Heather Hansman

Heather Hansman

 

Heather Hansman is a Seattle-based freelancer who writes about science, the environment, tech and people, and how they all interact. Her work has appeared in Outside, Popular Science and Grist.

Alex Hudson wearing Specs4Us glasses

Designing Glasses That Fit Individuals With Down Syndrome

Optician Maria Dellapina started Specs4Us when her daughter struggled to find a pair of glasses that wouldn't slip

The fake egg looks and feels the same as a real vulture egg.

Scientists Are Using Electronic Eggs to Study Vultures

A sensor-packed egg, developed by a team at Microduino, could lead to clues about the birds' livelihood

Pneumatics allow the material to change shape.

A New Material Could Make Medical Devices That Expand and Collapse

Harvard researchers develop a new origami-inspired material that changes shape

Five Technologies That Would Heat or Cool People and Not Entire Buildings

Research groups are developing robots, fabrics and furniture that could lead to energy savings

Century Partners renovated this house and others on Atkinson Street in Detroit.

A Detroit Startup Is Trying to Shake Up the City's Housing Market

Two real estate developers are giving longtime residents a stake in their neighborhood's revitalization

The Dining Room of the Colored Girls Museum

A Pop-Up Museum Documents the Stories of Philadelphia's Black Women

Vashti DuBois is looking to build community and pride in underserved neighborhoods, starting with her own

Brainstorming new helmet innovation.

Can This New Football Helmet Prevent Head Injuries?

The team behind the Zero1, a new four-layer helmet design, hopes so

Students can take virtual field trips to places across the globe.

How Can Schools Use Virtual Reality?

The expansion of Google's VR education program could make classrooms more engaging, and also more just

"I Just Want to Come Home," a mural addressing the relationship between police and young men of color.

New York City Is Paying Public Housing Residents to Paint Murals

Young tenants will create public art that captures social issues at five housing projects, one in each borough

A City Fabrick pop-up space.

Could Pop-Up Social Spaces at Polls Increase Voter Turnout?

Placemaking the Vote, one of the finalists in the Knight Cities Challenge, wants people to hang out at their polling places

This New App Wants to Help You With Your Homework

With GotIt!, high school students take a photo of a tricky math or science problem and get live tutoring by text from the highest bidder

The hydrogel bends and flexes like human skin.

Introducing the Band-Aids of the Future

MIT engineers are developing a "smart" bandage that can monitor and deliver drugs to a wound

The robotic arms move across the range, cooking and cleaning.

This Robot Will Make You Dinner

Moley Robotics is developing a robotic kitchen that can prepare a meal from start to finish—cleanup included

Installing the RFID tags

This Danish City is Giving Bikers the Green Light

In a pilot program underway in Aarhus, Denmark, cyclists are given RFID tags that trigger traffic lights in their favor

Programming organisms in the Ginkgo Bioworks Foundry

A Boston Biotech Company Is Engineering New Smells

A team at Ginkgo Bioworks is designing organisms that emit specific scents and flavors

Med School Students Can Play "Operation" With These Synthetic Cadavers

Florida company SynDaver is making life-like organs and bodies. But, as teaching models, are they as helpful as the real thing?

This Pump Could Make Blood Transfusions Safer and Cheaper in the Developing World

The Hemafuse gives doctors a sterile way to suction, filter and retransfuse patients' blood in places without electricity

When You Sweat, Vents in These Clothes Automatically Open

Harnessing the power of bacteria, MIT researchers and New Balance have created breathable workout gear

Colin Detrich's "DataCycle"

How Seattle is Using a "Frankenbike" to Improve its Bike Trails

Tinkerer Colin Dietrich built it, and now the city's department of transportation has come to use the tricked-out bike to assess its bike paths

This 3D printed tooth could kill germs in your mouth

These 3D Printed Teeth Fight Bacteria

Researchers in the Netherlands are making dental implants that kill microbes that settle on them

Page 1 of 3