Mount Etna, Italy, erupts at night.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Predicting Chaos: New Sensors Sniff Out Volcanic Eruptions Before They Happen

How volcanologists brave lung-singeing fumes to monitor eruptions with cutting-edge sensors

Space Patrol depended more on good stories, excellent production values, and an empathic cast of characters than it did on expensive visual special effects. As a result it had a large adult audience, which didn’t stop merchandise being created with younger viewers in mind.

How Artists, Mad Scientists and Speculative Fiction Writers Made Spaceflight Possible

A new book chronicles spaceflight’s centuries-long journey from dream to reality

Some researchers are trying to harness the energy from huge storms.

Future of Energy

Can We Capture Energy From a Hurricane?

Loaded with power, massive storms may be another conduit for renewable energy

A New Tool From This American Life Will Make Audio as Sharable as Gifs

A tech company best known for creating Twitter bots has put its skills to help make podcasts go viral

The coffee foam

The Innovative Spirit fy17

How to Clean Water With Old Coffee Grounds

Italian researchers have figured out how to turn spent coffee grounds into a foam that can remove heavy metals from water

Global Cities by Norwood Vivian, 2015

Mapping the World’s Great Cities in a Most Unusual, Yet Visually Arresting, Fashion

Part urban planner, part cartographer, sculptor Norwood Viviano uses state-of-the-art mapping tools to make powerful works of art

DFB 45, Arès, Brandon Ballengée, 2008. Scanner photograph of cleared and stained multi-limbed Pacific Tree frog from Aptos, California in scientific collaboration with Dr. Stanley K. Sessions. Title in collaboration with the poet KuyDelair.

Art Meets Science

With Deformed Frogs and Fish, a Scientist-Artist Explores Ecological Disaster and Hope

A 20-year retrospective of Brandon Ballengée’s artwork explores humans’ connection to cold-blooded creatures

Second Place Winner: Cetacea, designed by Keegan Oneal, Sean Link, Caitlin Vanhauer and Colin Poranski at the University of Oregon

Future of Energy

These Wild Sculptures Actually Generate Green Energy

The winning designs of the LAGI 2016 competition range from giant sailboat sculptures that harvest fog to floating gardens that harness wave power

MythBusters’ Adam Savage and a team of makers from Baltimore made these letters, which lit up every time someone posted to social media using the hashtag #sxsl.

Here’s What You Missed At the White House’s First-Ever South By South Lawn Festival

On Monday, artists, musicians, tech enthusiasts and other innovators gathered in the president’s backyard to celebrate a bright future

A remote-controlled hexacopter captured this image of two northern resident killer whales photographed from 100 feet. Scientists use the unmanned drone as a cost-effective, non-intrusive method for monitoring the health of whales.

How Drones in the Sky Unlock Secrets of the Sea

Researchers are using aerial technology to track coastal erosion, map coral reefs and even give whales a breathalyzer

A prototype shelter from The Mobile Factory

The Mobile Factory Turns Earthquake Rubble Into Bricks For Permanent Homes

The Netherlands-based company makes Lego-like blocks from debris using portable equipment that fits in two shipping containers

Albina Yard, a 16,000-square-foot office building in Portland, uses wood, not steel and concrete, as its structural support.

Age of Humans

Move Over, Steel: The High Rises of Tomorrow Are ‘Plyscrapers’

Light, strong and renewable, wood may change how tall buildings are built

Future of Energy

Inside the World’s First Large-Scale Effort to Harness Tidal Energy

Next month, the UK-based company MeyGen will install four underwater turbines off the coast of Scotland

Future of Energy

Can This Electric Bus Really Go 350 Miles On a Single Charge?

Some think a breakthrough by a California company could be the beginning of the end for smoky, noisy buses

For each Luckey Climber, the palette is the same: pipes, platforms, cables and wire netting.

Art Meets Science

King of the Playground, Spencer Luckey, Builds Climbers That Are Engineering Marvels

The 46-year-old architect and his crew build multi-story climbing structures for museums and malls around the world

A reef off the coast of Bonaire

Jacques Cousteau’s Grandson Is 3D Printing Coral Reefs

Fabien Cousteau, descendant of the famous sea explorer, is working on a project to bring 3D printed coral reefs to the Caribbean island of Bonaire

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The $10 Million Race to Invent Star Trek’s Tricorder

Star Trek’s fictional tricorder is far from becoming a reality. But a $10 million prize from the XPRIZE Foundation is hoping to motivate inventors

Antelope graze nearby as an oil well is drilled in the Devon Energy oil fields.

Future of Energy

Is Oilfield School a Path to a Working-Class Future or an Anchor to the Past?

A new federal program designed to train the next generation of Wyoming oil workers signed up lots of eager students. Will any jobs await them?

Much of the timber used for T3 came from trees killed by the mountain pine beetle.

Is Timber the Future of Urban Construction?

A celebrated architect goes out on a limb with a bold new take on building tall

H.G. Wells was one of the first science fiction writers.

The Many Futuristic Predictions of H.G. Wells That Came True

Born 150 years ago, H.G. Wells predicted, and inspired, inventions from the laser to email

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