Innovation for Good

Building a Corsi-Rosenthal box portable air filter comes down to duct-taping together a set of furnace filters and a box fan.

The Homemade Air Purifier That's Been Saving Lives During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Made from everyday items found in hardware stores, the Corsi-Rosenthal box is a testament to the power of grassroots innovation

A new way of recycling has grabbed the attention of some of the world’s largest consumer goods companies, including L’Oréal, Nestlé, and PepsiCo, who collaborated with startup company Carbios to produce proof-of-concept bottles.

The Future of Recycling May Be in Microbes

An enzyme-based recycling technology is poised to go commercial, but questions about cost and scalability linger

Researchers attached green LED lights along the gillnet float line to keep unwanted marine animals from getting stuck.

Lit-Up Fishing Nets Dramatically Reduce Catch of Unwanted Sharks, Rays and Squid

Decorated nets entrapped fewer undesirable animals without significantly impacting the amount of target fish caught

When medical equipment was scarce in spring of 2020, an engineering firm in Northern Italy posted 3-D printing files online that allowed hospitals to produce venturi valves that could be retrofitted to snorkel masks for use in assisted ventilation.

How Good Design Promotes Good Health

Cooper Hewitt dives into the surprisingly creative ways doctors, nurses, engineers, designers, artists and, even your neighbors, responded to the pandemic

An artist’s redendering of MethaneSAT, a satellite that will be launched this year and will be able to find leaks of the greenhouse gas.

A New Generation of Satellites Is Helping Authorities Track Methane Emissions

Efforts to identify leaks of the harmful greenhouse gas are improving with advances in technology

Five cats pile onto a Starlink satellite dish in a snowy yard.

Outdoor Cats Are Using $500 Starlink Satellite Dishes as Self-Heating Beds

The devices—developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX—have a warming feature to prevent snow buildup from disrupting the signal

(Top) Leila Strickland, Michelle Egger, Toby Kiers, Colin Averill, J. Richard Gott (Middle) Leslie Jones-Dove, Devshi Mehrotra, Prisha Shroff, Iké Udé (Bottom) Tim Farrelly, Omar Salem, David Deneher, Victor A. Lopez-Carmen, Doris Sung

Sixteen Innovators to Watch in 2022

These trailblazers are dreaming up a future with cell-cultured breastmilk, energy-saving windows and more

A CT scan of the spiral intestine of a Pacific spiny dogfish shark (Squalus suckleyi). The organ begins on the left and ends on the right.

Ten Scientific Discoveries From 2021 That May Lead to New Inventions

From nanobots to cancer treatments, nature inspires a wide variety of innovations

To view the wings without damaging the delicate cells, the research team used speckle-correlation reflection phase microscopy. This type of microscopy works by shinning tiny points of light onto a specific area on the wing.

See Microscopic Butterfly Wing Scales Materialize Inside of a Chrysalis

The study is the most detailed look at the structures to date and could be used to design new materials

Andrew Pelling adds cells to an ear-shaped scaffold made from apple flesh.

Inside the Innovative Lab Growing Mammal Tissue Using Plants as Scaffolds

Researchers at the University of Ottawa have used apple flesh to create human tissue in the shape of an ear and asparagus stalks to regenerate spinal cords

For the Deep Space Food Challenge, teams were asked to design food production technology that would support a crew of four astronauts during long-term space missions without resupplying and achieve the most outstanding amount of food output with minimal inputs and virtually no waste. (Pictured: NASA Astronaut Megan McArthur aboard the ISS)  

From an Electric Cow to Space Bread, NASA Announces First-Round Winners of Deep Space Food Challenge

The competition aims to solve nutrition and food security issues in outer space and on Earth

LifeLab Design's WarmLife vests are 30 percent warmer than clothing of comparable weight and bulk.

This Apparel Company Wants to Have a Profound Effect on Your Energy Use

LifeLabs Design was founded by a pair of Stanford professors who have developed fabrics capable of cooling and warming the wearer

Using CRISPR technology, scientists plan to modify the strawberries' genes to improve their shelf life, extend the growing season and reduce food waste.

Using CRISPR Technology, Scientists Plan to Grow a More Durable Strawberry

If successful, these will be the first gene-edited strawberries to be sold commercially

Award-winning filmmaker Janay Kelley honed her skills in the video lab in Cloud901. The state-of-the-art teen learning facility is one of the biggest and best of its kind.

How Memphis Created the Nation's Most Innovative Public Library

You can play the ukulele, learn photography or record a song in a top-flight studio. You can also check out a book

In 2019 alone, malaria killed 400,000 people, with most individuals residing in sub-Saharan Africa. Children under five are more vulnerable to the detrimental effects of malaria, and most deaths occur within this age group.

The World Health Organization Endorses the World's First Malaria Vaccine

Four doses of the vaccine Mosquirix prevents the risk of the mosquito-borne disease by 40 percent

NOAA and Saildrone deployed the fleet of five hurricane-class vessels in the Atlantic’s “hurricane belt” in the summer months leading up to this year’s tropical storm season.   

'Saildrone' Captures First-Ever Video From Inside a Category 4 Hurricane

This uncrewed, remote-controlled vessel gathered valuable scientific data that could help researchers better understand and predict these violent storms

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan for their independent work that revolutionized the construction of molecules.

Scientists Behind 'Ingenious' Molecule-Building Tool Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Researchers Benjamin List and David MacMillan independently discovered cheaper, greener ways to create new molecules

Inspired by the fluttering seeds, researchers designed a tiny, winged microchip that is powerful enough to monitor environmental contamination, biohazards, and airborne disease. Here it is shown next to a lady bug for scale.  

This Flying, Chemical-Detecting Microchip Is Smaller Than a Grain of Sand

Inspired by helicopter seeds, the device could soon be used to monitor the environment

The device includes a hemofilter made up of silicon semiconductor membranes that remove waste products from blood and a bioreactor containing renal tubule cells that regulate water volume, electrolyte balance and other metabolic functions.

This Bioartificial Organ Could One Day Save 'Millions' Living With Kidney Disorders

Scientists won a $650,000 prize for the successful demonstration of the prototype

Enticed by a sweet treat, a cow learns to use the "MooLoo," a latrine for cattle, where excrement can be collected. The only question is: can this technique work on a larger scale?

Researchers Potty Trained Young Cows, a Promising Measure to Reduce Greenhouse Gases

One cow pees up to eight gallons a day; training them is easy, and capturing and treating the waste could make a difference

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