An invention at the heart of our modern world helped create radios, cars and smartphones. The team from Planet Money traces ...

What are the arguments against allowing artificial intelligence (AI) to patent inventions? Following initial surveys of the issue, in our last piece we examined the arguments in favor of machine ...

We can probably agree on some of the most important inventions ever: electricity, telephone, the steam engine, penicillin. And we can probably also agree that one new invention pretty much trumps all ...

February 16, 2009 Further irrefutable proof that the slot machine is one of the most insidious inventions in history came from the 800 year old University of Cambridge this week. Researchers used ...

Any schoolchild knows who came up with the telephone or the sewing machine. But conventional wisdom often has it all wrong.

— Freezing hands can be a disadvantage in a snowball fight. So Erica McFadden used her imagination and some help from teachers and parents to create an invention to rid the world of that problem. Her ...

There’s a strong case to be made for allowing machines to invent other machines. We recently examined the logic and legality behind the notion of artificial intelligence (AI) gaining the ability to ...

How do inventions happen? NPR's Planet Money's team brings us the history of one underappreciated invention that has enabled countless other inventions, from the Phillips screwdriver to Bluetooth. You ...