What is innovation? Participants in the Lisbon Council’s 2010 Innovation Summit answer. Innovation is? Pronunciation: /(ĭnˌə-vāˈshən)/ Function: noun 1 : the introduction of something new 2 : a new idea, method, or device 3 : The act of innovating; the introduction of new things or methods. (source : Wordnik, Lisbon Council)

They are arguably the most intensely scrutinised parts of websites – so why not make captchas into adverts?

China produces 97 per cent of rare earth elements but is cutting exports – so researchers are devising new ways to reduce, reuse and recycle them

Some fresh thinking is changing the way roboticists think about robot hands – and what they could mean for robot learning

A brain-machine interface that lets users to control which of two images they view on a screen by thought alone could help paralysed people communicate

Search giant Google admitted last week that its fleet of Street View cars often captured private data from wireless routers

Blueprints for the smallest electric engine have been sketched out – and are now turning into reality

Concerted political campaigns masquerading as independent tweets by grassroots campaigners can now be exposed for what they are

All four engines on a 1982 flight from London to Auckland failed after it passed a volcanic ash cloud, but started again before a crash. Now we may know why

Soon there could be so many solar cells in Germany that the country’s power system will be overwhelmed