Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Ideas & Innovations

Easy-Peasy Test Finds Serious Fetal Health Issues Earlier

Scientists can detect signs of Down Syndrome, brain damage and a preterm delivery using this new urine test

3-D Printed Gun Plans Are Going to Be on the Internet, Whatever the State Department Says

None

Feel Your Head Roll With This Virtual Reality Guillotine Simulator

Through a combination if sight and touch, virtual reality can actually be incredibly realistic

Dawn LeClair, member of the 1975 Wickenburg High School Math Club, sits in front of the paper clip computer.

Can You Build a Computer Out of Paper Clips?

You might never have asked yourself this question, because it’s a pretty weird question, but the answer is essentially yes

None

IBM Engineers Pushed Individual Atoms Around to Make This Amazing Stop-Motion Movie

IBM was the first to draw with atoms, and now they’re making them dance

In places where malaria thrives, mosquito nets are used to keep the bugs away from people as they sleep.

In 2010, Malaria Killed 660,000 People, And Now It’s Resistant to the Drugs We Use to Fight It

Scientists have discovered a drug-resistant strain of malaria, and it’s spreading

Chili Peppers Do To Your Skin What Migraines Do To Your Brain

Researchers are working on new medication to prevent migraines

Artificial Brains May Be the Best Way to Control Electricity

Researchers attempted to put the brain - or at least its cells - to the task of intelligently managing the country’s future power supply

For Blind Moms, 3-D Prints of Fetuses Stand In for Sonogram Images

One company is trying to give those women a tactile equivalent to the sonogram, by 3-D printing their fetus for them

None

Lockheed Martin Wants to Pull Electricity from the Ocean’s Heat

A type of renewable energy, first proposed in the 1800s, might finally be ready for prime time

Animals Use Medicine, Too

From chimps to caterpillars to birds and flies, all sorts of animals use medicine

Can Architects Prevent Gun Deaths?

Architects wonder if they can design gunman-proof buildings

None

Hyperlapse Is the Coolest Thing to Happen to Google Maps Since Street View

Hyperlapse photography is super hard to do, but the results are just incredible

It is I, Scangrade the Magnificent, here to grade your essay.

Can a Computer Really Grade an Essay?

One company is developing an essay grading computer program that can take the load off professors and standardized test graders

I see your log bungalow and raise you a fully-functioning ion channel.

Need to Build a Functioning Neuron?

In Minecraft, a player creates a functional neuron

iPods and sperm, America’s favorite exports.

America May Be the World’s Top Exporter of Sperm

The United States may be the world’s largest exporter of sperm

Close up of a processor for a D-Wave quantum computer.

Lockheed Martin Has Crazy-Fast Quantum Computers And Plans on Actually Using Them

The defense contractor will be the first company to use quantum computers on a commercial scale

How to Make a Sandwich in Space

Astronaut Hadfield is described as “the International Space Station’s ambassador to the internet.” Now, he’s showing you how to make a sandwich, in space

None

Neuroscientists Wire Two Rats’ Brains Together And Watch Them Trade Thoughts

One rat, presented with a task, completes it using only the thoughts transmitted from another rat’s brain

In China, most electricity comes from coal power plants. A turn to natural gas could help limit carbon dioxide emissions.

Natural Gas Fracking May Be the Only Industry in China That’s Developing Slowly

It has the largest shale gas reserves in the world, but China is slow to push for fracking

Page 96 of 101