who make pretensions to science, and practical mechanics ... than steam carriages on common roads. An invention to be successful must not only be new, but useful—an improvement.

A key decision in research is whether to try out new ideas or build on more established ideas. In this paper, we evaluate which type of work is more likely to spur further invention. When recent ...

Part of being human is to create—to invent objects and ideas that will make life possible, simple and enjoyable. Homo sapiens have been innovating for more than 300,000 years, ever since the first ...

Although many of the concepts that science fiction works imagine aren’t real, there are quite a few modern inventions that the genre has inspired. From cell phones to automatic sliding doors ...