Innovation

Innovation

A green leaf peeking out of a white blind.
AI is helping us replace petrochemicals with natural enzymes.
A painting of a man with a turban and a map.
The history of cartography might have been very different if the Latin version of Muhammad al-Idrisi's atlas had survived instead of the Arabic one.
A picture of a roller coaster with broken metal structures against the backdrop of the sky.
Time to rewrite our understanding of structural engineering.
Oppenheimer on the left and Heisenberg on the right.
As the Manhattan Project headed for completion, German attempts to build a nuclear weapon had already been dismantled.
A termite mound
Smarter building materials can control indoor temperatures without external power.
A man in a suit and tie is pointing to a quantum computer.
11mins
Theoretical physics professor Michio Kaku outlines the evolution of computers from analog to digital and introduces quantum computers as the next frontier.
Ice harvesters once made a living from frozen lakes and ponds, but the work was strenuous and dangerous. Then refrigeration changed everything.
A metal railing supporting a white basket.
LK-99, almost certainly, isn't a room-temperature superconductor. The underlying physics of the phenomenon helps us understand why.
A man and woman in top hats explore Berlin nightclubs via pneumatic tubes.
You could send your potential paramour a perfume bottle, a cigar cutter, travel plans — or maybe some cocaine.
A man with liver disease is using a nebulizer in a hospital.
A company in England has made a test that picks out the compounds from breath that reveal if people have liver disease.
superconductor quantum levitation
Is LK-99 truly a room temperature superconductor? These 4 tests, none of which have yet been passed, will separate fact from fiction.
Comparison of pain relievers.
Pain relievers like acetaminophen and ibuprofen are made with chemicals derived from oil. Scientists have shown how to make them from trees.
fusion device LLNL
The National Ignition Facility just repeated, and improved upon, their earlier demonstration of nuclear fusion. Now, the true race begins.
Fervo Energy
Ironically, the company did so using technology perfected by the oil industry.
A cluster of bitcoins suspended in mid-air.
It will be immensely difficult for the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains to protect their competitive edge if they do not pursue a radical change.
superconducting material magnetic levitation
Recent claims put LK-99 as the first room temperature, ambient pressure superconductor ever. Has the game changed, or is it merely hype?
The demixed Beatles are shown in a crowd of people at the Hollywood Bowl.
Engineer James Clarke liberated John, Paul, George, and Ringo from their mono and stereo straitjackets using algorithms at Abbey Road.
A red and white illustration of a man and a woman, both portrayed as code-making geniuses.
Giambattista della Porta's contributions to codebreaking changed the course of communication.
An illustration of a man with glasses in front of a colorful background.
His grandfather, a member of Oppenheimer’s atomic bomb team, foresaw the potential of nuclear energy to power cities — not destroy them.
A drawing of a man with a beard and a pot.
Alchemy had its golden age in the 17th century, when it counted Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle among its adherents.
John Templeton Foundation
Challenges conventional electric vehicle myths by highlighting a car with an attached battery.
We're separating the facts about EVs from the fiction.
a green bitcoin logo on a black background.
6mins
Crypto is a lot of things, but it isn’t a currency. "Shark Tank" investor Kevin O’Leary, a.k.a. “Mr. Wonderful,” breaks down what it would take to get there.
A monochromatic image capturing a silver ring.
With U.S. infrastructure crumbling, an honor oath and iron ring remind engineers of their profession's ethical weight.
pink floyd's dark side with a touch of light.
Invisible cloaks. Ghost imaging. Scientists are manipulating light in ways that were once only science fiction.
The world set free by Rachel Wells, inspired by Oppenheimer.
Science fiction met nuclear fission when Hungarian physicist Leó Szilárd pondered the explosive potential of nuclear energy.
a drone flying over a forest with trees in the background.
The $300,000 Model A is a true flying car — it can be driven on roads as well as flown in the air. And it's one step closer to your garage.
three scuba divers in the water.
The divers spend their waking hours either under hundreds of feet of water on the ocean floor or squeezed into an area the size of a restaurant booth.