Gadgets | Technology News, Articles, Stories

Think Tech: Technology Meets the Great Outdoors

New gadgets that can help you enjoy, document, and survive the wilderness 05.29.2009

Building the World's Wimpiest Space Thruster—Harder Than It Sounds

The ESA's new system is designed to counter the force of sunlight on a spacecraft—about the same as the force of gravity on a single human hair. 05.24.2009

Life After Silicon: How Graphene Could Revolutionize Electronics

Will the next generation of computers, phones, and even energy storage be built on a form of carbon? 05.19.2009

Pixels by the Yard: HP Prints Flexible Screens Like Newsprint

A flexible computer screen—one that you can roll up and stick in your pocket—is coming closer to reality. 05.13.2009

The Next Source of Green Energy: Your Car Itself

A new MIT invention turns shock absorbers into electric generators. 05.03.2009

Bringing Dead-Tree Misfits Into the Digital World

A new Fujitsu scanner merges business cards, receipts, and other important pieces of paper with the rest of your data. 04.27.2009

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Money

Interesting info-nuggets about all that stuff you recently sent to the IRS. 04.14.2009

Can Smart Tech Keep Chevy Volt's Battery Running Longer Than Your Laptop's?

GM says that tightly controlling how the battery charges will keep it alive for 10 years/150,000 miles. 04.09.2009

Forget Megapixels: Here Comes the Gigapixel Sky Camera

The Pan-Starrs-1 telescope will scan the skies for asteroids and comets that could wipe out life on Earth. 04.03.2009

4 Pieces of Crave-able AV Gear

From a killer $16,000 TV to devices that might finally bring the Internet to your living room 03.04.2009

LEDs Light Times Square, But Can They Light Your Office?

A bigger, better diode could bring LED lighting to the mainstream. 02.24.2009

The Climate Drone That Goes Where Scientists Fear to Tread

The Manta explores and monitors Greenland's treacherous glaciers. 02.23.2009

The Latest Hardware Is as Soft as Rubber

These electronic circuits can bend, stretch, and even curve into a spiral. 02.22.2009

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Television

A closer look at the boob tube on quasi-digital-switchover day. 02.17.2009

Autonomous Claw Could Become the World's Tiniest Surgeon

Snowflake-like robot could be used in biopsies and other procedures. 02.06.2009

Prepare for Truly Mobile WiFi

Microsoft's ViFi project uses smarter networking to eliminate Internet outages during travel. 01.28.2009

Gadgets that Can Save Your (Digital) Life

New technology can make your mail, music, and photos nearly indestructible. 01.27.2009

#7: Invisibility Becomes More than Just a Fantasy

Researchers are cloaking materials from light, sound, and even matter itself. 12.21.2008

#26: Sun Catcher Promises Cheaper Solar Power

Using laser technology, scientists build a low-cost solar concentrator. 12.17.2008

#77: X-Rays Reveal Ship-Wreckage to Be 2,000-Year-Old Astronomy Computer

The Antikythera Mechanism tracked heavenly movements like clockwork. 12.09.2008

The Geek's Guide to Christmas Shopping

Five high-tech gifts sure to bring holiday cheer. 11.12.2008

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Elections

Humans have a record of screwing up democracy, but we aren't the only species getting in on the act. 11.03.2008

What Is the Future of Time?

Our obsession with the clock has driven us to refine and control it—but where does that control end? 10.21.2008

Want an Easy Way to Control Your Gadgets? Talk to Them.

AT&T's Watson leads a pack of new gadgets that understand spoken instructions. 10.17.2008

From Booze to Garbage to Fusion: The Future of Energy

How will we fuel the world in 50 years? By putting everything from wood chips to balloons to liquid plasma to work for us. 09.24.2008

Scientists Use High-Tech Dentures to Spy on Tongues

Now they can understand our surprisingly complicated oral physics. 09.22.2008

Want to Know Which Electronics Suck? Ask Your Computer.

A new program mines user reviews to create the ultimate computer-generated critique. 09.07.2008

The Future Is Now for Rechargeable Laptop Batteries

A space-age battery is about to revolutionize portable computing. 08.24.2008

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Sports Technology

How science makes modern athletes go higher, move faster, and stay safer. 08.14.2008

A GPS to Augment Your Entire Reality

Your cell phone will provide the important linkage between the real world and the digital universe. 08.11.2008

The Year the Olympics Went (Really) Hi-Tech

NASA-inspired sneaker soles, ping-pong paddles that whip the ball, "ballistic" artificial kayak courses... 08.08.2008

Does Your House Have Robotic Vision (Yet)?

