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Innovation for Good

Like a regular sail uses wind to navigate across an ocean, solar sails use the pressure exerted by sunlight to move through space. (Pictured: a conceptual illustration of a diffractive solar sail)

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

NASA’s New Solar Sail Could Soon Navigate in Space

Scientists say the flashy tech could help them study the sun’s polar regions

A 3D animation created using data from LiDAR shows the urban center of Cotoca.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Lost Cities of the Amazon Discovered From the Air

Mapping technology cut through the canopy to detect sprawling urban structures in Bolivia that suggest sophisticated cultures once existed

Zeolite, a clay material found in kitty litter, may be the next tool to help reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. 

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Minerals Used in Kitty Litter Could Help Fight Climate Change

A MIT study shows how, when treated with copper, a clay called zeolite can convert methane to carbon dioxide, a less powerful greenhouse gas

The cyanobacteria system runs using sunlight and water.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Researchers Use Algae to Power a Computer for Months

The experiment suggests that cyanobacteria ‘batteries’ could run small devices

The plants in lunar soil were compared to a control group of plants grown in volcanic ash and a lunar soil simulant known as JSC-1A. The lunar samples on the right do not appear as developed as the control samples grown in volcanic ash on the left.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Scientists Prove That Plants Can Grow in Soil From the Moon

The experiment is a milestone in the path to helping humans one day experience extended stays on the lunar surface

Taste testers involved in a recent study preferred chocolate that shattered in their mouth.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Have Scientists Designed the Perfect Chocolate?

Part of a burgeoning field of ‘edible metamaterials,’ Dutch physicists found that 3-D printed spiral-shaped candies give the ideal eating experience

The vehicle, ECHO, was designed by the Marine Animal Remote Sensing Lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. ECHO is part of a large-scale research project that monitors the impact of human-induced climate change on the Southern Ocean.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

This Tiny Yellow Robot Spies on Antarctica’s Emperor Penguins

The vehicle dubbed ECHO slowly rolls up to the birds without stressing them and may allow researchers to monitor their ecosystem more closely

Aseel Rawashdeh's innovation won sixth place in this year's Regeneron Science Talent Search, the country's most prestigious and oldest science and math competition for promising young scientists in their senior year.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

This Teenager Found a Way to Control Mosquitoes Using Essential Oils and Baker’s Yeast

Aseel Rawashdeh’s inexpensive larvicide kills disease-spreading species and spares beneficial ones

Benjamin Choi was one of the top 40 finalists of this year's Regeneron Science Talent Search, the country's oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

This High Schooler Invented a Low-Cost, Mind-Controlled Prosthetic Arm

Seventeen-year-old Benjamin Choi put his spare time during the pandemic to good use designing an accessible device that doesn’t require brain surgery

General Motors has previously announced plans to exclusively sell electric vehicles by 2035 with a plan to release 30 new electric cars globally by 2025.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Chevrolet’s Classic Corvette Is Going Electric

A new hybrid model of the iconic American sports car, rumored to reach up to 1,000 horsepower, will hit the market as early as 2023

Reseachers tested out the backpack dubbed KNaCK in a volcanic field in New Mexico, and are hoping the tech can support astronaunts on future lunar missions.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Lunar Backpack Could Aid Astronauts on Future Missions to the Moon

The pack can create 3-D maps in real-time of uncharted terrain

Oreo cookies helped inspire a new field of study coined "Oreology" by researchers at MIT.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Why MIT Researchers Are Studying Oreos

Fluid dynamics experts find that it’s nearly impossible to split the black-and-white cookie’s sweet filling evenly in half

Biotech firm Oxitec is genetically modifying mosquitoes in the hopes of curbing the overall population. The company completed its first open-air release of the bugs in Florida.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

First U.S. Open-Air Test of Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Deemed a Success

Biotech firm Oxitec engineered the bugs in an effort to curb their numbers and help stop the spread of disease

In an effort to combat counterfeit whiskies, researchers in Australia created a device called NOS.E that can detect and identify differences by "sniffing" spirits.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

A New Electronic Nose May Help Sniff Out Counterfeit Whiskey

Researchers at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia developed NOS.E, a device that can detect differences among whiskies by “smelling” them

Archaeologists and members of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe worked together on the project, which revealed the longstanding genetic roots of the region's Native peoples. 

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

This Native American Tribe Wants Federal Recognition. A New DNA Analysis Could Bolster Its Case

The new findings could help Mukwema Ohlone prove they never went “extinct”

A soup bowl monster made of yarn, created by DALL-E 2.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

What Do WALL-E and Salvador Dalí Have in Common? Meet DALL-E 2

This new and improved A.I. system can produce photorealistic images of anything on demand

It’s shocking how many everyday inventions we use without acknowledging the inventors that helped bring them to us.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Five Women Inventors You Didn’t Learn About in History Class

These innovators pioneered word processing, launched Americans into space and more

A vessel nears the commercial wind farm 3.8 miles off the coast of Block Island.

Planet Positive

This Historic Community Is Pushing the Nation Toward a Wind Power Revolution

Block Island, off the New England coast, overcame political strife to lead the way on energy independence

Researchers chose to focus on lettuce because the plant has been grown numerous times aboard the International Space Station and would provide a way for astronauts to eat fresh greens besides only canned and freeze-dried foods.  

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Genetically Modified Lettuce May One Day Help Space Travelers Fight Bone Loss

The vegetable could provide fresh leafy greens to astronauts’ diet while providing a new way to transport and consume medications in the cosmos

Each sensor is unique in size and ranges between 10 to 50 milliliters in diameter and weighs about 30 milligrams.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Tiny, Solar-Powered Sensors Fly Through the Air Like Dandelion Seeds

The battery-free devices could be used to gather environmental data over long distances and provide insights into an ecosystem’s health

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