Design

Australian researchers now want airplanes to fly like honey bees. That way, the airplane can sense its position and guide itself through loops and make other difficult moves.

8 | December 1, 2010 4:37pm | By Boonsri Dickinson

Two years into its corporate sustainability program, the technology giant has made strides in reducing water consumption and managing waste-to-landfills but the path to energy efficiency will take...

December 1, 2010 12:21pm | By Heather Clancy

Contributor Ryan Potvin attends this year's GreenBuild Expo in Chicago and outlines three reasons why he thinks "Generation Green" will finally succeed.

1 | December 1, 2010 8:22am | By Ryan Potvin

TED curator Chris Anderson talks to SmartPlanet about TEDx, radical openness, passion, what makes a powerful speech, and how 18-minute videos are helping revolutionize the art of the spoken word.

December 1, 2010 2:00am | By Melanie D.G. Kaplan

DARPA hopes to eventually be able to sense "anomalous" fumes in major cities, catching a chemical distaster--or even attack--before it gets out of hand.

3 | November 30, 2010 4:00pm | By John Herrman

U.S Energy Secretary Steven Chu says China's clean energy innovation represents America's "Sputnik moment." Plus, six technologies that threaten to leave us behind.

9 | November 30, 2010 8:30am | By Andrew Nusca

To prepare soldiers for the cacophony of battle, researchers have created an "immersive audio environment" for military combat training. The facility -- which can produce sounds including tanks,...

5 | November 30, 2010 4:00am | By Christina Hernandez

At the polar ice caps, NASA scientists are studying global warming from the air. We talk with Steve Hipskind, chief of the agency's Earth Sciences division, to learn more.

23 | November 30, 2010 4:00am | By Boonsri Dickinson

Soon a Lufthansa airbus will begin taking to the sky on a biofuel blend between Frankfurt and Hamburg, Germany. But will it fly economically?

4 | November 30, 2010 4:00am | By Melissa Mahony

NRG Solar and SunPower said they will begin construction on a 250-megawatt solar power plant in California. When finished the plant will be one of the largest in the world.

3 | November 30, 2010 2:30am | By Larry Dignan

Splitrock Wind's chief scientist Kevin Friesth has invented a windmill that collects wind at varying speeds and heights along the full vertical axis of its tower. The design can scale to 30 MW,...

5 | November 29, 2010 5:58pm | By David Worthington

The political fallout from Wikileaks' release of hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables will steal countless headlines over the coming weeks. But what about Siprnet, the secret government...

16 | November 29, 2010 4:30pm | By John Herrman

In men who already have anxieties about Mom, oxytocin exacerbates bad childhood memories. The drug, once marketed as Trust in a Bottle and used to treat people with social phobias, may not be a...

November 29, 2010 4:01pm | By Janet Fang

Half of all new products fail within three years. Is this a bad thing?

November 29, 2010 2:57pm | By Joe McKendrick

Microsoft Research has filed for a patent on a touchscreen that would have a thin layer of plastic that would change topography based on the image.

1 | November 29, 2010 12:42pm | By Larry Dignan

Connections between the world's problems pop out of an award-winning interactive chart designed by visual arts students.

November 26, 2010 7:58am | By Joe McKendrick

Boeing's said it will implement "minor design changes" to the 787 Dreamliner's power distribution panels as the result of an electrical fire on one of its test airplanes. Analysts say the news is...

November 26, 2010 5:05am | By Larry Dignan

Scientists can estimate a person's age using white blood cell waste products found in blood. This could be useful in solving crimes and identifying disaster victims.

November 24, 2010 7:33pm | By Janet Fang

Architects with strong spatial skills may fail to anticipate the difficulties of normal people in navigating the design of their buildings, cognitive scientists say.

6 | November 24, 2010 8:00am | By Andrew Nusca

Nimble hackers have stayed one step ahead China's lumbering internet censorship apparatus. But how much can they really accomplish?

2 | November 23, 2010 10:30am | By John Herrman