Buckminster Fuller's revolutionary ideas go on public display. 07.01.2008

IBM May Have the Key to Wireless Hi-Def Video

New hi-tech chips put wireless communications on steroids. 06.26.2008

Ultracapacitors: The Key to Effective Electric Vehicles?

This promising tech may make the leap from bike lights to car motors. 06.24.2008

MTV for Geeks

A new show on Nova offers easily digestible chunks of science. 06.17.2008

The Lycra Swimsuit That's Worth Its Weight in Gold

A first-hand test of the tech that revolutionized swimming. 06.17.2008

Under the Hood of the First Real Fuel-Cell Car

The Honda Clarity is for real, but it's not zero-emissions. 06.08.2008

The Secret History of CIA Spy Technology

A new book by CIA insiders reveals the most James Bond-like real-world spy devices. 05.30.2008

3 Ideas That Are Pushing the Edge of Science

Medical bots powered by sperm, clean fusion power, and two-dimensional time. 05.29.2008

One Hundred Movies on Just One Disk

Holographic digital storage will let consumers store a DVD library on a single disk. 05.08.2008

Who Let the Dogs Out (Into the Eco-Movement)?

New self-sustaining dog houses are perfect for the eco-conscious pooch owner. 05.06.2008

The Space Race For the New Millennium

Despite funding concerns, NASA has big plans for moon exploration. 04.23.2008

A Science Fair for a Better Planet

A contest to show DISCOVER—and the rest of the humans—how to help Mother Earth. 04.01.2008

The Incredibly Strong See-Through Bicycle

Want a lighter bike? Poke holes in it—the more the better. 03.06.2008

The Sim That Saves People from Each Other

Preventing disaster in an unruly world. 03.03.2008

The Latest Weapon Against Global Warming: Your Fridge

Smart appliances react to the grid to prevent blackouts—and pollution. 02.11.2008

Rearranging Stars to Communicate with Aliens

A proposal to create special constellations that nature would never produce 02.08.2008

Using X-Rays To Do Cruelty-Free Dissection

Hi-res, hi-tech imaging can peer inside meteorites, cavemen, and cell phones. 02.05.2008

It's 2008. Here's Your Jet Pack.

A few brave souls have accomplished individual, powered flight. 01.23.2008

Tiny Robot Walks Using Rat Heart Muscle

Similar bots may one day clear clots in blood vessels. 01.22.2008

58. Discovery Channel 2020: Living-Cell TV

"Hyperlenses" and "superlenses" could let us watch living cells in real time. 01.17.2008

67. Mars Rover Delves Into Crater

01.11.2008

48. Robotic Ankle Takes First Step

01.04.2008

37. How Killer Electrons Form in Space

12.28.2007

29. First Step to Wireless Electricity

12.21.2007

6. Conservation Gets A Green Light

Can fluorescent bulbs save the planet? 12.12.2007

This is Your Brain on Video Games

Gaming sharpens thinking, social skills, and perception. 07.09.2007

How to Pinpoint a Pinniped

It's easy—stick a big radio transmitter on their heads. 05.04.2007

Dude, Where's My Jetpack?

A look at the future that refuses to arrive 02.26.2007

Good News For Light Sleepers

Gravity-defying beds are no longer a figment of Stanley Kubrick's imagination. 12.08.2006

Neighborhood Watch Goes High Tech

Monitor your neighbors—or the Texas-Mexico border—right from your computer. 09.01.2006

How to Make Anything Look Like a Toy, Round II

More visual candy from artist Olivo Barbieri 08.16.2006

Boot Camp Just Got Harder

The Army adds shock treatment to target practice. 08.01.2006

Can You Hear Meteorology Now?

Now your cell phone can give you the latest weather updates. 08.01.2006

Jaron's World: Heads-Up

Why your next telephone may come mounted on a neck. 07.30.2006

Seeing Machine

A new device uses LED light to give a blind poet sight. 07.28.2006

How To Make Anything Look Like a Toy

It's a small world after all that frame tilting. 07.01.2006

Blinded by Science: Nightmare of Divided Loyalties

Fahrenheit has warm familiarity on its side, and Celsius weighs in with cool logic. We need something completely different 06.25.2006

A Better Energizer

An ultracapacitor is what really keeps going and going. . . . 05.28.2006

All Aboard The Cow Train

Natural gas from the manure of about 30 cows powers a train. 05.28.2006

High Powered Prosthetics

Bionic muscle is 100 times stronger than yours. 05.04.2006

Whatever Happened To... Antigravity Research?

