Museum of Science and Industry

Ever hear someone refer to math as "the universal language?" It seems like a reasonable idea: after all, 2 + 2 = 4 no matter what language you use for those numbers. Yet researchers are starting to find evidence that certain mathematical concepts might not be perceived in the same way by all people.

Researchers from the University of California at San Diego traveled to a remote valley in Papua New Guinea to study the way adults there conceptualize a "number line"—a visual representation of...

On May 8, Englishwoman Claire Lomas finished the London Marathon. Oh, did I mention that since Claire was paralyzed from the chest down in a horse-riding accident five years ago, she only walked the whole thing in a bionic suit?

Claire’s tremendous accomplishment, which took a total of 16 days, was made possible by the

Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Well, good news, scientist-wizards: the creator of a new blood-type test cites a bit of magic from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as his inspiration!

Engineer Wei Shen created a papery surface for blood testing that displays its results by “writing” the blood type letter of the sample that touches it. Shen says...

If you’re like me, you often step outside and yell, “Hey everybody, it’s 2012... Where are all the electric cars?” Batteries, it turns out, are a tough obstacle on the road to electric car efficiency. One big issue is that usually the more juice a battery can crank out, the heavier it must get. But IBM is seeking to address that problem with lightweight batteries capable of propelling a car 500 miles on a single charge.

The Battery 500 Project...

If you have eyeballs, Google might someday change the way you use them. The search engine giant recently unveiled "Project Glass," an endeavor to develop internet-integrated, augmented-reality glasses. Google’s concept video suggests that features may include voice-command integration, real-time directions, and video chat. For now, these features (and this product)...