Not too long ago a couple of MIT scientists asked themselves a lofty question: "Can you 3D print an aeroplane?" It didn't take long for them to realize that 3D printing anything on that scale was impractical. But 3D printing thousands of small, Lego like building blocks? That could work. Read More >>

You know why I didn't like Elon Musk a few years ago? Because of PayPal. Because he seemed like a dilettante. Yet another Valley guy who was ignoring all the hard work and ingenuity that had gone into systems like infrastructure and space travel for the last fifty years; another nerd who thought every system was as mutable as a computer. I was wrong. Read More >>

It's a warm summer night in the city, but instead of sleeping with the windows open to let a breeze in, you've got them all closed to keep your bedroom quiet. It's a 'lesser of two evils' decision that people living in crowded urban centers might soon not have to make. Researchers in South Korea have developed a remarkable new type of window that dampens sound while still allowing air to pass right on through. Read More >>

It's amazing the way a nice piece of tech can radically change the world over just a few years. Just a few decades ago, everything changed when we started putting computers in homes, and it changed again when we started putting them in pockets. But regardless of how revolutionary these innovations are, they're gone incredibly fast. It's a poignant observation, and who could have put it better than Steve Jobs. Read More >>

Google's got its hands in a lot of cooke jars. It's juggling Android, and ChromeOS, and maps, and Gmail, and Glass, and self-driving cars. But the real, secret goods are (presumably) hidden deep inside the secret "Google [x]" lab, and Bloomberg got an awful close—but not quite uncensored—peek. Read More >>

Small, foldable bikes have become a staple of city commutes for all those of us cycling to catch trains or zooming across town to work. Unfortunately, for all the convenience of folding up nice and neat, those mini road-beasts tend not to pack any suspension to soften the pothole-blows to your behind. Read More >>

Tim Berners-Lee, the internet's loveable dad, has teamed up with Google's UK team to launch an innovation quest over here, with Chromebooks, tech help and £500,000 on offer to those who come up with the best not-for-profit tech startups. Read More >>

Coming up with ideas and inventions on demand is tricky. I work as the Science Museum's "inventor-in-residence" and it is my job to generate a stream of products and ideas that are interesting to the science-savvy as well as engaging to those new to the museum. If possible the products should also be wildly popular and generate lots of income. No pressure then. Read More >>

Britain is and always has been, a powerhouse of invention, innovation, science and technology. From penicillin, DNA, cloning and stem cells, to carbon fibre, radar, the jet engine, Concorde and the ARM chips that power your smartphone, Britain is behind it all in some sort of capacity. But what's the best British invention from the last 100 years? Read More >>

The UK wing of Kickstarter seems to be doing pretty well for itself, with the money-raising site claiming to have taken pledges for well over half a million quid during its first week of punting projects to the UK audience. Read More >>

Sir James Dyson is on a mission to reignite British design and engineering after opening the Royal College of Art Dyson building. The central feature of this space will be a set of 40 incubators for young designers and engineers to cultivate British invention, where the chosen start-ups will be given working space, industry mentors and access to angel investors to help commercialise their ideas. Once each start-up has made their business viable they will fly the nest making room for new designers and engineers to replace them. Read More >>

If you're constantly upgrading to the latest and greatest devices by now you've probably got a small collection of unused smartphones and tablets waiting for a buyer on eBay. But don't sell them just yet. Researchers at the Tokyo University of Technology have developed a brilliant piece of software called Pinch, which can turn a hodge-podge collection of different devices into a single unified display. Read More >>

After some 187 prototypes, Dyson looks like it's finally solved the issue of hair stuffing up your vacuum cleaner with its ingenious tangle-free Turbine tool. No longer will you have to bend over and heave balls of manky hair from your sodding nozzle. Read More >>

The ES Pipe Waterwheel, designed by Korean innovator Ryan Jongwoo Choi, is a simple plumbing accessory that turns simple workaday activities—running a bath, washing your hands, hosing off the dog—into hydroelectricity generative tasks. Read More >>

A 13-year-old girl from Connecticut named Mallory Kievman has come up with a pretty clever cure for hiccups: vinegar lollipops! She developed the idea after researching various at-home remedies—a teaspoon of vinegar, hard candy, etc—as well as the physiological reason for a bout of hiccups. Read More >>

Penn State's department of food science has been hard at work using an electrospinning device to stretch fibrous strands out of a biodegradable food starch solution. Using a solvent to dissolve the starch into a fluid, long strands are spun, which, in great quantity, can be woven together together as one would a textile—the potential application of which extends itself to napkins, tissues, and even medical dressings, like bandages. Read More >>