Engineering

This Extremely Slow Rube Goldberg Device Lasts More Than Six Weeks

The whimsical invention uses molasses, a tortoise, and sprouting grass to move a golf ball

HyperCam

This Camera Sees What Your Eyes Can't

HyperCam, an affordable hyperspectral imaging camera, can tell if your food's gone bad, among other things

The algorithm could be useful for pilots flying in turbulence.

This "Psychic Robot" Can Read Your Mind

Researchers have created an algorithm that understands what movement you meant to make, even if you're interrupted

This Swiss Watchmaker is Teaching Apprentices For Free

The U.S. desperately needs new watchmakers. Will a new generation save the industry?

The sign language capture device

This Wearable Device Translates Sign Language To English

The prototype detects hand and finger movements and turns them into words on a screen

Topmix Permeable

This Concrete Can Absorb a Flood

A UK company has developed a permeable pavement that can drink 1,000 liters of water per square meter in a minute

Mayapple plant

Scientists Manipulate Common Plants to Produce Cancer Drugs

Stanford researchers have figured out how to transfer a rare plant's chemical "assembly line" into a cheap, common lab plant

Kirigami-cut solar cells

Using Kirigami, the Japanese Art of Paper Cutting, to Build Better Solar Panels

Researchers have used the art technique to make light panels that twist to follow the sun

This Exoskeleton Is Actually Controlled by the Wearer's Thoughts

Engineer Jose Contreras-Vidal's "brain-machine interface" uses electrical activity in a person's brain to move a robotic exoskeleton

When a Trip to the Zoo Resulted in an Engineering Breakthrough

Megan Leftwich, an engineering professor at George Washington University, is building a robotic flipper based on her observations of sea lions

Curly or straight, hairstyles are "a personal expression of beauty."

Curly Hair Science Is Revealing How Different Locks React to Heat

A mechanical engineer tackles the understudied problem of how to style curls without frying hair

This Robotic Insect Can Jump on Water

Why? Because it’s cool

Rendering of Juncal Viaduct with turbines

Could a Wind Turbine Be Coming to a Bridge Near You?

Engineers find, in a simulation, that two wind turbines mounted under a bridge in the Canary Islands could power hundreds of homes

Dario, an eight-year-old Colombian boy who lost his arm due to a congenital malformation, tests out Torres' prosthetic arm design.

Kids Can Build Their Own Lego Prosthetics

Prototype system brings a bit of fun to prosthetics

Legos Go Sustainable, and Everything (Really) is Awesome

To reduce its carbon footprint, the toy company is searching for a sustainable material for its bricks by 2030

Prototyping is a vital part of Stanford d.school courses. Students build physical and digital products and test them.

How Are Universities Grooming the Next Great Innovators?

Design and entrepreneurship courses at Stanford and other institutions are fundamentally changing higher education

Wang with the toy jeep

This New Nanogenerator Could Make Cars Much More Efficient

Electrodes placed on a car's tires can harness the energy generated when rubber meets road

Hiram Bingham called Machu Picchu “the most important ruin discovered in South America since the Spanish conquest.”

What It's Like to Travel the Inca Road Today

A rocky rollicking journey to Machu Picchu along one of the greatest engineering feats in the Americas

How Much Water Did Rome’s Aqueducts Really Carry?

Not as much as previously thought

How Bug Guts Slow Down Planes and What Engineers are Doing About it

Designing the most fuel-efficient plane means keeping wings free of sticky exploded bugs

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