All Stories by Maria Temming
- Computing
Computer chips from carbon nanotubes, not silicon, mark a milestone
Silicon has been king of cutting-edge electronics. But that reign may soon end, with carbon nanotubes taking silicon’s place.
- Tech
AI can learn real-world skills by playing video games
Video games are helping AI systems work together and adapt to real-world situations.
- Physics
Tiny new magnets are not only squishy but also liquid
Researchers have just created liquid droplets that behave like tiny bar magnets. The movement of these external magnets might help control robots and more.
- Brain
This brain region may make lifelike robots creep you out
Robots that look too much like real people can be unsettling. Scientists identified a brain region that may be behind these uneasy feelings.
- Tech
Sunlight can produce energy and clean water at the same time
A new device can make electricity from the sun. What makes it truly special, however: It uses waste heat from the system to turn dirty water or salty water into drinking water.
- Agriculture
U.S. farmers still use many pesticides that are banned elsewhere
More than one in four of the pesticide used on U.S. farms in 2016 had been banned in other countries.
- Microbes
Gut bacteria may affect how well your medicines work
Gut bacteria can chemically change the drugs people swallow. ID-ing a patient’s microbes might one day help doctors prescribe the most effective drugs.
- Fossils
This tiny dinosaur is officially T. rex’s cousin
A newly identified dinosaur species fills a gap in the tyrannosaur family tree.
- Earth
New insights on how STEVE lights up the night sky
Satellite data and photos snapped by citizen scientists reveal the origins of the strange atmospheric glow called STEVE.
- Brain
People may indeed have a sixth sense — for magnetism
People may process information about Earth’s magnetic field without knowing it, a study of brain waves suggests.
- Tech
It took a ‘virtual’ telescope to actually picture a black hole
Here’s how scientists connected eight observatories across the world to create one Earth-sized telescope. This is what it took to create an image of a black hole.
- Animals
Animal graveyard found in deeply buried Antarctic lake
Mud from Antarctica’s Lake Mercer surprised scientists with what appeared to be the carcasses of tiny animals. A neighboring lake had only microbes.
