Smart News Ideas &amp; Innovations

Wikipedia Editing Shows That Different Countries Have Different Sets of Interests

New analysis shows that interests are local, not global

March 19, 2015

Could Your Browser Make You a Better Employee?

The answer could be yes…if you use Firefox or Chrome

March 19, 2015

The World of Chocolate

A Special Facility in England Keeps the World’s Chocolate Safe

The cocoa tree is very sensitive to disease and pests, so someone checks every plant bound for international trade

March 16, 2015

There’s Finally Free Wifi in Cuba

Cuba becomes more connected

March 16, 2015

The First Green Beer Was Made With Laundry Whitener

Before food coloring, St. Patrick’s Day’s most festive brew got its hue from a different kind of dye

March 16, 2015

Slime Mold Has an Uncannily Accurate Sense of Where Rome Built Its Roads

The strange organisms are remarkably good at mapping the most efficient route from place to place—and that's exactly what roads do

March 16, 2015

Scientists Have Been Studying Two Fake Human Pheromones for Decades

Two chemicals provided by a perfume company appear in a 1991 research paper and side-track years of work on human pheromones

March 13, 2015

There’s an Invader in the International Space Station

An Invader mosaic has found its way to space

March 13, 2015

A computer that passes the new test would be able to say which people in this scene from Pushkar, India, are carrying objects and which are riding bikes

Now the Turing Test Goes Visual

A proposed test would have computer programs not only pick out what is in a photo but what is happening

March 13, 2015

"The Legal Justice League" celebrates the first four women to sit on the country's highest court.

Celebrating the Women of the Supreme Court With LEGOs

What better way to hail the female trailblazers of the bench than miniaturizing them into tiny toys?

March 11, 2015

When Even the Simplest Word Looks Weird And Wrong You Have Wordnesia

We don’t really know why it happens, but at least there is a term for it

March 11, 2015

London’s Congestion Pricing Plan Is Saving Lives

By charging $17.34 for a trip downtown during peak hours, London has reduced traffic fatalities by 40 percent

March 10, 2015

Why’s Wikimedia Suing the NSA?

Wikimedia Foundation joins Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others to protest mass surveillance online

March 10, 2015

How Dick Tracy Invented the Smartwatch

The detective’s two-way wrist radio paved the way for the Apple Watch and other wearables

March 9, 2015

This Is Next-Level Origami

From dancing cranes to protective structures, origami is popping up in science and tech

March 6, 2015

NASA’s Next Space Robot Was Inspired by a Baby’s Toy

Meet the Super Ball Bot, a flexible robot that could explore new planets

March 5, 2015

Paul Allen used his superyacht Octopus to locate a Japanese battleship near the Philippines.

Microsoft Billionaire Finds Enormous Sunken Japanese Battleship

Paul Allen used his megayacht to locate the long-lost ship, which has been missing since World War II

March 4, 2015