All Stories
- Chemistry
Some plastics learn to repair themselves
A new material can fix its own scratches and small cracks. One day, it also may make self-healing paints and plastics possible.
- Math
Scientists Say: Statistical significance
Statistical significance is a phrase that describes how often a scientific difference might occur by accident.
- Brain
Zaps to spinal cord help paralyzed people walk
Sending electrical pulses to the spinal cord can help paralyzed people learn to walk again, new tests show.
- Genetics
Scientist reports first gene editing of humans
A Chinese researcher claims to have edited the DNA of human embryos. Babies from those embryos were born this month, and the news kicked off a firestorm of controversy.
- Earth
New ways to clean up polluted sources of drinking water
Some 21 million people in the United States may get drinking water from sources that are polluted. Some new water treatments promise to greatly lower costs or tackle formerly hard-to-remove pollutants.
- Chemistry
Six things that shouldn’t pollute your drinking water
These are why drinking untreated water can be harmful. But keep in mind, today’s water-treatment plants still won’t remove all of these.
- Chemistry
Explainer: How is water cleaned up for drinking
Unless you’re drinking well water, city folks typically get drinking water that has been treated in a water-treatment plant. Here’s what that means.
- 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.
