Innovation 2

April has an important place in space history since two seminal events happened in this month. First, on April 12, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, traveling aboard the Soviet spacecraft Vostok I to an altitude of 187 miles above the earth. Then, exactly twenty years later, on April 12, …

As we all know, Leonardo da Vinci was an artist extraordinaire. His art is legendary; especially the “Mona Lisa”, “The Last Supper” and “The Vitruvian Man.” On top of his artistic ability, da Vinci was also a musician, mathematician, engineer, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other …

If you asked a person on the street who the “father of the motion picture” was, they would probably say Thomas Edison, and they would be somewhat right. Edison did invent a way of recording successive images in a single camera and paved the way for the modern film industry as we know it today. …

People have been dreaming about it since Princess Leia pleaded for Obi-Wan Kenobi’s help, “You’re my only hope.” The hologram is a part of science-fiction history that may be a lot closer to reality than you’d think! Dr. Roel Vertegaal of Queen’s University’s School of Computing in Kingston, Ontario, is on the cutting edge of …

Among other things, April is International Amateur Radio month. Amateur radio, often called “ham” radio, is where “hams” (ie, amateur radio enthusiasts) use different types of radio communications equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for fun, but also for some public services like disasters (it’s said that a Welsh ham radio operator named Artie …

In the past, three dimensional design, rendering, and capture required powerful computers, training, expensive software, and equipment, and was generally inaccessible to the general public. Even three dimensional scanning and replication was considered something seen only in movies, or the subject of science fiction stories. Well, thanks to Autodesk, makers of AutoCad, Maya, and 3ds …

We’ve all watched spy movies like James Bond or Mission Impossible and marveled at the cool gadgets the hero uses to get out of a jam. Whether it’s a laser in a wrist watch, a car with an ejector seat, or sticky gloves that let the hero climb the side of a building, you have …

Inventionland helps to inspire lots of creative young minds who tour the 61,000 square foot wonderland every year. Unfortunately, there’s only one Inventionland, and it’s located in Pittsburgh, PA, which means that not every aspiring inventor will be able to visit. For those youths who can’t make it to Inventionland, there are a growing number …

We could think of no better way to celebrate Black History Month than to feature African American inventors, such as Granville Woods, who changed history, and without whom our lives would be drastically different today. Many people may have never heard of Granville Woods, but he and his inventions had a profound impact on all …

Have you ever wondered how your favorite foods were invented? Sure, a lot of the foods we eat are pretty obvious; steak comes from cattle, pork from pigs, chicken from, well, chickens. You don’t need to be Einstein to figure that out.  And, the fruits and veggies we eat are pretty obvious as well; you …