inventions

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Invisibility Cloak Takes 'Big Step Forward'

'Carpet' technique bends and flattens light around objects

(Newser) - Two teams of researchers say they're getting close to making a perfect invisibility cloak a reality, the BBC reports. The scientists—using a silicon-based material that eliminates the flaws of earlier, metal-based efforts—successfully made objects invisible at optical wavelengths by bending light around them and producing the illusion of...

Rubik's Cube Gets a Makeover
 Rubik's Cube Gets a Makeover 
Feb 4, 2009 6:00 AM CST

Rubik's Cube Gets a Makeover

Inventor says Rubik 360 will be as maddening as the cube

(Newser) - Hungarian puzzle patriarch Erno Rubik promises his sphere will be as fiendish to tackle as his cube, the Melbourne Herald-Sun reports. The Rubik 360, which goes on sale later this year, features a transparent orb with colored balls that must be moved through spheres. Puzzle fans worldwide say they are...

Slankets and Snuggies: The Mockable Sells
Slankets and Snuggies:
The Mockable Sells
OPINION
Jan 14, 2009 9:17 PM CST

Slankets and Snuggies: The Mockable Sells

The pitch ripe for irony, sells more than a blanket

(Newser) - Parodied by YouTube videos and mocked by Jay Leno, the blanket with arms known as the Slanket—or its knockoff the Snuggie—is getting a lot of attention for a useless invention, writes Dara Lind for Culture11. As Leno points out, “It’s like wearing a bathrobe backwards,"...

Robotic Suit Helps Paralyzed Take Big Steps

Motorized exoskeleton enables walking, bending, climbing

(Newser) - People paralyzed from the waist down may soon be parking their wheelchairs in favor of a robotic walking suit, CNN reports. Designed by Dr. Amit Goffer, a disabled engineer in Israel, the lightweight exoskeleton of motorized leg supports and motion sensors enables users to walk around. "I don't have...

Barbies of the Future May Grow on Trees

Researchers use wood and wax to make biodegradable alternative

(Newser) - Wooden toys may not be so 1850s, scientists say. A bioplastic made from trees has been used to make everything from golf tees to car parts in recent years, but its sulfurous stink kept it out of the toy market. Now a sulfur-free version of "liquid wood" is available,...

High-Tech Gear Floods Olympic Games
 High-Tech
 Gear Floods
 Olympic Games 
olympics
Aug 16, 2008 5:35 PM CDT

High-Tech Gear Floods Olympic Games

Maker of spring-soled shoe challenges the rules

(Newser) - The Michael Phelps-endorsed body suit is only one of the high-tech inventions at this year's Olympic Games, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. NASA-designed shoes, 3D motion-capture-designed bicycles, and a Nike PreCool vest have all garnered attention. But the most controversial is a spring-enhanced shoe that track and field athletes will...

Prize Philanthropy: A Winning Concept

Donors make innovators compete for cash

(Newser) - When the X-Prize foundation offered $10 million to anyone who could develop a viable commercial spacecraft, it didn’t just send innovators scurrying, and it didn’t just grab headlines. It also began the next big trend in philanthropy. Donors are in love with prize philanthropy, Portfolio reports, and causes...

10 Who Were Blinded (or Worse) by Science

Their work lead to big discoveries...and unfortunate death and injury

(Newser) - Knowledge may be power, but finding that knowledge can get you killed. List Universe ranks the top scientists killed or injured by their experiments.
  1. Galileo Galilei: The “father of modern physics” refined the telescope by staring at the sun for hours, resulting in near-blindness.
  2. Michael Faraday: A nitrogen chloride
...

Self-Fixing Plane in the Works
 Self-Fixing Plane in the Works 
May 28, 2008 5:55 AM CDT

Self-Fixing Plane in the Works

Self-repairing process mimics the way human body heals

(Newser) - British aerospace engineers are working on technology that could create self-repairing aircraft, Gizmag reports. In a technique very much like nature's healing process, resin would "bleed" out of damaged parts of the plane and harden, making a damaged aircraft strong enough to continue to fly until it could be...

