innovation

Boyan Slat

Meet the 22-year-old with a big idea for cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

For the past six years, 22-year-old Boyan Slat has been working to perfect a way to filter vast amounts of plastics out of the world's oceans. He has a prototype now that might just prove successful.

Meet the 22-year-old with a big idea for cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Shenzhen Maker Faire mobile display

The Maker Movement that was born in the USA has taken on Chinese characteristics

The Maker Movement that was born in the USA has taken on Chinese characteristics
brochure for the Biodesign Challenge

How art and design students think about the future of biotech

How art and design students think about the future of biotech
The Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR).

Would you trust a robot to perform your surgery?

Would you trust a robot to perform your surgery?
A journalist shows the new Kindle Voyage during a launch event in New York September 17, 2014.

How a Kindle's e-ink system works

How a Kindle's e-ink system works
Gecko hairs. Each tip is only 200 nanometers wide.

Why nature is an engineer’s best inspiration

What do turkey vultures, bullet trains, cockroaches and robots have in common? They've all served as inspiration for human innovation.

Why nature is an engineer’s best inspiration
Japanese schoolchildren in Tokyo

What China could learn from Japan's experience

A new Asian power rises, fueling awe and anxiety. Its economic rise seems inevitable, until it doesn't. We've seen this movie before, with Japan in the '80s. Now it's China's turn, and while history rarely repeats itself, it can rhyme, and it's rhyming now as China's economic growth slows and challenges, some similar to those Japan faced, mount. So what might China learn from Japan's experience? And how is Japan shaping a new role for itself, so it will continue to matter in this century?

What China could learn from Japan's experience
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has a display of 3-D printed dresses and accessories.

A Boston museum is showing what the future of fashion might look like

What if you never had to worry about your clothes fitting you in the future? What if your clothes were tailored exactly to your body.

A Boston museum is showing what the future of fashion might look like
Lousiana native Sam Craft taks to Wikitongues about his identity as a young Louisiana French speaker.

This nonprofit wants to build a tool to share and document all the world’s languages

A New York-based nonprofit has launched a Kickstarter campaign to build open source software that will make it easier to create video dictionaries on the fly — a tool they hope will facilitate the teaching and preservation of endangered languages.

This nonprofit wants to build a tool to share and document all the world’s languages
An apple iPod

Apple is said to be considering upending the headphone market — by changing the ubiquitous jack

The next iPhone is expected to hit the market this fall — and it may come with a new headphone jack that throws out years of prior technology.

Apple is said to be considering upending the headphone market — by changing the ubiquitous jack
High above Denver's City Park

How Denver's next-generation design can reduce inequality

Can Denver continue to redesign itself to create an economy of young creatives that avoids the pitfalls seen in other rapidly gentrifying cities like San Francisco and New York?

How Denver's next-generation design can reduce inequality
Organic flow battery

A breakthrough may make the mega flow battery commercially viable in the near future

Wind and solar power have the potential to reduce the growth of greenhouse gases and slow the progression of climate change. But since the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow, the big hurdle in expanding the use of renewables is the lack of cheap and efficient storage of that energy. That could be about to change.

A breakthrough may make the mega flow battery commercially viable in the near future
The World

For one New York cidermaker, a variety of flavorful blends keeps the drink interesting

There's been a surge in interest in hard cider in recent years. One New York cidery is showing just how versatile the old school drink can be.

For one New York cidermaker, a variety of flavorful blends keeps the drink interesting
Global outbreak monitoring map

How a map could open new doors to predicting and understanding epidemic outbreaks

Researchers are trying to tap into the zeitgeist in an effort to get more information faster about emerging outbreaks. They're calling their effort HealthMap.

How a map could open new doors to predicting and understanding epidemic outbreaks
Gary Cohen

A MacArthur 'Genius' is working to clean up our polluting health care system

One aspect of being a genius is the ability to view things in a unique way. Twenty years ago, environmental health advocate Gary Cohen looked at the health care sector and saw a big problem with pollution. He also saw a way to fix it and he set out to do so. So far his success has been phenomenal. And now he is a recognized MacArthur Foundation 'genius.'

A MacArthur 'Genius' is working to clean up our polluting health care system