Scientific Innovation

As a kid, you may remember getting your first glimpse of paramecium in pond water or the cell structure of an onion by peering through a microscope.

Ultra-Cheap Microscopes Could Save Millions of Lives

Researchers are designing portable microscopes that cost just a few dollars to make

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A Man With ALS Says "I Love You" to His Wife for the First Time in 15 Years

A new invention from Not Impossible Labs allows Don Moir to script an audible love letter

Imagining the future of artificial hearts.

Help for the Brokenhearted: Wearable, Biosynthetic and 'Beatless' Artificial Hearts

Cow-machine hybrids and continuous-flow technologies are helping people survive devastating heart failure

Art Molella delivers his speech on innovation.

The Recipe for Innovation Calls for a Little Chaos and Some Wall Bashing

Scholar Art Molella chronicles the habits, habitats and behaviors of the men and women who invent

The Hemingwrite is a newfangled take on the old school typewriter, featuring cloud back-up.

Five Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded: From a Digital Typewriter to Treadmill-Powered Gaming

A Los Angeles group is also creating greeting cards with personalized audio messages from top celebrities

The Mystery of the Continuously Functioning Battery From 1840

A battery at the University of Oxford has been incessantly ringing two bells for 175 years—but no one knows exactly why it’s lasted so long

Michelin's X-Tweel SSL, pictured in 2012.

Finally! A Tire That Will Never Go Flat

The Tweel went into commercial production in November, recently got picked up by John Deere and may soon be rolling towards you

Lab-grown beef—it could be dinner.

Five Animal Products Scientists Can Now Grow In a Lab

In early experiments, scientists are growing meat in vitro and bioengineering yeast for dairy

One of the original Regency TR-1 models resides in the Smithsonian collections.

How the Transistor Radio with Music for Your Pocket Fueled a Teenage Social Revolution

In a burst of post World War II innovation, the Regency TR-1 transistor radio became the new "It" gift for the holiday season

This past weekend an innovation festival at the National Air and Space Museum celebrated inventions from across the United States.

Here’s What You Missed at the Smithsonian Innovation Festival

Inventors and museum staff alike inspired the crowd to see the world through the prism of innovation

Curiosity is able to take pictures of itself on Mars using a camera mounted to its robotic arm. This mosaic was made from 55 snapshots taken in October 2012.

An Insider's Biography of a Celebrity Mars Rover

The chief engineer for Curiosity offers a peek at the NASA rover’s tumultuous rise to stardom in a new tell-all book

International Space Station astronauts captured this photograph of Earth's atmospheric layers. The troposphere is the orange-red layer. The gray, just above that, is the stratosphere. Then, the blue is the mesosphere.

10 Weird Things Humans Have Sent Into the Stratosphere

Tied to high-altitude balloons, bacon and LEGO figures have reached heights nearing 100,000 feet

"Today we can use light to create an artificial sun on Earth, if only for a split-second," writes Steven Johnson. Here, Vaughn Draggoo examines a test site for light-induced nuclear fusion at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California.

The World Is What It Is Today Because of These Six Innovations

In a new book, Steven Johnson describes the many technologies that glass, refrigeration and other fundamental inventions have made possible

The Namib desert beetle gathers water from fog that condenses on its bumpy back—which inspired one company to design a self-filling water bottle.

Five Wild Ways to Get a Drink in the Desert

The moisture farmers of Tatooine could take a few tips from these projects for harvesting water out of thin air

The Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, P.A. is celebrating its city in a long-term exhibition, "Pittsburgh a Tradition of Innovation."

Celebrating Pittsburgh, the City Behind Pro Football, Big Macs and the Polio Vaccine

The Pennsylvanian city had more lives than a cat and thrives as a hub of innovation

The corner in downtown Hartford where the first pay phone was installed

The Pay Phone's Journey From Patent to Urban Relic

The history of the device that is well on its way to becoming, well, history

Vote for the Winner of the 2014 People's Design Award

Marvel at these breakthroughs in innovative design and select your favorite

People take pictures of water gushing from the reservoir of China’s Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydropower station in the world.

Seven Unexpected Ways We Can Get Energy From Water

It’s not all about giant dams—H2O is a surprisingly common and versatile tool for meeting the world’s energy needs

How Scientists Are Using Games to Unlock the Body’s Mysteries

They’re not just for kids anymore

Army uniforms could get even more high tech

The Army Is Testing a Belt That Can Guide Soldiers Through the Dark

The belt could have applications beyond the military from helping blind persons to tourism

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