Who invents for sports and why? Specifically, what motivates so many athletes to becomes sports inventors?
These are some of the central questions the...
Recently, I discovered the work of scientific illustrator Roger Hayward (1899-1979) while looking at the C. L. Stong Papers. I discovered that, in...
Since March 2020, most Smithsonian staff members have been working from home, cut off from the collections many of us find so fascinating. This...
Inventors work everywhere, but many get started at home, using things they find around the house to prototype, or model and test, their inventions...
Throughout my teen years I was a big car nut. I loved sports cars but one thing I loved more was concept cars. The concept cars had a uniqueness that...
It is not uncommon in the museum to converse with a child about robots. Sometimes the conversation is about sci-fi or movie robots, but during my 14...
For those of you who have read some of my previous blogs, particularly “Preparing to Stretch,” you may be aware of the “lull” time that occurs in my...
My grandfather was a cancer researcher who faced shortages during World War II and had to improvise to keep his lab going. When he ran short of quartz...
With a plethora of knitting patterns already on the market, you’d think there’s no room for anything new. However, it is entirely possible to invent...
I held a soldering iron for the first time in my life a few weeks ago. It was exciting and frustrating at the same time. Trying to melt a bead of...
My wife Emma took this picture of her broken dresser with the missing middle drawer. It’s a scornful reminder of my mechanical ineptitude.One day last...
