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Innovation / Technology

Wayfair's app lets you see how their products will look in your house.

How Augmented Reality Will Change How You Buy Furniture

Thanks to a new Google 3D technology named Tango, mobile devices will be able to insert virtual images into a real place

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Could This New Armband Prevent Thousands of Workplace Injuries and Fatalities Each Year?

Proxxi CEO Campbell Macdonald describes his cloud-connected wearable that detects high-voltage areas

Using Virtual Reality To Walk in the Shoes of Someone With Alzheimer’s

A British nonprofit has launched an app that simulates life with the neurodegenerative disease

Researchers in Singapore have been able to print the polymer components of a "personalized" pill.

Scientists May Be Able To Pack All Your Medications Into One “Personalized” Pill

And nine other things you never thought could be made on a 3D printer

Is the Internet an Enormous Work of Realist Art?

Journalist Virginia Heffernan makes a compelling case that it is in a new book

The scalding solution that pipes from the vents does not boil because of the mass of water pushing down from above.

Journey to the Center of Earth

Scientists Explore Breathtaking Hydrothermal Vents in Virtual Reality

With a high-tech remotely operated vehicle, a team is able to map a dark, hot and toxic vent field on the ocean floor

Rendering of the BACtrack Skyn

How Drunk Are You? Ask Your Bracelet

The BACtrack Skyn, a wearable similar in style to a Fitbit, tracks your blood alcohol level in real time

Hanqing Jiang (left) and his students, Wenwen Xu and Xu Wang, with their supercapacitor materials

This Edible Supercapacitor Could Transform Ingestible Electronics

The materials for a new electronic component that could power a tiny camera sound more like breakfast than science

A Search Engine That Matches Your Drawings to Photographs Isn’t Too Far Off

Computer scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new program that could let you Google your doodles

A model for how suburbs could one day be designed. The white objects on the left are delivery drones.

Suburbia Gets No Respect, But It Could Become a Very Different Place

For starters, driverless cars would mean a lot less pavement

Mya Le Thai holds her invention.

Future of Energy

Did Scientists Stumble on a Battery that Lasts Forever?

Researchers studying nanowires have found a battery material that can be recharged for years, even decades

Will digital assistants replace both Google searches and mobile apps?

How Machines Are Getting Better at Making Conversation

Digital assistants are developing personalities, with some help from poets and writers

The Innovative Spirit fy17

How Computer Scientists Are Using Twitter to Predict Gentrification

Cambridge researchers have created a way to predict a neighborhood’s fortunes in coming years by analyzing social media data

Smart Startup

Hosting an Event? Don’t Toss Leftover Food, Donate It

With an Uber-like app, Transfernation is reducing food waste while feeding those in need

Future is Here festival attendees heard from visionaries in a wide range of fields.

Future Is Here Festival

How to Make Science Fiction Become Fact, in Three Steps

Speakers at Smithsonian magazine’s “Future is Here” festival said be patient, persistent, but never, ever pessimistic

ArcAttack's lightning guitarist wears a protective Faraday suit.

Future Is Here Festival

When Electricity and Music Collide, the Tesla Coils Sing

The band ArcAttack delivers a high-voltage performance with a side of science education

Jekan Thanga (right) and students holding FemtoSats

The Innovative Spirit fy17

These Tiny Satellites Can Be Launched Into Space for as Little as $1,000

Researchers at Arizona State University may be paving the way for consumer satellite flight

For Those Clutching Pearls Over Buzzfeed: A History of Newspapers Reveals That It’s Always Been This Way

From user-generated content to political screeds, the future of news happens to look a lot like the past

Some molecular motors in this “biocomputer” are made in the lab but copy those found in brains.

Can Proteins From Living Cells Solve Problems That Vex Supercomputers?

When nature knows best

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