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Innovation

Girls get taught simple circuits, but how they decorate their robots is up to them.

Robotics Can Get Girls Into STEM, but Some Still Need Convincing

The lack of women leaders in STEM creates “a catch-22 death spiral.” Robotics teams try to change that

Smart Startup

Could This San Francisco Startup Transform Garbage Collecting?

Compology uses sensors and software to plot truck routes to empty only dumpsters that are full

Age of Humans

These Microbe-Coated Seeds Could Help Us Thrive in a Dark, Dry Future

A Massachusetts-based startup is prepping for your basic apocalyptic scenario

Winners at last year's Google Science Fair

Google Thinks These 20 Teenagers Could Change Our World for the Better

These kids from around the globe have created innovative new technologies, from malaria-testing apps to water-saving agriculture systems

Hops successfully grow up the retaining wall on a lot in the Stanton Heights neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The black circles at the base of the plants are old plastic drum barrels that were cut into rings and filled with mulch from a nearby community compost. This helps to keep the hops moist.

Growing Hops in Abandoned Lots? Pittsburgh Will Drink to That

The city’s craft breweries may soon be able to make truly local beer

Could This Painless Brain Stimulation Help Treat Depression and Alzheimer’s?

UNC researchers have shown that transcranial alternating current stimulation can help improve memory

This drone is designed to start controlled burns of grassland.

10 New Ways to Use Drones

From fighting wildfires to coaching people on their tennis game, the aerial devices are becoming a tool of choice

A 3D printed dish made with the lab's printer

3D Print Your Own Breakfast

A team of researchers at Columbia University has developed a 3D food printer capable of printing and cooking multiple ingredients at one time

Chuck Taylor All Star, circa 1957

The Paris Olympics

How Chuck Taylor Taught America How to Play Basketball

A shoe-in for the first ever basketball game in the Olympics, Converse All Stars have a long history both in and out of sport

"The Hive" is on display at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, in London, England, through the end of 2017.

Art Meets Science

This Sculpture Is Controlled by Live Honeybees

Artist Wolfgang Buttress collaborated with a multidisciplinary team to create a giant, metallic hive

Gorona del Viento, a hybrid power station on El Hierro that generates energy using both wind and water, has five windmills.

Future of Energy

In the Canary Islands, Tiny El Hierro Strives for Energy Independence

A photojournalist goes behind the scenes at a hybrid power station that could help the island reach its goal to be powered entirely by renewables

Cauam Cardoso

Technology for the Poor Should Help, Not Hurt: An Interview With MIT’s Cauam Cardoso

The PhD candidate is working on ways to systematically evaluate new technologies for the developing world

Five Ways National Parks Are Embracing Technology

Cell phones and other screens don’t have to detract from the park experience

Jun Wang in his lab

Fighting Fake Pharmaceuticals with Tiny, Edible Bar Codes

Researchers have created bar codes so small they can be embedded in medications, creating a tool to combat the global problem of drug fraud

How to Regulate the Incredible Promise and Profound Power of Gene Drive Technology

An evolutionary ecologist argues that cutting-edge genetic research that could lead to species extinction should be handled with care

The Future of Libraries

Besides lending books, the local institutions are training young journalists, renting garden plots and more

Meet SwagBot, the Robot Cowboy That Can Herd and Monitor Cattle On Its Own

University of Sydney engineers have developed a four-wheeled robot to keep tabs on massive farms in Australia’s outback

Future of Energy

This Dutch Startup Is Making Bricks From Industrial Waste

StoneCycling turns ceramic tiles and toilets, discarded glass and insulation into new, eco-friendly building materials

Scientists are able to detect the DNA of tumor cells floating in blood.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Are We Close to Having a Blood Test That Detects Cancer?

New research into “liquid biopsies” is promising, but there’s still not proof they can find cancer in a healthy person

How You Wound Up Playing ‘The Oregon Trail’ in Computer Class

From the 1970s to 1990s, the government-owned Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium dominated the educational software market with more than 300 games

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