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Innovation / Technology

Podnar shoots dry ice pellets, which sit at a frosty temperature of around negative minus-180-degrees Fahrenheit, at the object's surface

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Conservation of a Pair of Saint-Gaudens Goes al Fresco at the Freer

The beauty of dry ice cleaning is the efficient and environmentally safe process; but also the procedure was on view from the street

Robots Will Lead Passengers to Their Gate at Seoul’s Airport

No flush

How Fake, Lab-Made Poop Can Improve Sanitation

The, er, sludge replicates the properties of human waste to better understand sanitation in Bangladesh

From Ptolemy to GPS, the Brief History of Maps

We now have the whole world in our hands, but how did we get here?

How GPS Learns to Speak Your Language

A peek into that voice that tells you when and where to turn

GIFs began as still images in the early days of the Internet before becoming the animated loops that are seen everywhere now.

History of Now

A Brief History of the GIF, From Early Internet Innovation to Ubiquitous Relic

How an image format changed the way we communicate

With the idle set at 54 percent of full throttle, drivers could unleash the car by merely stepping off the brake.

When a Jet-Powered Car Raced in the Indianapolis 500

The racecar tore up the track and dazzled fans at the legendary competition—and then vanished

"We saw kids who created hands that had solid, non-moving opposable joints," says Tim Pula (left) from the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation .

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The Next Generation of Military Prosthetics Is Breaking New Ground

At the Smithsonian’s Military Invention Day, visitors experienced how military innovation is helping society

Exoskeletons, automaton pets and tiny toy humanoids (pictured) populate the Korea Institute of Robot and Convergence.

A Visit to Seoul Brings Our Writer Face-to-Face With the Future of Robots

In the world’s most futuristic city, a tech-obsessed novelist confronts the invasion of mesmerizing machines

Schwarzkopf's helmet, a PASGT, represents "how technology and innovation work together in the field of ground-forces protection,” says Frank Blazich, Jr., the Smithsonian's curator of modern military forces.

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How the Military Helmet Evolved From a Hazard to a Bullet Shield

With the development of Kevlar and advanced industrial design, soldiers are now better protected from traumatic brain injury

"This book was representative of an era during which colonialism and the associated conversion to Christianity oppressed the indigenous population in often violent ways,” says curator Gabriela Pérez-Báez.

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A Rare Public Display of a 17th-Century Mayan Manuscript

With the book newly digitized, scholars are reinterpreting a story of native resistance from within its pages

Stop your baby from sucking his or her thumb with this, er, "clever" invention.

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Patents (Only) a Mother Could Love

For Mother’s Day, we’ve pulled some of history’s wackiest patented ideas for mothers and children

The team has developed many different prototypes. Their latest iteration can display six characters at a time and images the text using an internal camera.

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This Device Translates Text To Braille in Real Time

Team Tactile hopes to create an inexpensive and portable device that can raise text right off the page

Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark created these images using a new technique of structural color laser printing.

A New Color Printing Technique Borrows From Bird Feathers

Structural coloration, like that in peacock plumage, holds promise for images that don’t fade away

What if you could unlock your smartphone this way?

Could a Doodle Replace Your Password?

Drawing your own unlock pattern on a touchscreen is faster and easier to remember than a password, and much harder to crack

A NASA Valkyrie robot picks up an item with its hand.

Making Robots That Can Work With Their Hands

For robots to be most useful when working alongside humans, they’ll have to literally lend us a hand when our own two are not enough

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