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Innovations

Future of Energy

Can an Algae-Powered Lamp Quench Our Thirst For Energy?

A French chemist is developing street lights that can absorb carbon dioxide 200 times more efficiently than trees

A New Car Proves It Can Fly (Barely)

A video demonstration by the Aeromobil may have you thinking it’s best to stay grounded for now

Next Year, Your Smartphone Might Actually Charge Itself Using Solar Power

“Invisible” solar cells may soon turn smartphone displays into battery-assisting solar panels

The Perfect Way to Ripen Fruit and Other Ingenious Inventions Recognized by the Dyson Awards

Entries into the annual inventors competition include an Iron Man-inspired suit and a printer that fits in your bag

This “Death Watch” Allegedly Counts Down the Last Seconds of Your Life

A watch that predicts when its wearer will expire is proving popular with the masses. But why?

3D printed object produced by the Peachy Printer

Is a $100 3D Printer Too Good to Be True?

An inventor has created a 3D printer that uses lasers to sculpt objects out of resin

A lot of factors go into making a deal.

10 Things We’ve Learned About Negotiation

Make the first offer. Don’t use “I” too much. And maybe it’s not a good idea to look your counterpart straight in the eye

This Controversial Invention Promises to Banish All Web Ads

Devices like AdTrap takes users back to simpler times, but they also threaten the way much of the internet does business

A new focus of hospitals is keeping you from ending up here.

How Hospitals are Trying to Keep You Out of the Hospital

With a big boost from supercomputers, hospitals are shifting more of their focus to identifying people who need their help staying healthy

Blizzident is similar to a mouth-guard, but it is lined with rows of bristles.

Checking the Claim: A 3-D Printed Toothbrush That Cleans Your Mouth in Six Seconds

A startup has developed a custom-fit tool that can brush the entire surface of your teeth all at once

Nest Protect, the latest product to come from Nest Labs, reimagines the lowly household smoke detector.

For $129, Nest’s New Smoke Detector Talks to You

Tony Fadell’s startup unveils the Protect, a smoke detector far less annoying than others on the market

Designer Dave Hakkens bills Phonebloks, his concept for a new smartphone, as “a phone worth keeping.”

Is This the Last Smartphone You’ll Ever Need?

A Dutch designer has come up with a smartphone design that allows every essential function to be easily upgradeable

What is appropriate Google Glass behavior?

Will Google Glass Make Us Better People? Or Just Creepy?

Some think wearable tech is just the thing to help us break bad habits, others that it will let us invade privacy like never before

A creative mind at work?

What Your Messy Desk Says About You (It’s a Good Thing)

Recent research suggests that working in a sloppy setting may actually help inspire creative thinking

When job opportunities come through a mobile app

Think You’re Doing a Good Job? Not If the Algorithms Say You’re Not

Relying on data collected through smartphones, Gigwalk says it knows more about its workers than any company ever has

Technology has pushed education in good and bad directions.

10 Things We’ve Learned About Learning

For starters, laptops in classrooms are a big distraction, singing phrases can help you learn a language and multitasking isn’t good for your grades

The world’s reefs are fading fast.

Can Swarming Robots and Cloud Umbrellas Help Save Coral Reefs?

As reefs continue dying off, scientists have started to think more boldly about how to protect them

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Science Can Help Us Live Longer, But How Long Is Too Long?

Will 100 become the new 60? And do we really want that to happen?

Are test-tube burgers transformative science?

11 Strange Science Lessons We Learned This Summer

In vitro meat? Teeth grown from urine? Screaming rocks and singing bats? It’s all real science from the summer of 2013

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The Skyscraper of the Future May Be Built Like Legos

The world’s cities are in the midst of a skyscraper boom. And one growing trend is to connect pre-fab floors like Lego pieces

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