The tinkerers who made America great

In his new book, The Tinkerers, Alec Foege celebrates the core American virtue of innovation that comes from puttering around.

By Daniel Akst, contributor

FORTUNE -- For much of human history, people explained away the many things they couldn't understand by resorting to gods, spirits, and fanciful tales. Life may have been nasty, brutish, and short, but the world that contained it was in some sense enchanted.

Then came the Enlightenment, with MORE

Zipcar buy is no surefire win

Avis' logic is that its weekday business will be complimented by ZipCar's weekend traffic. That may be flawed thinking.

By Doron Levin, contributor

FORTUNE -- Avis Budget Group Inc.'s decision to spend $500 million, or $12.25 a share, to buy Zipcar Inc. almost certainly isn't because Avis sees a bright future for an urban rent-by-the-hour car service. Avis's chief executive Ron Nelson conceded Wednesday that he's been "dismissive" of car sharing.

Nelson did MORE

A Mercedes that basically drives itself

The maker of luxury vehicles doesn't want to be left behind in the drive toward self-driving cars.

By Doron Levin, contributor

FORTUNE -- Daimler AG's next-generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class, to be introduced early next year as a 2014 model, may turn heads for its new body styling, engine choices and features. But what is likely to excite technology geeks about the new top-of-the line luxury sedan are the latest active-safety technologies that take MORE

What I learned aboard Shell's grounded Alaskan oil rig

Last year, Fortune went inside the Kulluk, the oil-drilling ship Shell planned to use to tap oil reserves in the Arctic Ocean. Now those hopes may be dashed.

By Jon Birger

FORTUNE -- Last March I became the first journalist in 25 years to board the Kulluk, the Shell oil-drilling ship now at the center of an environmental drama unfolding in the Gulf of Alaska.

The Kulluk is a circular-shaped drilling barge, MORE

Big Pharma and unfiltered speech: A dangerous prescription

How a recent court ruling, citing the first-amendment rights of drug companies, imperils the FDA's capacity to regulate medicine.

By Mina Kimes

FORTUNE -- One of the most powerful weapons in the Food and Drug Administration's arsenal is its ability to censure companies that promote drugs for unapproved uses. Before a pharmaceutical company can market a product for a new purpose, it must first show the FDA that the new use MORE