History is littered with brilliant ideas that arrived too early for their own good. Some were buried by economic constraints, ...

From 18th century automatons that could write a full letter to the player pianos featured in every saloon, mechanical inventions have fascinated us for centuries. Yet the smallest pieces can garner ...

An underwater ship -- A siphon for raising water -- Lifting weights by water, and a portable siphon -- Construction of sluices to raise ships to any height -- A machine worked by fire which can throw ...

Engineers at the University of California, Davis, have invented a device that can generate mechanical power at night by ...

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently issued its Inventorship Guidance for AI-assisted Inventions for determining inventorship where artificial intelligence (AI) is used ...

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in ...

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in ...

Americans are an inventive people, a fact that is both the pride and despair of the U.S. Patent Office, the hard-pressed clearinghouse for some 85,000 new patent applications each year. Last week the ...