Technology & Space

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Tool Time

Prague's astronomical clock has marked time since the 15th century. Legend holds that local officials ordered the maker of this famous timepiece blinded to prevent him from duplicating his great achievement elsewhere.

Time for a Change

One professor's mission to revise the calendar

Though the exoplanets found to date are in our galaxy, most are about 100 light-years away.

The Planet Hunters

Astronomers have found about 200 planets orbiting other stars, and they say it's only a matter of time before they discover another Earth

Although owners prized their EV1s, the manufacturer did not relent.

The Death of the EV-1

Fans of a battery-powered emissions free sedan mourn its passing

Fred and Ginger quickly and precisely configure the optical fibers beneath them.

Fred and Ginger

Two robots, neither as graceful as its namesake, but no less accomplished, are among advances keeping scientists on the cutting edge

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Stem Cell Pioneers

Despite federal opposition to embryonic stem cell research, academic freedom and profits in California is luring scientists to the field

Sam Ogden

35 Who Made a Difference: Tim Berners-Lee

First he wrote the code for the World Wide Web. Then he gave it away

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Fuel for Thought

Cars that run on vegetable oil? Do-it-yourselfers and entrepreneurs alike fill 'er up with the nation's fastest-growing propellant

After the first atomic bomb explosion (seen here from 10,000 yards away, in a time series from .006 seconds to .081 seconds after detonation), Oppenheimer recalled, "a few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent."

Building the Bomb

A book about atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer charts the debate over deployment of the first A-bomb and the anxiety that suffused its first live test

A Martian meteorite fueled speculation and debate in 1996 when scientists reported that it held signs of past life. The search now moves to Mars itself.

Life on Mars?

It's hard enough to identify fossilized microbes on Earth. How would we ever recognize them on Mars?

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Invention at Play

The Lemelson Center celebrates a decade of nurturing the inventor in each of us

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Magnificent Magnifications

Microscope jockeys from around the world enter their masterpieces in an annual art show

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Splendid Isolation

When the first astronauts to walk on the Moon returned from their July 1969 lunar expedition, they were confined to quarters

Stars are being born within the smoldering Swan Nebula 5,500 light-years away.

Hubble's Last Hurrah

The orbiting space telescope has captured star births and deaths, galactic collisions and the accelerating expansion of the universe

Navy dolphin K-Dog sports a "pinger" device that allows him to be tracked underwater.

Uncle Sam's Dolphins

In the Iraq war, highly trained cetaceans helped U.S. forces clear mines in Umm Qasr's harbor

Chemical structure of the Penicillin core

Eureka!

Accident and serendipity played their parts in the inventions of penicillin, the World Wide Web and the Segway super scooter

Star formation in the constellation Orion as photographed in infrared by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

Astronomy's New Stars

Thanks to new technology, backyard stargazers have traveled light-years of late to join professionals in mapping the heavens

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Peewee Power

The invention of a gas-fueled generator the size of a quarter heralds a future of ever-smaller machines

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Second Nature

More and more, innovative scientists are turning to the natural world for inspiration...and design solutions

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Living Off the Land

Robots that feed themselves could become self-propelled farm machines—or military snipers

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