All Stories
- Computing
Seeing the world through a robot’s eyes
Engineers in California have developed a new kind of camera that aims to give drones, self-driving cars and other robots better vision.
- Earth
Cool Jobs: Unearthing the secrets of soil
In ordinary soil, scientists can find clues to past civilizations, evidence to catch criminals and bacteria that might help fight global warming.
- Earth
Explainer: What makes dirt different from soil
Although most people use the terms dirt and soil interchangeably, scientists argue that they shouldn’t. Soil has provenance — meaning history. Dirt doesn’t.
- Physics
Teen identifies way to detect failing underground pipes
A teen researcher uses acoustics — here, pipe vibrations — to test whether buried water pipes are about to fail, and leak.
- Planets
Space toilet may teach scientists how to scout for life on distant icy moons
Lessons learned from flushing space toilets may help plan life-hunting missions on distant icy moons.
- Health & Medicine
Vaping may stiffen the heart and blood vessels
Exposure to e-cigarette vapors damages blood vessels in mice, suggesting that vaping could put people at risk for heart disease.
- Chemistry
Knowing what you don’t know can help your grades improve
Students who don’t know much tend to be overconfident. A new study shows how bursting their bubbles can help their grades.
- Animals
Surprise! Some jellyfish appear to need their zzz’s
Some upside-down jellyfish are the first known creatures lacking a brain to enter a sleeplike state.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Luminescence
Light and heat don’t always have to go together! Luminescence is what occurs when a substance emits light without making heat.
- Climate
‘Watermelon’ snow is helping melt glaciers
Microbes that paint snow pink are accelerating the melting of ice fields in Alaska.
- Chemistry
Science works to save a salty world treasure
Poland’s 700-year old salt mine, just outside Kraków, not only is a cultural art treasure, but also an active research site for geologists, chemists and more.
- Brain
Small genetic accident made Zika more dangerous
A new study finds that a tiny mutation made the Zika virus more dangerous, by helping it kill cells in the fetal brain.
