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Ethan Zuckerman on how to engineer serendipity online

In a wired world, finding information about events in a distant part of the world – the score of a soccer game, the aftermath of a military coup, or a nascent hip-hop movement in a conservative country – is straightforward. Even if news sites overlooked...

An electric workout through pedal power

After classes, Sally Peach, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has a long list of to-dos. She wants to hit the gym, tackle schoolwork, and, as captain of an intramural soccer team and member of a campus health advocacy program, she has plenty...

A ‘miracle tree’ that could feed sub-Saharan Africa

As a child growing up in India, I greeted the appearance of one particular vegetable on my plate with exaggerated distaste: tender seedpods from the moringa tree, locally known as “drumsticks.” Imagine my surprise when I heard a health worker from sub-Saharan Africa describe this...

Designs for a better world emerge from M.I.T. summit

For three weeks this summer, masons and mechanics, farmers and welders, scientists and a pastor threw themselves into creating low-tech solutions to big problems that persist across the globe. Converging here at the MIT, these 61 inventors from 20 countries divided into multilingual teams, each...

Low Tech Inventions With High Impact

Are you happy when good things happen to good folks? With up to $25 million in new USAID funding, D-Lab will now gain greater ability to help people in the developing world find their own solutions. In the past, I have written about Amy Smith, founder...

Thirsty Indian metropolis finds an answer in the rain

Five years ago, the Mylapore temple tank – a man-made pond located at the ancient Kapaleeswarar Temple in the south Indian city of Chennai (formerly Madras) – was little more than a vast, dry bed of cracked clay. Neighborhood boys traipsed down the symmetrical steps...