Energy
- Physics
Explainer: Understanding electricity
Here’s what allows you to plug in and power up the devices in your life.
- Brain
Scientists Say: Haptic
Haptic is an adjective used to describe things related to our sense of touch.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Mass
Mass shows how much an object resists speeding up or slowing down when force is applied — a measure of how much matter is in it.
- Chemistry
New glue offers to turn any small walking robot into Spider-Man
To climb walls, robot feet need to alternately stick and let go. A novel adhesive can do that. Its stickiness is controlled by electric fields.
- Space
Raindrops on alien worlds will obey Earth-like rules
Their size will be similar no matter what they’re made of or on which planet they fall, a new analysis finds.
- Physics
Getting cozy with a science experiment
Items you use in your home can inspire a scientific experiment.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Radiation
Radiation is the motion of energy through space as waves or particles.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Piezoelectric
Piezoelectric materials produce an electric voltage when they are bent or squished. This can let us harvest electricity from movement.
- Tech
Bye-bye batteries? Power a phone with fabric or a beacon with sound
New piezoelectric systems produce electricity in unusual ways, such as when a certain nylon bends or underwater ceramics vibrate.
- Physics
Researchers reveal the secret to the perfect football throw
The tip of a spiraling football follows the ball’s path. If you know a thing or two about gyroscopes, this is not what you’d expect.
- Animals
Analyze This: Ropes restore a gibbon highway through a rainforest
When endangered Hainan gibbons started making risky leaps across an area mowed down by a landslide, researchers provided them a rope bridge.
- Tech
Ordinary paper turns into flexible human-powered keypad
Engineers have figured out how to turn sheets of paper into rugged, low-cost electronic devices, such as a computer keypad.
