All Stories
- Tech
Explainer: What is bioprinting?
Machines can now print tissues, layer by layer, using “inks” made of living cells. This technology brings lab-grown organs closer to reality.
- Physics
Scientists made clocks from an atomic nucleus
These super high-tech timepieces use the chemical element thorium to keep time. And as the clocks improve, they could help solve some mysteries in physics.
- Animals
Songs prep unhatched finches’ brains for a hot world
Adult finches make “heat calls” to their eggs when temps rise. Exposure to those songs trigger chicks' developing brains to change in ways that better handle heat.
- Life
Fog — it’s alive!
Low-lying fog clouds host living microbes. That may be good news, because some of them can remove toxic air pollutants, such as formaldehyde.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Alloy
These metallic mergers support our tallest buildings and our finest jewelry.
- Health & Medicine
U.S. sunscreen users are finally getting a new option
FDA will now allow the use of bemotrizinol in U.S. sunscreens. This long-lasting chemical protects against the solar radiation that ages and damages skin.
- Physics
Experiment: Measure fake blood spatter
Future forensic scientists, get out your corn syrup and red food coloring! It’s time to fake a crime scene.
- Animals
Analyze This: How sea slugs get their flashy colors
Crystals beneath the skin of nudibranchs, also called sea slugs, allow the creatures to make an array of intense hues with just one material.
- Plants
A geometric pattern lurks in Chinese money plant leaves
Tiny water-oozing pores appear to shape the leaves’ veins into a “Voronoi diagram.”
- Earth
Scientists Say: Fjord
These dramatic, steep-sided sea inlets form when glaciers carve deep channels from the terrain.
- Microbes
Dormant microbes from Ötzi the Iceman’s body can grow in the lab
These cold-loving yeasts may be thousands of years old. They also suggest the mummy’s remains may not be completely frozen in time.
- Climate
A ‘super’ El Niño appears to be emerging. What’s the big deal?
The climate pattern could bring “shockingly high” temps this winter, plus extreme weather. Some scientists are looking into an engineering “fix.”
