Checking in on the next generation of innovators — high-schoolers from around the country showcase their ideas at MIT’s …
inventions
7 Amazing Teenage Inventors
Wisdom may come with age, but you don’t need a college diploma for inspiration to strike; sometimes you don’t even need a driver’s license. Here’s a look at 7 teenagers who created new devices with lasting potential.
via 7 …
The Hollywood Starlet Who Made Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Possible
Who doesn’t love Hedy Lamarr, the Austrian-born movie actress who starred in such classic movies as 1941’s Ziegfeld Girl or 1944’s Experiment Perilous? Of course, if the life of a glamorous movie star of the black and white era …
5 Cool Inventions from TIME’s New ’50 Best Inventions’ Issue
Hitting newsstands shortly, TIME’s “50 Best Inventions” issue spotlights some of the most amazing new ideas and innovations from the past year. If you’re a TIME subscriber, you can already see the article online right here.
Of …
The Man Who Invented Email
If you’re reading this, you’re online and, as such, you probably have an email account. But have you ever wondered about the origins of email? It’s not exactly a cut-and-dried case, as various forms of electronic messaging have …
Who Really Invented the Computer?
If someone up and asked you “who invented the computer,” how would you respond? Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? Al Gore? Or say you’re more historically savvy, might you venture Alan Turing? Perhaps Konrad Zuse? Turing is the guy who, in …
Solar Power You Can See Through
Yesterday we mentioned recent predictions that solar power will be as cheap as coal by 2013; today, though, the word is that it will also be a helluva lot easier to generate too.
MIT scientists Vladimir Bulović and Richard Lunt have published a paper outlining a system of transparent photovoltaic cells which could be coated on to …
Programmable Credit Card Stores Multiple Accounts
Think of Card 2.0 as a universal remote for all your other debit and credit cards. Developed by a company called Dynamics, Inc., it looks like any other credit card except for a few small buttons on the front of it.
Those buttons will correspond to existing debit and credit cards that you already have. Once you’re up at the register,
…
Ice Bucket Keeps Ice Dry, Features Two Sizes in One
The crowdsourcing community over at Quirky.com has unveiled its latest creation as the Twice Ice Bucket. It’s made of two chambers—a half-gallon one and a 2/3-gallon one—and can be flipped on either end to suit whatever size beverage or beverages you’d like to keep cold.
In the middle of the bucket, there’s a flexible …
Sharpie’s Liquid Pencil Becomes Permanent After Three Days
Sometimes it seems like pencil technology moves so fast that it’s like, hey, why am I even trying to keep up with this stuff? First there was the pencil, then the eraser, then different numbered pencils, and now this new liquid pencil thing from Sharpie. Slow down!
It’s actually very cool. According to the company, the liquid graphite …
MIT’s Mouseless Project is an Invisible Computer Mouse
Mouseless is a self-described “invisible computer mouse that provides the familiarity of interaction of a physical mouse without actually needing a real hardware mouse.”
An offspring of MIT’s Media Lab, the project consists of two infrared cameras capable of identifying the details and positioning of a human hand. The user moves his …
This Wallet Gets Harder to Open As Your Bank Account Depletes
The MIT-developed Proverbial Wallet appears similar to an ordinary wallet except for the slightly odd looking apparatus in the middle. That’s where all the action happens, though.
Aside from holding your money and plastic, three variations of the Proverbial Wallet each do three main things: One vibrates when you make a purchase using …