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Innovation

Mini-organs grow around the tiny scaffolds (lower left). The magnified image (right) shows the hair-thin channels that serve as blood vessels.

How a Tiny, “Beating” Human Heart Was Created in a Lab

The device, filled with human heart cells, could dramatically reduce the time it takes to test new drugs and end testing on animals

Journey to the Center of Earth

What Are You Flying Over? This App Will Tell You

Flyover Country uses maps and geology databases to identify features of the landscape as a plane flies over them, no Wifi necessary

Future of Energy

This Solar Cell Can Float on a Bubble

MIT scientists have created the world’s lightest solar cell, thin enough to be used on paper or clothing

Century Partners renovated this house and others on Atkinson Street in Detroit.

A Detroit Startup Is Trying to Shake Up the City’s Housing Market

Two real estate developers are giving longtime residents a stake in their neighborhood’s revitalization

Scientists keep finding new ways the brain can be deceived.

A New Way to Trick the Brain and Beat Jet Lag

For all its complexity, the human brain is not hard to deceive. Here are four studies where scientists have learned more about duping it

This Morphing Mannequin Could Transform the Fashion Industry

Created by Hong Kong professor Allan Chan, iDummy can be programmed with any measurements

Innovators May Be Non-Conformists, But They Are Not Risk-Takers

In his new book, Wharton School professor Adam Grant looks at what really drives creativity and progress

Vans like this could help fill one of the big gaps in public transportation.

Is Bridj the Next Phase in How People Will Get Around Cities?

A project in Kansas City will see if a ride-hailing service can work with a government agency to help bring public transportation into the 21st century

In the installation of Smell, The Beauty of Decay: SmellScape Central Park, designed by Sissel Tolaas, visitors touch the wall that has been painted with the special paint, releasing the scent.

Can Smell Be a Work of Art?

Scent artist Sissel Tolaas uses chemistry to explore the malodorous, yet beautiful, scent of decay in Central Park

The Pearl of Dubai is half adventure park, half marine sanctuary.

Can Underwater Resorts Actually Help Coral Reef Ecosystems?

A Los Angeles company is designing artificial reefs to boost local economies and marine habitat

This eco-friendly house in the UK is one way that homes might be greener in the future. Another way involves using materials that store carbon or suck it out of the atmosphere entirely.

Age of Humans

Five Ways You Can Store Excess Carbon In Your Home, Literally

New technologies make it possible for your home to not just save energy but actually suck carbon out of the atmosphere

Mosquito Deterrents: The Good, the Bad and the Potentially Effective

With Zika and other mosquito-borne illnesses on the rise, researchers are looking for the next best way to keep the bugs from biting

Bigelow Aerospace's proposed space station, Alpha, would be made up of sausage-link-esque blocks, each the size of a school bus.

Age of Humans

We Thought We’d Be Living in Space (or Under Giant Domes) By Now

An inflatable space habitat test highlights the futuristic visions we’ve had for housing, from cities under glass to EPCOT

Watch What These Soft Robots Can Do

Scientists are making bendy robots that can squeeze into small spaces and grip objects of any shape

Steve Wozniak’s Apple I Booted Up a Tech Revolution

With only a circuit board, keyboard and tiny, blurry monitor, the circa 1975 computer looks crude by today’s standards

MIT’s moisture-sensitive sportswear might one day be genetically modified to glow in the dark.

The First Truly Breathable Fabric Contains Living Bacteria

Microbiology meshes with fashion to create a new kind of cool

Virtual reality headsets at the 2015 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam allow visitors to view digital reconstructions of artifacts destroyed by ISIS.

The Heroic Effort to Digitally Reconstruct Lost Monuments

Scholars create a virtual archive of antiquities destroyed by extremists in Syria and Iraq

Texting is blamed for ruining personal discourse and common courtesy.

Texting Isn’t the First New Technology Thought to Impair Social Skills

When Alexander Graham Bell introduced the telephone, skeptics worried about how it might affect people’s interactions

When Work Becomes a Game

Across corporate America, applying the principles of games to the non-game setting of the workplace is a growing phenomenon

Melt-Proof Chocolate, 3D Printed Gummies and Other Fascinating Candy Patents

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, a quick look at some of the world’s most fascinating confectionery innovations

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