04.27.2006

Pot Hole Hunters

High technology conquers pot holes. 04.27.2006

Anything Into Oil

Turkey guts, junked car parts, and even raw sewage go in one end of this plant, and black gold comes out the other end. 04.02.2006

Vanishing Vertigo

New device restores balance to the impaired. 03.31.2006

Emerging Technology

Welcome to the fashionable world of digitized duds (batteries not included) 03.04.2006

Emerging Technology

Hey, Steve Jobs: How about a machine that knows some verbs? 02.20.2006

On a Wet Day You Can See Forever

12.01.2005

Time Machine

Will a clock that works flawlessly for 10,000 years become the greatest wonder of the world? 11.26.2005

The Physics of Bras

Overcoming Newton's second law with better bra technology 11.22.2005

This Glove Works Like a Radiator

01.02.2005

Get This to the CD Player, Stat!

10.06.2004

Tinker, Thinker, Inventor of the Modern World

Look around and you'll find Einstein's fingerprints on everything from GPS satellites to Viagra 09.30.2004

The Biology of . . . Migraines

A gun that shoots magnetic pulses puts an end to an age-old scourge 08.02.2004

Let the Sun Shine In

A novel idea for piping in sunlight where dreary fluorescent bulbs have long dominated 07.25.2004

Can Electric Bullets Save Lives?

06.27.2004

Finally, a Good Use for the Segway

05.29.2004

Discover Data: The Technologies We Love to Hate

05.29.2004

The Cryptography of . . . Voting Machines

Electronic skullduggery could create greater confusion than hanging chads 05.29.2004

A New Way of Looking at Things

05.27.2004

Emerging Technology

Tiny talking identification tags could change the very nature of consumerism 03.30.2004

Now They Just Need a Microscopic Jimi Hendrix

01.01.2004

How Smart Are You?

Bran Ferren's yellow plastic box is full of gadgets and gizmos. What you can figure out about them may be more revealing than any IQ test 12.03.2003

Technology for Humanity: Robert Fischell

The Inventor Who Saved 65,000 Lives 11.09.2003

Stop Driving With Your Feet

The genius of GM's Hy-wire isn't the fuel-cell platform—it's driving with just your hands 10.01.2003

A High-Tech Alternative to Strip Searches

10.01.2003

Discover Roundtable: Can We Make Wireless Work?

Cell-phone coverage in the United States may be the worst in the world, and data transmission is even more troubling. Yet insiders insist there's hope 09.01.2003

The Electronic Grizzly

Can new 4-D mapping techniques keep these majestic creatures alive? 08.31.2003

Maximog

A scientist builds the ultimate SUV for field research 06.01.2003

Stopping Time

What can you do in a billionth of a billionth of a second? 06.01.2003

The Next Photography Revolution

Here comes a digital-camera chip that could change everything 12.01.2002

Discover Data: Wasting Away on Standby

12.01.2002

Future Tech

Is the incandescent bulb becoming as quaint as the vacuum tube? 11.01.2002

Do Cell Phones Put Blinders on the Driver?

10.01.2002

Rain, Rain, Go Away

A superabsorbent polymer reinvigorates an old dream 09.01.2002

Future Tech

Laser beams make a play to replace the scalpel, the dental drill, and the X ray 06.01.2002

Fire in the Brain

Can programmable implants help epileptics detect the onset of seizures? 05.01.2002

Science's Favorite New Technology

How did we track ocean whirlpools, monitor volcanoes, predict earthquakes, and watch suspension bridges bend before GPS? 03.01.2002

Sky Lights

4 banishes blurry pictures from astronomers' photo albums 03.01.2002

Now Under Construction: A Black Hole Factory

03.01.2002

Future Tech

Smart farm equipment knows how to tend the fields. Soon tractors won't even need a driver 11.01.2001

Seismic Shift

If a nuclear sub blows up in the ocean and no one hears it, did it really explode? The Russians won't say, but a seismologist in Arizona knows the answer 09.01.2001

Future Tech

Dogs can smell land mines, but humans cannot. Sensitive new chemical sniffers could fix that 09.01.2001

Program Advisers/Evaluators

Discover Magazine Innovation Awards 07.01.2001

Winner - $100,000 Christopher Columbus Foundation Award

Richard Craig, PhD; Staff Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Richland, Washington 07.01.2001

Winner - Health

Robert Wind, PhD; Staff Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Richland, Washington 07.01.2001

Saving The Children

Discover Magazine Innovation Awards 07.01.2001

Entertainment: Mark Billinghurst

Discover Magazine Innovation Awards 07.01.2001

Health: Robert Wind

Discover Magazine Innovation Awards 07.01.2001

Sea Batteries Keep Going and Going . . .

