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Smart News / Smart News Ideas & Innovations

In the war years, Greyhounds were crowded with travelers, leading planners to look at a new technology: helicopters.

In a Fit of 1940s Optimism, Greyhound Proposed a Fleet of Helicopter Buses

“Greyhound Skyways” would have turned major cities into bustling helicopter hubs

Pasteur took blood samples from a cow, a sheep and a horse who had died of anthrax.

How Sheep’s Blood Helped Disprove This Wacky Nineteenth-Century Theory of Illness

Scientists didn’t understand that bacteria caused disease, but then enter Louis Pasteur

The dachshund leaps down with his prize.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

In 1913, One Gluttonous Pupper Changed the Course of Animation History

Years before “Steamboat Willie,” this animated dog hammed it up onscreen

Compare two paintings of zebras with new IIIF functionality.

Cool Finds

This Tool Makes it Easy to Compare Art From Different Museums

IIIF frees images from the confines of individual websites

Some of the 3,000 commemorative letters sent in the first Postal Department rocket mail are still around. Some made it into the National Postal Museum's collection.

Mail Delivery By Rocket Never Took Off

Although the Postmaster General was on board with the idea of missile mail, the Navy was ultimately less interested

Black soldier fly larvae

Trending Today

Got Food Waste? Get Some Maggots

In just a few hours, these tiny crawlers can eat more than their weight in food

The floating solar power station in Anhui province

Trending Today

China Turns On the World’s Largest Floating Solar Farm

Floating on a lake over a collapsed coal mine, the power station in Anhui province can produce 40 megawatts of energy

Trending Today

Abused Animals in Connecticut Get Their Own Legal Advocates

Last week, for the first time, a lawyer testified in court on behalf of abused pit bulls

Paratroopers from the 1st Allied Airborne land in Holland during Operations Market Garden, September 1944.

Meet the Daredevil Parachutist Who Tested the First Nylon Parachute 75 Years Ago

Adeline Gray was just 24, but she was already an experienced parachutist and a trained pilot

The interior of the 1876 Glaciarium

The First Artificial Skating Rinks Looked Pretty But Smelled Terrible

Before the technology to reliably freeze water existed, the first rinks used pig fat and salts

Recent research found that fully one third of humanity can't see the Milky Way because of light pollution

Is Light Pollution Really Pollution?

As countries grow richer, light pollution gets worse–but some are fighting to change that

Cool Finds

These Sustainable Sneakers Are Made Using Algae

The shoes’ manufacturers harvest harmful algal blooms and turn the goo into footwear

Rocket Lab lifts off in New Zealand.

Trending Today

New Zealand Sent a 3D-Printed Rocket to Space

Will the Electron usher in a new era for satellites?

Italy is hoping to draw tourists to less-frequented parts of the country, like sites along the Appian Way, pictured here.

Italy Is Giving Away 103 Historic Buildings, Free of Charge

But potential owners are required to transform the properties into tourist-friendly sites

Can you tell which it is?

The 1870s Dairy Lobby Turned Margarine Pink So People Would Buy Butter

Margarine or butter? The question has deep roots, and you shouldn’t even ask it in Wisconsin

Leibstadt Nuclear Power Plant in Switzerland

Trending Today

Switzerland Votes to Phase Out Nuclear Power

The nation plans to decommission its five nuclear plants and invest in renewables

An illustration from 'Professor Dowell's Head,' a 1925 science fiction story from Russian author Alexander Belyayev.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Good News, Everybody! Someone Once Patented Plans For Keeping A Severed Head Alive

It was what’s called a “prophetic patent”—one that isn’t real yet

The Watts Bar Dam, one of the dams that is part of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Here’s How FDR Explained Making Electricity Public

“My friends, my policy is as radical as the Constitution of the United States,” he said

The unassuming face of one of twentieth-century America's most dangerous men, even to himself

The Innovative Spirit fy17

One Man Invented Two of the Deadliest Substances of the 20th Century

Thomas Midgley Jr.’s inventions have had an outsize impact—not all of it good—on humankind

This smart tag contains synthetic DNA and other security measures to help authenticate and track the provenance of canvas.

Cool Finds

Can Giving Paintings Their Own DNA Stop Art Forgery?

Science is leading the charge against copycats

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