Education

The main branch of the NYPL, located on Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan.

The Wondrous Complexity of the New York Public Library

A new documentary captures the sweeping human impact of one of the country's largest library systems

Daniel Kish is an expert in human echolocation and president of World Access for the Blind.

How Does Human Echolocation Work?

Blind since he was very young, Daniel Kish is the world's foremost proponent of using vocal clicks to navigate

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Want to Learn Cherokee? How About Ainu? This Startup Is Teaching Endangered Languages

Tribalingual founder Inky Gibbens explains how saving languages is a means of preserving different worldviews

The stretchable keyboard cover is designed to make typing truly tactile.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This Keyboard Cover Lets Users Actually Feel the Letters They Type

Two college students found a way have a keyboard tap into our muscle memory of the alphabet

Bullwinkle J. Moose. © Jay Ward Productions

How Bullwinkle Taught Kids Sophisticated Political Satire

Culture critic Beth Daniels argues the cartoon moose even allowed viewers to reckon with nuclear war

And you thought your alarm clock was rough.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

11 Cool, Funny or Just Plain Strange Patents for Back to School

From alarm clocks that pummel you in the head to ingenious devices to save your crayon nubs, a peek into the patent archives for back to school season

“Soccer is the one thing that’s very familiar to them," says Luma Mufleh, founder of Fugees Family. “It reminds them of home.”

How Soccer Is Changing the Lives of Child Refugees

Arrivals from war-torn countries find refuge at a Georgia academy founded by an immigrant

The bird feathers attached to artifacts in the John Wesley Powell collection can give anthropologists further insight into customs and trade.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Telling the Story of 19th-Century Native American Treasures Through Bird Feathers

Famed explorer John Wesley Powell’s archive of his 19th century travels is newly examined

This App Could Bring Sex Ed To All Students

Real Talk helps middle schoolers access reliable sex ed information using storytelling, regardless of whether they have internet at home

Is Artificial Intelligence the Key to Personalized Education?

AI expert Joseph Qualls thinks it will change the way kids learn. But it also raises some big issues.

The team has developed many different prototypes. Their latest iteration can display six characters at a time and images the text using an internal camera.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This Device Translates Text To Braille in Real Time

Team Tactile hopes to create an inexpensive and portable device that can raise text right off the page

Measuring 32 feet in size, the massive "yarn bomb" of Harriet Tubman now hangs outside the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, New York.

Giant Harriet Tubman “Yarn Bomb” Portrait Debuts in Upstate New York

Artist Olek’s creation is one in a series of 50 planned installations across America celebrating important women throughout U.S. history

Students for a Democratic Society was the largest – and arguably most successful – student activist organization in U.S. history.

What Was the Protest Group Students for a Democratic Society? Five Questions Answered

Todd Gitlin, former president of Students for a Democratic Society, shares his perspective on protest in the 60s and now

A slave fortress in Cape Coast, Ghana

A Digital Archive of Slave Voyages Details the Largest Forced Migration in History

An online database explores the nearly 36,000 slave voyages that occurred between 1514 and 1866

Trending Today

Latest National Report Card Shows Little Student Improvement in Music and Art

This is the third time that the National Center for Educational Statistics has assessed eight-graders in music and visual arts

Does Creativity Breed Inequality in Cities?

Richard Florida thinks so. In his new book, the urban theorist says sometimes the most innovative cities also have the worst social and economic disparity

Smart Startup

There's No Snoozing in Class With This Chemistry App

Chem101 allows professors to push out exercises for students to do on their devices, increasing classroom engagement

Neuroscience is giving new meaning to the phrase "get on my wavelength."

New Research

Students’ Brains Sync Up When They’re in an Engaging Class, Neuroscience Shows

What does it really mean to get our brains on the same wavelength?

This map of London shows it around the time of John Gaunt's work.

People Have Been Using Big Data Since the 1600s

A humble hatmaker was among the first to compile data on how Londoners lived—and died

Linguist and cultural preservationist Daryl Baldwin was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2016.

How to Resurrect a Lost Language

Piecing together the language of the Miami tribe, linguists Daryl Baldwin and David Costa are creating a new generation of speakers

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