Pentagon Inventing Group Hits 50, Looks to Next Strides

Freewheeling DARPA helped create the Internet

(Newser) - A small Defense Department agency credited with inventing the Internet and rockets that sent men to the moon is turning 50, the Washington Post reports, and is fine-tuning its next innovations. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's work spans biology, satellites and aircraft; it has no permanent labs and its...

New Gadget Strikes a Chord
 New Gadget 
 Strikes a Chord 
Apr 7, 2008 12:24 PM CDT

New Gadget Strikes a Chord

Tuning electric guitar becomes hands-off job

(Newser) - One less thing is standing between you and a perfect jam session: tuning your electric guitar. A newly launched battery-powered compact device that mounts on the instrument's body is accurate to within 2% of a note, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "It's just a dream, being able to pick up...

Earliest Recording of Sound Finally Played Back

1860 snippet, made before playback even imagined, 17 years ahead of Edison patent

(Newser) - Thomas Edison and associates might've been first to hear recorded sound, but scientists have revealed they weren’t the first to create it, the New York Times reports. A 10-second recording of “Au Clair de la Lune” made in 1860—17 years before Edison patented the phonograph—has finally...

McMuffin Man Dead at 89
 McMuffin Man Dead at 89 
Mar 27, 2008 2:45 AM CDT

McMuffin Man Dead at 89

Herb Peterson invented fast-food breakfast in a sandwich

(Newser) - The inventor of the Egg McMuffin has died in his Southern California home at the age of 89,  AP reports. Herb Peterson began working with McDonald's in the advertising department, and later switched to the hands-on side of the business, owning six restaurants in the Santa Barbara area. Peterson,...

Germaphobes Get a Handle on Bathrooms

Inventors help the wary leave the loo without touching doorknobs

(Newser) - For germaphobes, few sights elicit as much terror as doorknob in a public bathroom. Sure, you washed your hands, “but then someone else didn’t wash their hands and you have to touch the same door handle,” explains the inventor of the SanitGrip, an L-shaped, elbow-operated handle that...

How 'Bout Them Rotten Apples?
How 'Bout
Them Rotten Apples?
Jan 24, 2008 8:59 PM CST

How 'Bout Them Rotten Apples?

Before era of iPod and iPhone, company had some stinkers

(Newser) - Apple has been around for almost a quarter of a century, but not all of its products were as ingenious as the iPod. Wired highlights the company's biggest flops.
  1. The MessagePad (AKA The Newton): Fashioned to revolutionize personal computing, this PDA was too far ahead of its time for consumers.
...

Tough Call: Book Says Bell Ripped Off Rival

Phone inventor likely copied competitor's patent application

(Newser) - Telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell ripped off the idea from his rival Elisha Gray, a new book claims. In The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret, journalist Seth Shulman uncovers evidence that Bell took a sneak peek at Gray's patent documents with the help of his lawyers and a...

Time Names iPhone Year's Best Invention

Design, system, revolutionary service deal shoot gadget to top

(Newser) - Time magazine is naming the iPhone its invention of the year. Why?
  1. It demonstrates that good design is as important as good technology.
  2. Its touchscreen creates a whole new kind of user interface.
  3. Other companies will seek the freedoms that AT&T granted Apple in designing the iPhone, which will
...

Dads Move in on Baby Market
Dads Move in
on Baby Market
Aug 16, 2007 8:26 PM CDT

Dads Move in on Baby Market

As fathers get more hands-on, baby gear is getting less female

(Newser) - As fathers continue to take a more active role in raising their children, the market for baby gear has become less mom-centric, the New York Times reports. And it's not all fishing vests with hidden diaper changing pads. Recent dad-born inventions include computerized baby timers and a nipple adapter that...

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