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Inventions

Slinky Dog and its cousin, Slinky Train, were allegedly inspired by inventor Helen Malsed's 6-year-old son, who wanted to see what would happen if his Christmas Slinky had wheels attached.

The Patents Behind Toy Story’s Beloved Characters

The Pixar series is full of classic toys, from the Slinky Dog to the Speak & Spell, that sprung from the minds of clever inventors

One of a handful of surviving Higgins boats is on display outside of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office headquarters and National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum in Alexandria, Virginia.

The Invention That Won World War II

Patented in 1944, the Higgins boat gave the Allies the advantage in amphibious assaults

Industrial designer Raymond Loewy influenced a number of brands.

Meet the Product Designer Who Made Mid-Century America Look Clean and Stylish

From refrigerators to cars to Air Force One, Raymond Loewy’s distinctive “cleanlining” sold products

In 1954, John Kirklin of the Mayo Clinic created the Mayo-Gibbon heart-lung machine when he modified a design pioneered by John Gibbon. The machine is now in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

This 1950s Heart-Lung Machine Revolutionized Cardiac Surgery

Open-heart procedures evolved rapidly once Mayo Clinic surgeon John Kirklin made his improvements to an earlier invention

Anirudh Sharma and his team have developed a device that can capture air pollution at its source; once collected, they turn the soot into ink.

This Ink Is Made From Air Pollution

About 45 minutes of diesel car pollution reaps 30 milliliters of AIR-INK, now on display at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

There’s still plenty of reason to know how to use this Morse telegraph key.

Morse Code Celebrates 175 Years and Counting

The elegantly simple code works whether flashing a spotlight or blinking your eyes—or even tapping on a smartphone touchscreen

Scientists bioengineer living plants to emit light.

These Glowing Plants Could One Day Light Our Homes

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum gives us a glimpse into a world where we read by a natural greenish glow

A single counterfeit component in the supply chain is all it takes to turn a fine-tuned aircraft launching system from an asset to a safety hazard.

How Nanoscale ‘Signatures’ Could Keep Counterfeit Parts Out of Military Equipment

Navy scientist Alison Smith will describe her novel authentication system at Smithsonian’s Military Invention Day

Sensing threads prepared with bromothymol blue (top thread), methyl red (middle thread) and MnTPP (bottom thread) are exposed to ammonia at 0 ppm (left panel) 50 ppm (middle panel) and 1000 ppm (right panel).

Clothing May Soon Be Able to Change Color in the Presence of Harmful Gases

Tufts University engineers have developed dyed threads that change hues when exposed to carbon monoxide and other hazards

Alon Gorodetsky, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Irvine, and Erica Leung, a graduate student in that department, have invented a new material that can trap or release heat as desired.

How a Squid’s Color-Changing Skin Inspired a New Material That Can Trap or Release Heat

The stretchy ‘thermocomfort material’ has potential energy-saving applications in buildings and wearables

Marion Donovan demonstrates the "Boater," around 1950.

Meet Marion Donovan, the Mother Who Invented a Precursor to the Disposable Diaper

The prolific inventor with 20 patents to her name developed the “Boater,” a reusable, waterproof diaper cover in the late 1940s

As every exhausted new parent knows, sometimes babies don’t want to sleep in stationary cribs.

A History of Cribs and Other Brilliant and Bizarre Inventions for Getting Babies to Sleep

Generations of parents have relied on contraptions, both clever and crazy, to give their infants—and themselves—some rest

Specially-designed attachments make it possible for drones to balance on all kinds of surfaces.

These Drones Can Perch and Dangle Like Birds and Bats

Scientists have designed adaptable landing gear that enables UAVs to “rest” and save power

One of Brigham Young University engineering professor Larry Howell's initial origami projects was a solar array that compacted to 9 feet during launch, but deployed to 82 feet across in space to generate power.

How Origami Is Revolutionizing Industrial Design

Scientists and engineers are finding practical applications for the Japanese art form in space, medicine, robotics, architecture and more

Solar has had an average annual growth rate of 50 percent in the last 10 years.

A Brief History of Solar Panels

Inventors have been advancing solar technology for more than a century and a half, and improvements in efficiency and aesthetics keep on coming

Transparent wood becomes cloudier as it cools.

This Transparent Wood Could Be an Energy-Saver in Green Buildings

Researchers in Sweden have developed a material, able to store and release heat, that could potentially be used in windows

The National Museum of American History has in its collection this Autoped motor scooter from 1918.

Pop History

The Motorized Scooter Boom That Hit a Century Before Dockless Scooters

Launched in 1915, the Autoped had wide appeal, with everyone from suffragettes to postmen giving it a try

Featuring a small plastic hinge binding both pieces together, this clever container became the perfect way to conceal treats from prying eyes.

Thank One of America’s Most Prolific Inventors for the Hinged Plastic Easter Egg

Donald Weder holds some 1,400 U.S. patents for inventions, including the ubiquitous egg and a process for making plastic Easter grass

Nanayakkara has gone out of his way to ensure students and scientists in his prolific lab are enabled to create based on their interests, and collaborate with each other on their ideas.

Inside Professor Nanayakkara’s Futuristic Augmented Human Lab

An engineer at the University of Auckland asks an important question: What can seamless human-computer interfaces do for humanity?

The “Human Organ Monitoring Apparatus for Long-distance Travel” (HOMAL) measures the biophyisiologic properties—temperature, pressure, vibration and altitude—of an organ.

Drones’ Newest Cargo Might Just Be Human Organs

Surgeon Joseph Scalea is developing a cooler, biosensors and an online platform with GPS to monitor organs in transport in real time

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