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Welcome to our blog, where you will find our latest musings on how invention and innovation—past, present, and future—influence our lives.

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A whole Margherita pizza
Blog

An Innovative Pizza Place

We asked Mozzeria, a newly opened Deaf-owned, Deaf-led pizza shop in Washington, DC, about being innovative during a pandemic.

Line drawing of inner workings of a lamp with a perpetual wick.
Blog

Ingenious Devices

Fountains, perpetual oil lamps, and other inventions from the Islamic “Golden Age”

Hyperboloid model made of cardboard, wood, thread, wire, and thread spools
Blog

From Innovators to Curators, Making Do is Nothing New

A teleworking curator looks at the ways in which those who created and used objects took advantage of what they found available.

Society for the History of Technology logo
Blog

Game Changers Team Presents Its Research at SHOT

The Game Changers curatorial team presents their research at the annual meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, 8–11 October 2020.

Howard Head skiing downslope
Blog

Sports Innovator Howard Head

The engineer behind Head skis and Prince tennis rackets revolutionized both sports.

U-Sketch pick your color green orange blue lavender purple black

Story Tags

  • African American inventors (Relevance: 32%)
  • Architecture, construction, and building materials (Relevance: 20%)
  • Archives@NMAH (Relevance: 52%)
  • Behind-the-scenes (Relevance: 32%)
  • Business (Relevance: 16%)
  • DIY/Maker Movement (Relevance: 20%)
  • Design (Relevance: 28%)
  • Food and drink (Relevance: 28%)
  • Game Changers exhibition (Relevance: 52%)
  • Household technology (Relevance: 24%)
  • Industry and manufacturing (Relevance: 20%)
  • Invention process (Relevance: 48%)
  • Kid-friendly (Relevance: 24%)
  • Medicine, health, and life sciences (Relevance: 28%)
  • Patents and trademarks (Relevance: 20%)
  • Places of Invention (Relevance: 20%)
  • Play (Relevance: 24%)
  • Spark!Lab (Relevance: 100%)
  • Sports (Relevance: 52%)
  • Toys and games (Relevance: 20%)
  • Women inventors (Relevance: 36%)
Don Featherstone posing with plastic pink flamingos on a lawn
Blog

The Making of the Iconic Plastic Pink Lawn Flamingo

A look at the ersatz bird that became a barometer of taste.

Beyond Bakelite book cover
Blog

New Books by Lemelson Center Alumni Fellows

Add these books to your summer reading list!

Cartoon-style drawing of a Jeep with legs, arms, eyes, and a mouth
Blog

Illustrating Invention

Illustrator Boris Artzybasheff brought machines to life.

Exterior of Houston Astrodome stadium
Blog

Inventing and Reinventing Stadiums

Over the past 120 years, new inventions have kept fans coming to stadiums.

Patent drawings of a pointe shoe from the side and front.
Blog

A Better Pointe Shoe Is Sorely Needed

Ballet is an art form steeped in tradition, but pointe shoes need not be out of step with the times.

Detail from a World War I poster showing a Red Cross nurse
Blog

Nurse Innovations Crucial to Pandemic Response

During times of crisis, nurses turn to their innate innovative behaviors to derive new solutions for the needs of their patients.

Detail of Figure 1, US Patent 1,242,872, showing entrance signage
Blog

One-Way Supermarket Aisles

The return of an invention from the 1910s.

A young woman playing Pandemic
Blog

Disaster Board Games

Board game inventions can help us cope with crises.

Brightly colored simple drawings of hands in s cricle
Blog

Lupe Hernandez and the Invention of Hand Sanitizer

Sorting out the facts in an oft-told story.

Rectangular black-and-beige plastic box with keypad on right and register tape on left.
Blog

When Technology Disrupts the Vibe

Growing pains in the digital age from the not-so-distant past . . .

Triangular Brownie Inventor Badge
Blog

Calling All Brownie Girl Scout Inventors

Bring your Brownie troop to Spark!Lab, where everyone is an inventor!

Branch Rickey holding his chin and looking at a blackboard with lists of players’ names
Blog

Branch Rickey, Baseball Innovator

By introducing several innovations, baseball executive Branch Rickey transformed America’s national pastime.

3D printed wearable components
Blog

Game Controllers for All

Developing an adaptive game controller activity

Gold pocket watch with an elaborate face, with letters A to Z and numbers 1 to 24
Blog

How Do We Know Exactly When the New Year Begins?

Appreciating the invention of standardized time zones as the calendar turns to 2020.

Men working inside the tunnel
Blog

Battling Under the River

Looking back at the tunneling boom of the early 1900s—and the "sandhogs" who made it happen.

See More Stories

VIEW 2664 Matching Results

Found 2664 Stories

  • Agriculture and horticulture (Relevance: 5.1426426426426%)
  • Air and space (Relevance: 6.6441441441441%)
  • Chemistry (Relevance: 3.003003003003%)
  • Food and drink (Relevance: 3.0780780780781%)
  • Industry and manufacturing (Relevance: 7.3198198198198%)
  • Medicine, health, and life sciences (Relevance: 4.6171171171171%)
  • Military technology (Relevance: 3.2657657657658%)
  • Mining and drilling (Relevance: 3.490990990991%)
  • Patents and trademarks (Relevance: 11.448948948949%)
  • Photography, film, television, and video (Relevance: 3.6036036036036%)
  • Power generation, motors, and engines (Relevance: 3.490990990991%)
  • Spark!Lab (Relevance: 2.9279279279279%)
  • Telegraph, telephone, and telecommunications (Relevance: 3.0780780780781%)
  • Textiles and clothing (Relevance: 3.3033033033033%)
  • Transportation (Relevance: 5.8933933933934%)
  • Women inventors (Relevance: 3.003003003003%)
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