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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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3 young girls, an adult woman, and a woman facilitator work on building a vehicle with PVC pipe
Blog

Welcoming Morris Museum to the Spark!Lab Network

Where art, sound, and motion meet invention!

A horse looking through the slats of a fence
Blog

Equine Identification Inventions

People aren’t the only ones who have to show ID.

Kretchmer company print ad for bee supplies
Blog

Bee Hives Buzzing with Invention

Edward Kretchmer was born into a family of beekeepers and became an inventor and entrepreneur focused on the needs of his buzzing friends.

A smiling Eric Hintz holds up his book for the camera, with a full box of books in front of him
Blog

The Persistence of American Independent Inventors

Eric S. Hintz reflects on his new book, American Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D, published in the Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation book series with MIT Press.

Metal button with image of Smokey the Bear’s head and the words “Help Smokey Prevent Forest Fires” around the outer edge
Blog

Mother Nature and Invention

Many inventions make our time in nature more enjoyable.

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

Story Tags

  • African American inventors (Relevance: 37.037037037037%)
  • Architecture, construction, and building materials (Relevance: 18.518518518519%)
  • Archives@NMAH (Relevance: 55.555555555556%)
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  • Design (Relevance: 29.62962962963%)
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  • Game Changers exhibition (Relevance: 66.666666666667%)
  • Household technology (Relevance: 22.222222222222%)
  • Industry and manufacturing (Relevance: 22.222222222222%)
  • Invention process (Relevance: 51.851851851852%)
  • Kid inventors (Relevance: 25.925925925926%)
  • Kid-friendly (Relevance: 22.222222222222%)
  • Medicine, health, and life sciences (Relevance: 25.925925925926%)
  • Patents and trademarks (Relevance: 25.925925925926%)
  • Play (Relevance: 22.222222222222%)
  • Spark!Lab (Relevance: 100%)
  • Spark!Lab Network (Relevance: 18.518518518519%)
  • Sports (Relevance: 66.666666666667%)
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  • Women inventors (Relevance: 37.037037037037%)
Vans blue and white checked skateboarding shoe with a dark blue suede toe and eyestay, white leather sidestripe, and the trademark deep tan, waffle pattern soles.
Blog

The Invention of the Iconic Vans Skateboarding Shoe

How the van Doren Brothers, through ingenuity and collaboration, took their company “off the wall.”

Hand tools and a CNC router
Blog

Missing the Physical World of Spark!Lab

What ever happened to touching stuff as a means of experience?

Title page of Hopkins’s address to manufacturers
Blog

Licensing the First US Patent

Inventions do not sell themselves.

X-ray image of contents of a briefcase
Blog

The Two Inventors Who Made Airline Travel Safer

In 1970, two engineers invented the first low-dose X-ray scanner for airline passenger security screening.

Sketch of a woman reading
Blog

Illustrating "The Amateur Scientist" at Scientific American

Scientific American welcomed articles by amateur scientists and inventors—and Roger Hayward illustrated their ideas.

Dick Fosbury in mid-jump
Blog

The Fosbury Flop—A Game-Changing Technique

Dick Fosbury revolutionized high jumping by introducing a game changing technique.

A small thermal printer producing a time badge.
Blog

The Invention of the Self-Expiring Visitor Badge

Controlling visitor access has always been difficult, but the invention of the self-expiring visitor badge reduced the security problem substantially.

Informal pose of Tahira Reid Smith, arms folded
Blog

Game Changers Inventor Spotlight: Tahira Reid Smith

Engineering professor Dr. Tahira Reid Smith has been inventive since childhood and is best known for her automated double-Dutch jump rope machine.

Metal patent model for Verea calculating machine
Blog

Signposts to Diverse Stories of Invention

Museum objects reveal unexpected stories about diverse inventions—and inventors.

Composite image with skater Nikolai Panin tracing figures on the ice and diagrams of different ice figures
Blog

How Skating Acquired and Lost Its “Figure”

Thanks to invention and innovation, the history of figure skating is truly head-spinning.

Andy Granatelli and his brother Vincent standing behind two race cars
Blog

The Supercharged, Super Fast, Novi Engine

Race car owner and driver, innovator, and entrepreneur Andy Granatelli was as supercharged as the Novi itself.

An array of parts from which a creature can be made; includes blue polyester fur, hinged aluminum rods, miscellaneous Lego bits and 3D-printed parts, and small balls made into eyes.
Blog

Encouraging Inventive Thinking Over Winter Break

Use the time and resources you have to foster inventive thinking in your family this winter break!

Model is a white cube on legs with a hinged door and controls on the base
Blog

The Einstein-Szilard Refrigerator

Why didn't the geniuses’ refrigerator ever make it to market?

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”

See More Stories

VIEW 2700 Matching Results

Found 2700 Stories

  • Agriculture and horticulture (Relevance: 5.1851851851852%)
  • Air and space (Relevance: 6.5925925925926%)
  • Chemistry (Relevance: 3%)
  • Food and drink (Relevance: 3.0740740740741%)
  • Industry and manufacturing (Relevance: 7.2592592592593%)
  • Medicine, health, and life sciences (Relevance: 4.5555555555556%)
  • Military technology (Relevance: 3.2222222222222%)
  • Mining and drilling (Relevance: 3.4444444444444%)
  • Patents and trademarks (Relevance: 11.37037037037%)
  • Photography, film, television, and video (Relevance: 3.5185185185185%)
  • Power generation, motors, and engines (Relevance: 3.4444444444444%)
  • Spark!Lab (Relevance: 3.4814814814815%)
  • Telegraph, telephone, and telecommunications (Relevance: 3.037037037037%)
  • Textiles and clothing (Relevance: 3.2962962962963%)
  • Transportation (Relevance: 5.8148148148148%)
  • Women inventors (Relevance: 3.1111111111111%)
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