464 Items Tagged

Technology

The H-4 Hercules, aka "Spruce Goose."

McMinnville, Oregon

The Spruce Goose

The wooden airship was the largest flying boat ever built.

The pavilion.

Pyeongchang, South Korea

Vantablack Hyundai Pavilion

The darkest building on Earth was built for the snow-white scenery of the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Model of Skylab outside Esperance Museum.

Esperance, Australia

Skylab’s Remains

A tiny museum in Esperance, Australia, displays a bunch of space debris from NASA’s Skylab.

Irv Teibel's 'Environments' Is Now an App

1970s nature recordings, for the 2018 human on the go.

Cara Giaimo February 13, 2018

These signs are reanimated through a technology called projection mapping.

See the Vintage Neon Signs of Las Vegas, Reanimated

These beacons are broken, and yet it's now possible to see what they once would have looked like.

Sarah Laskow February 2, 2018

Shildon, England

The ‘Rocket' Locomotive

This innovative steam machine was no doubt the most famous of the pioneer locomotives.

Long rows of boxes line the halls.

Martinsburg, West Virginia

National Tracing Center

Endless rows of boxes of paper records line the hallways of the archaic federal facility where guns are traced.

New Caledonian crows extract food fastest when they've got tools in hand (er, beak).

Tool-Wielding Crows Rustle Up the Most Snacks

The utensils are useful, but it's still unclear exactly how the corvids learn to make them.

Jessica Leigh Hester January 26, 2018

One of the two Mold-A-Rama machines at the Lincoln Park Zoo
in Chicago. Located in the Farm-in-the-Zoo exhibit, this machine
produces an orange piggy bank.

Meet the People Keeping Mold-A-Rama Alive

These retro machines, which make plastic souvenirs right before your eyes, are as popular as ever.

Hannah Steinkopf-Frank January 22, 2018

A 19th-century drawing of the anglerfish species <em>Melanocetus murrayi</em>.

Will There Ever Be an Anglerfish Emoji?

Two researchers are hoping to diversify our chief communicative ecosystem.

Cara Giaimo January 18, 2018

The Diana Site.

Wall Township, New Jersey

Project Diana Site

The first dish to bounce radio signals off the Moon, it was the forerunner to the U.S. Space Program.

The Mid-America Windmill Museum, in Kendallville, Indiana.

The Iconic Windmills That Made the American West

They may look quaint, but these "wind engines" were innovative and technically profound.

Ryan Schnurr January 15, 2018

Public Standards of Length at the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

London, England

Public Standards of Length

19th-century scientists would make the pilgrimage here to verify the precision of their measuring sticks.

Before the Industrial Revolution, beer tasted decidedly smoky.

Why All Beer Once Tasted Like Smoke

Those were the days.

Jim Clarke January 15, 2018

A Mailmobile in use, 1977.

The Final Ride of the Mail Robots

On the scene of a retirement party for Rasputin, Mom, and three other Mailmobiles.

Chris Dart January 11, 2018

A Soyuz module re-entering the atmosphere.

How Space Stations Die

In March, China's first space station is going to fall to Earth in a fiery ball.

Sarah Laskow January 5, 2018

San Francisco, California

Encryption Lava Lamps

The randomness of this wall of lava lamps helps encrypt up to 10 percent of the internet.

Limair Sanatorium, Luray, Virginia.

The Forgotten Sanatorium That Was Cooled by Cave Air

It was billed as the first air-conditioned building in the United States.

Eric J. Wallace December 27, 2017