Engineering

The pogo stick remained essentially unchanged for 80 years. Recently, three inventors have created powerful new gravity-defying machines that can leap over (small) buildings in a single bound.

How the Pogo Stick Leapt From Classic Toy to Extreme Sport

Three lone inventors took the gadget that had changed little since it was invented more than 80 years ago and transformed it into a gnarly, big air machine

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How to Become the Engineers of Our Own Evolution

The "transhumanist" movement says better technology will enable you to replace more and more body parts—even your brain

The 5.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Washington, D.C. on August 23 caused damage to the Washington Monument.

Scaling the Washington Monument

Mountaineering park ranger Brandon Latham talks about how engineers investigated the monument from hundreds of feet above the ground

Shai Agassi, at a corporate facility outside Tel Aviv, founded a company whose name reflects his determination to improve the world.

Charging Ahead With a New Electric Car

An entrepreneur hits the road with a new approach for an all-electric car that overcomes its biggest shortcoming

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Budding Aerospace Engineer Wins Intel Science Competition

The ocean's boundless energy (von Jouanne near Oregon's Otter Rock Beach) could furnish up to 6.5 percent of U.S. electricity.

Catching a Wave, Powering an Electrical Grid?

Electrical engineer Annette von Jouanne is pioneering an ingenious way to generate clean, renewable electricity from the sea

These rocks don’t lose their shape: thanks to recent advances, scientists can grow gems (from Apollo) and industrial diamonds in a matter of days.

Diamonds on Demand

Lab-grown gemstones are now practically indistinguishable from mined diamonds. Scientists and engineers see a world of possibilities

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Life Unplugged

Bundle up your power cords—wireless energy transfer is here

Though sundials have been around 3,000 years, William Andrewes (indicating the lateness of the hour in his garden in Concord, Massachusetts) is perhaps the first to build one showing the time in multiple places simultaneously.

The Shadow Knows

Why a leading expert on the history of timekeeping set out to create a sundial unlike anything the world has ever seen

The first step in making charcoal from sugar cane bagasse is setting it on fire in a used oil drum.

Interview: Amy Smith, Inventor

Amy Smith, a practitioner of humanitarian engineering, wants to solve everyday problems for rural families in the developing world

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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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Reaching Toward Space

His 1935 rocket was a technological tour de force, but Robert H. Goddard hid it from history

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Othmar Ammann's Glory

Genius, willpower and thousands of miles of steel wire went into the George Washington Bridge

Print advertisement for Erector Set, circa 1922

"Hello Boys! Become an Erector Master Engineer!"

With no "hanky-panky gimcracks," A. C. Gilbert's Erector sets taught boys more than just the nuts and bolts

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Decibel by Decibel, Reducing the Din to a Very Dull Roar

At RH Lyon Corp, noise-busting engineers tackle everything from leaf blowers to ticking clocks in their search for the right sound

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