanding of what great American design is and what it can do to improve the world.”

The Innovative Spirit fy17

These Design Champs Are Having Their Moment in the Sun

Three Cooper-Hewitt award winners share secrets and stories with design critic Owen Edwards

Pharmacists once used chocolate syrup to mask the bitter flavor of their remedies—and make a little money on the side.

The Unlikely Medical History of Chocolate Syrup

How the sundae staple went from treatment to just treat

Connexus Energy's SolarWise garden in Ramsey provides habitat for pollinators.

Solar Power and Honey Bees Make a Sweet Combo in Minnesota

The Pollinator Friendly Solar Act has solar companies and commercial beekeepers working together

Water water everywhere, and not a day to think.

How Coastal Cities Are Evolving to Deal With Extreme Rain

Facing the specter of more and worse rainstorms, these vulnerable areas are turning to innovative urban design

SoftBank's humanoid robot "Pepper" can lead funerals.

Nine Tasks Robots Can Do That May Surprise You

Machines can cook your dinner, fill your prescriptions, make your shoes and much, much more

Printed graphene supercapacitor

Future of Energy

Flexible Batteries May Soon Be Printed Right On Your Clothes

Graphene supercapacitors, printed directly on textiles, could power medical devices, wearable computers, even phone-charging shirts

A member of the Myrmoteras genus of trap-jaw ants, with mandibles deployed.

Prying Apart the Mighty Bite of a Malaysian Trap-Jaw Ant

Its mandibles strike in a fraction of a blink of an eye, but how does it do it?

Costa Rica's Guanacaste region is among the country's many beautiful ecological zones—and the waste from local juice company is helping keep it that way.

Costa Rica Let a Juice Company Dump Their Orange Peels in the Forest—and It Helped

How a controversial experiment actually bore fruit

Made of sugar, these milk pods could someday replace traditional creamer cups.

Milk and Sugar Pods That Dissolve in Coffee Could Replace Single-Serve Containers

Why use plastic when you can use sugar?

Robots can also lend a hand of sorts.

How Robots Could Help the Elderly Age in Their Homes

But these helpful machines won’t be the humanoid butlers of science fiction

And you thought your alarm clock was rough.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

11 Cool, Funny or Just Plain Strange Patents for Back to School

From alarm clocks that pummel you in the head to ingenious devices to save your crayon nubs, a peek into the patent archives for back to school season

Backyard Worlds is using the power of citizen scientists to search for the elusive Planet 9.

The Universe Needs You: To Help in the Hunt for Planet 9

How one citizen science endeavor is using the Internet to democratize the search for distant worlds

Neil Armstrong's lunar spacesuit had a life expectancy of about six months. The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum wants to exhibit it for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonwalk.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

A Moonwalk Did Not Destroy Neil Armstrong’s Spacesuit. Now Time Won’t Either

Conservators are bringing new innovations to save the 80-pound suit that allowed the first astronaut on the moon to take that giant leap

A geologist looks out into a caldera in Nevada's McDermitt Volcanic Field.

Future of Energy

Will Supervolcanoes Help Power Our Future?

Vast new deposits of lithium could change the global politics of battery production—if we can get at them

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