Special Report

2016 Ingenuity Awards

"Thanks to her,” John Frederick Nims writes in his love poem to gravity, “All’s gala in the galaxy.” Such a deep appreciation for gravity’s wonderful predictability is, just by chance, a recurring theme of this year’s Smithsonian American Ingenuity Awards. Jeff Bezos is defying gravity with his spaceflight company’s reusable rocket ships. The scientists behind the stupendous LIGO instrument detected, for the first time ever, the whisper of a gravitational wave from the far reaches of the universe. And the rock band OK Go’s lighthearted nature was never so clear as in its topsy-turvy, low-gravity video. Those musical magicians, like all the American Ingenuity Award winners, dazzle us with their eagerness to break boundaries. And they make it look like fun.

Read about this year's winners below and watch the livestream of the Ingenuity Awards on December 8 at 8 pm on our Facebook page.

This Year's Winners

Is Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin the Future of Space Exploration?

Space Archaeologist Sarah Parcak Uses Satellites to Uncover Ancient Egyptian Ruins

With "Master of None," Aziz Ansari Has Created a True American Original

OK Go for launch: Andy Ross, Tim Nordwind, Damian Kulash Jr. and Dan Konopka

How OK Go Has Revolutionized the Music Video

Director David Lynch Wants Schools to Teach Transcendental Meditation to Reduce Stress

Need a New Organ? Surgeon Anthony Atala Sees a Future Where You Can Simply Print It Out

LIGO's founding fathers, from left: Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish. Not pictured: Ronald Drever

Meet the Team of Scientists Who Discovered Gravitational Waves

Marc Edwards and LeeAnne Walters

Without These Whistleblowers, We May Never Have Known the Full Extent of the Flint Water Crisis

Christopher Gray's Scholly App Is Bringing Millions of Dollars to College Students in Need

Past Winners

2015

The 2015 American Ingenuity Awards

The 2014 recipients of the American Ingenuity Awards

2014

The 2014 American Ingenuity Awards

2013

The 2013 American Ingenuity Awards

Photo credits: Jeff Bezos/John Keatley; Sarah Parcak/Melissa Golden/Satellite image courtesy of Sarah Parcak; Aziz Ansari/Landon Nordeman; David Lynch/Brinson + Banks; Anthony Atala/Alex Boerner; Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish/Brinson + Banks; Marc Edwards and LeeAnne Walters/Tobias Hutzler; Christopher Gray/Jonathan Barkat

Videos

Is Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin the Future of Space Exploration?

Space Archaeologist Sarah Parcak Uses Satellites to Uncover Ancient Egyptian Ruins

With "Master of None," Aziz Ansari Has Created a True American Original

How OK Go Has Revolutionized the Music Video

Director David Lynch Wants Schools to Teach Transcendental Meditation to Reduce Stress

Need a New Organ? Surgeon Anthony Atala Sees a Future Where You Can Simply Print It Out

Meet the Team of Scientists Who Discovered Gravitational Waves

Without These Whistleblowers, We May Never Have Known the Full Extent of the Flint Water Crisis

Christopher Gray's Scholly App Is Bringing Millions of Dollars to College Students in Need