Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Innovation / Technology

To demonstrate Tupperware's patented seal, Brownie Wise tosses a bowl filled with water at a party.

Women Who Shaped History

The Story of Brownie Wise, the Ingenious Marketer Behind the Tupperware Party

Earl Tupper invented the container’s seal, but it was a savvy, convention-defying entrepreneur who got the product line into the homes of housewives

Guy Satat, a graduate student in the MIT Media Lab, at the fog machine

This New System Can See Through Fog Far Better Than Humans

Developed by MIT researchers, the technology could be a boon for drivers and driverless cars

The emotional interface tracks physiological signals associated with emotional states and translates them into music.

Can Biomusic Offer Kids With Autism a New Way to Communicate?

Biomedical engineers are using the sound of biological rhythms to describe emotional states

How a $10 Billion Experimental City Nearly Got Built in Rural Minnesota

A new documentary explores the “city of the future” that was meant to provide a blueprint for urban centers across America

A long-range autonomous underwater vehicle carrying an environmental sample processor cruises beneath the surface during field trials in Hawaii.

These Underwater Robots Offer a New Way to Sample Microbes From the Ocean

The health of forests of underwater plankton have a big impact on the environment, and oceanographers are just starting to understand it

Decisions made by engineers today will determine how all cars drive.

The Ethical Challenges Self-Driving Cars Will Face Every Day

The biggest ethical quandaries for self-driving cars arise in mundane situations, not when crashes are unavoidable

Ten Female Innovators to Watch In 2018

These inventors, startup founders and businesswomen have exciting things happening this year. Stay tuned!

Why We Should Test Heart Drugs On a ‘Virtual Human’ Instead of Animals

Thousands of animals are used for heart drug tests each year—but research shows that computer-simulated trials are more accurate

This Texas Company Is Fighting Hollywood’s Gender Inequality With Hard Data From Movie Scripts

StoryFit uses artificial intelligence to analyze film scripts for how characters are portrayed by gender

What Will Our Society Look Like When Artificial Intelligence Is Everywhere?

Will robots become self-aware? Will they have rights? Will they be in charge? Here are five scenarios from our future dominated by AI

What the Founding Fathers’ Money Problems Can Teach Us About Bitcoin

The challenges faced by the likes of Ben Franklin have a number of parallels to today’s cryptocurrency boom

Where’s my bus?

Dozens of U.S. Cities Have ‘Transit Deserts’ Where People Get Stranded

Living in these zones makes it hard to access good jobs, health care and other services

What surprises will this year’s tournament have in store?

Can a Computer Model Predict the First Round of This Year’s March Madness?

Two mathematicians at Ohio State University are using machine learning to forecast tournament upsets

Is this machine adding an antenna to the fabric?

Embroidering Electronics Into the Next Generation of ‘Smart’ Fabrics

Is an archaic sewing skill a key to connected, sensing, communicating fabrics of the future?

Ralph Teetor (right), cruise control in hand, with William Prossner, president of Perfect Circle, in 1957.

The Sightless Visionary Who Invented Cruise Control

Self-driving cars were far from Ralph Teetor’s mind when he patented his speed control device

A test subject watching faces while hooked up to an EEG

A New Study Brings Scientists One Step Closer To Mind Reading

Researchers have developed a technique that uses the brainwaves captured by EEG machines to reconstruct the images you see

Predictive policing is built around algorithms that identify potential crime hotspots..

Artificial Intelligence Is Now Used to Predict Crime. But Is It Biased?

The software is supposed to make policing more fair and accountable. But critics say it still has a way to go.

Page 25 of 73