05.01.2001

A Tiny Motor with a Light Touch

05.01.2001

Radio Flyer

Can a tenacious lone inventor revolutionize wireless communications with a chip he invented in his garage? 05.01.2001

Future Tech

Do children know a better computer when they see it? 12.01.2000

Future Tech

Motorists' prayers for decent radio will soon be answered—from outer space 11.01.2000

These Boots are Made for Galloping

10.01.2000

Sweat Tech

This year's Olympics are a showcase of science as well as skill 09.01.2000

Future Tech

Rebreathers are rapidly making scuba gear look like the underwater equivalent of a windup watch 07.01.2000

Future Tech

This tube of supercharged sound could make the biggest bang since internal combustion 05.01.2000

Works in Progress

Even the best technology in the world can't seem to calculate how high this mountain really is 05.01.2000

Future Tech

Machines that turn ideas into objects are reshaping everything from Camrys to computers 02.01.2000

MacCready's Flying Circus

The father of human-powered flight sends imaginations soaring with gigantic solar-powered planes that fly forever and micro air vehicles that silently spy over the horizon 09.01.1999

The Satellite That Eats Itself

07.01.1999

Liar, Liar, Face on Fire

The real truth is written all over your face. 07.01.1999

Ark de Triomphe

Wanted: Your message in a time capsule designed to last 50,000 years 06.01.1999

The Great White's Ways

Sharks gather off the coast of California each year and feast on seals and sea lions, but not humans. A new tracking system may help reveal why. 06.01.1999

THE GREAT WHITE'S WAYS

Sharks gather off the coast of California each year and feast on seals and sea lions, but not humans. A new tracking system may help reveal why. 06.01.1999

1998 Discover Technology Awards: Sight

07.01.1998

1998 Discover Technology Awards: Computer Hardware & Electronics

07.01.1998

1998 Discover Technology Awards: Christopher Columbus Foundation Award

07.01.1998

Dining on the Fly

It's not every paparazzo who can catch a bug-eating bug in the act. 02.01.1998

The Year in Science: Technology 1997

Being There (and Everywhere) 01.01.1998

The Year in Science: Technology 1997

Plasma Mirror 01.01.1998

The Year in Science: Technology 1997

Motion is the Root of All EvilLook, Ma 01.01.1998

The Year in Science: Technology 1997

Motion is the Root of All EvilFast Car 01.01.1998

The Year in Science: Chemistry 1997

Magic Mushrooms 01.01.1998

Chasing the Jetsons

If life imitates art, why can't technology imitate cartoons? 09.01.1997

1997 Discover Awards: Computer Hardware & Electronics: Ultra Ultrasound

07.01.1997

1997 Discover Awards: Aviation & Aerospace: Spaceship, Test Thyself

07.01.1997

The Light on Life

With laser devices of his own making, Richard Zare can coax molecules to reveal their inner nature to him. Any sort of molecule will do--even one that might come from an extraterrestrial. 05.01.1997

The Curse of QWERTY

O typewriter? Quit your torture! 04.01.1997

The Wired Butterfly

The world's tiniest radar tags are making a Rocky Mountain butterfly--and its ecology--a lot easier to follow. 02.01.1997

Hope for Los Angeles, A City That Needs It

01.01.1997

A Clock More Perfect Than Time

In a lab in Boulder, one physicist is building a clock that will not gain or lose a second for 300 million years. Next door, a colleague is putting together one accurate for 30 billion years. And when they've finished those, they'll start working on better ones. 12.01.1996

	The snail whose antennae become decorated in colored, pulsating ribbons
	The spider that builds a home for the wasp larvae that will kill it
	Humans whose behavior is altered by toxoplasma
	The ant whose rump becomes red like a berry so a bird will eat it

Science News

Technology / Gadgets