Tag: inventions

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Waterways Could Get Extra Clean After They’re Cleaned By These Drones

A device in Denmark, WasteShark, has been roaming through water to scoop up floating debris. Now it's going to have a flying companion drone to help spot waste and maybe even clean up oil spills.

Here’s What Else Could Have Been Built Where The Eiffel Tower Now Stands

Today in 1889, the Eiffel Tower was dedicated and opened, but it was only one of hundreds of ideas for what should be built there. And some of the other proposed designs were wild.

How Elevators Started Moving Up In The World

It was on this day in 1857 that the first commercial elevator began operating at a department store in New York City. And once elevators took off, they started shaping the world around us in some pretty big ways.

The Butler In A Box Was A Smart Speaker Before There Were Smart Speakers

You know about the Echo and the Google Home, but do you know about the Butler In A Box? It was a voice-controlled smart home device in the 1980s, and could do many of the same things our smart speakers do today.

A Window That Can Keep The Outside Noise Down, Even When It’s Open

A special sound-absorbing window design from a team at the National University of Singapore might let fresh air in without all the extra noise.

This Device Turns Your House Into A Mini Recycling Center

Lasso is a prototype for an in-home recycling system. Instead of dropping your recyclables on the curb, you'd put them in the machine, to be scanned, cleaned and broken down into the raw materials that companies buy to make new cans and bottles.

Fruit Crops Can Stay Safe From Frost Damage With Nanocrystal “Blankets”

Frost damage is a growing problem for fruit growers, but a team at Washington State University has developed a cellulose nanocrystal coating that can insulate the buds of grapes and cherries and keep them safe during cold snaps.

Eco-Friendly Latex Could Keep A Lot of Gloves Out of Landfills

We use hundreds of billions of latex gloves a year, for a lot of important reasons. Scientists at Cranfield University in the UK are developing an eco-friendly latex glove that uses less energy to produce and will biodegrade in weeks rather than centuries.

It’s The Birthday Of The Jukebox, The Old-School System For On-Demand Music

Today in 1889, inventor Louis Glass moved his "nickel-in-a-slot" into a saloon in San Francisco, beginning the age of the jukebox and giving the generations without smartphones and streaming services the chance to push a button and listen to a song.

Before The Lightbulb, Thomas Edison Invented A Voting Machine – And Congress Said No

On this Election Day, here’s a story about an early and not-too-well-known effort to help count votes that came from none other than Thomas Edison.

This Wearable Exosuit Brings Us A Little Closer To Being Iron Man

Millions of people have back pain that just plain makes things harder to do. A team at Vanderbilt University has developed an exosuit that may ease all that back strain.

These Biodegradable Shoes Have An Expiration Date

Shoes only last for so long, but they're made from materials that last seemingly forever. Designer Shahar Asor has an alternate idea: shoes for kids with an expiration date.