All Stories
- Planets
Quake-scouting lander safely touches down on Mars
NASA’s InSight lander has just arrived safely on the Martian surface. Its two year mission is to record any ‘Marsquakes’ and other signs of the planet’s geologic activity.
- Brain
Young people’s memory improves after stopping marijuana use
Paying teens and young adults to stop using marijuana improved their memory within one week. The results hint that some impairments from pot may be reversible — at least for a time.
- Computing
This printer makes ‘visual’ aids for people with sight problems
A physicist’s vision loss was the inspiration to develop new printers. They create touch-to-read maps, charts and graphs. Some can even talk to blind users.
- Climate
Renewable energy might be able to green a desert
Computer models show that placing wind turbines and solar farms in deserts could increase how much rain falls in nearby areas.
- Space
Scientists Say: Orbit
An orbit is the path one object in space takes around another, such as a planet, star or the center of an atom.
- Brain
People may be literally led by their noses
The brain links people’s senses of nagivation and smell, according to a new study.
- Archaeology
Fossils hint ancient humans passed through a green Arabia
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, migrating humans passed through the Arabian Peninsula, a study shows. Instead of desert, they found green grass.
- Health & Medicine
Why can’t bugs be grub?
Insects are tasty and nutritious, and raising them is good for the planet. So how can Westerners be convinced to give insects a taste?
- Life
Scientists Say: Nectar
Nectar is a fluid filled with sugar that plants — especially flowers — produce. They use it to attract animals that will then spread their pollen to another plant.
- Computing
New apps match donated items with people in need
Two 2018 Broadcom MASTERS finalists developed apps to help match donors’ aid of food or disaster relief with the people who need these.
- Physics
Harry Potter can apparate. Can you?
In the world of Harry Potter, wizards apparate and disapparate with ease. How would that work in the non-magical world? Physics has some answers.
- Tech
Prepping for drone exploration of Mars
Twelve-year-old James Fagan, a budding engineer from Riverside, Calif., has built a wind tunnel. He uses it to test scale models of drones and other vehicles under Mars-like conditions.
