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Inventions

Shocking.

Cool Finds

Tesla vs. Edison Is a Video Game That Will Literally Shock You

Fight the ‘War of the Currents’

Maya Varma won $150,000 as one of the first place winners in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search competition.

How a High School Senior Won $150,000 By Inventing a $35 Medical Device

When Maya Varma learned an expensive diagnostic tool is rare in the developing world, she decided to build her own

Mosquito Deterrents: The Good, the Bad and the Potentially Effective

With Zika and other mosquito-borne illnesses on the rise, researchers are looking for the next best way to keep the bugs from biting

Texting is blamed for ruining personal discourse and common courtesy.

Texting Isn’t the First New Technology Thought to Impair Social Skills

When Alexander Graham Bell introduced the telephone, skeptics worried about how it might affect people’s interactions

Henry Ford is at the wheel with John Burroughs and Thomas Edison seated in the back of a Model T.

When America’s Titans of Industry and Innovation Went Road-Tripping Together

Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and their friends traveled the country in Model Ts, creating the Great American road trip in the process

The Znamya 2 mirror-solar sail, deployed.

Cool Finds

How a Russian Space Mirror Briefly Lit Up the Night

In 1993, the 65-foot-diameter satellite, called Znamya, briefly lit the Earth like a giant orbiting night light

A Detachable Airplane Cabin and Other Strange Aviation Ideas

A recently unveiled concept for a removable, parachute-equipped airplane cabin is only the latest in a long line of far-out designs

This Powerful Metal Glue Sets at Room Temperature

MesoGlue uses nanorod technology to fuse items together without heat, potentially replacing soldering

Madison Hill of Samsung demonstrates a Family Hub Refrigerator at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Six Cool Gadgets From This Year’s CES

The Consumer Electronics Show has long been the launchpad for some of our most beloved electronics products

New Research

This Pen Can Draw Electrical Circuits

A silver salt based ink lets users draw any circuit they can dream

Dot is an affordable active Braille smartwatch.

A Smartwatch for the Visually Impaired

Developed by University of Washington students, Dot translates texts, tweets and e-books to Braille

Teen Inventors Create Live Closed-Captioning Glasses for the Deaf

Seventeen-year-old Daniil Frants and his buddies hope to help the hard-of-hearing engage in naturally flowing conversations

An electronic weapon from Taser International

Cool Finds

The Word “Taser” Comes From a Young Adult Sci-Fi Novel

Massively popular at the time, the Tom Swift books have not aged very well

Screenshot from "Fairy Lights in Femtoseconds: Tangible Holographic Plasma (SIGGRAPH)"

New Research

This Holograph Can Be Touched and Manipulated

Tiny interactive displays use lasers to create touchable plasma

What do you think this thingamabobber does?

Holiday Gift Guide

Nine Gifts for Gadget Lovers

From a connected kitchen scale to a “Coolbox,” these products make perfect presents for the technophiles in your life

An 1877 mousetrap called “The Delusion.” Directions read “Put as large a piece of cheese you can crowd into the box…”

The Unceasing American Quest to Build a Better Mousetrap

There has always been some truth to the apocryphal Emerson quote

Round Table

Why Does America Prize Creativity and Invention?

Our politics encourage it, there’s a high tolerance of failure, and we idealize the lone inventor

American Ingenuity Awards

The Young Inventor Who Is a “Minder” of a Business of Her Own

At age 11, Lilianna Zyszkowski designed a new life-saving device to help people track their medication. That was just the beginning

Four engineering students from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada invented a printer that produces circuit boards in minutes.

This Year’s James Dyson Award Goes to a Circuit Board Printer

Four engineering students in Canada win the prestigious international award with their invention, which they hope will speed up electronics manufacturing

Hedy Lamarr, mother of modern wifi.

Cool Finds

Happy Birthday Hedy Lamarr, Hollywood Star Turned Scientist

The beauty had brains—after all, she invented the tech behind Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS

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