Tech
Nature-inspired rocket-nozzle redesign stands by for liftoff
At the 2026 Regeneron ISEF competition, teens showed how they blasted past a problem that has limited use of super-efficient aerospike rocket engines.
Engineering Design
More Stories in Engineering Design
- Materials Science
Scientists Say: Metal-Organic Framework
Special pockets in these molecular structures make them useful in medicine, climate science and more.
- Humans
Experiment: Can humans recognize AI-generated images?
An AI-made picture of an animal or flower might seem harmless, but fake images of people or events can spread misinformation.
- Tech
Pokémon Go players helped build new maps of cities
Players often upload pictures of landmarks. AI can use these to build a virtual 3-D model of a city, which robots might use like a map to navigate the real thing.
- Computing
Teen’s new app guards against the rise of villainous AI bots
Sometimes good chatbots and AI agents go rogue. A Regeneron ISEF finalist’s new app helps guard against bots developing dangerous personalities.
- Physics
Origami research takes top prize at 2026 Regeneron ISEF competition
The top three winners each won at least $80,000. Other teen finalists shared in more than $7 million in prizes at this international science fair.
- Artificial Intelligence
AI may be giving teens bad diet advice
The meal plans that AI made for fictional teens cut an entire meal’s worth of calories per day.
- Plants
Perfect pitch? Scientists lay new grounds for World Cup ‘26
High-tech turfgrass carpets will be unrolled in 16 stadiums across North America — including five that must survive despite getting no natural sunlight.
- Chemistry
New polish could turn long nails into touchscreen styluses
It registers nails' touch by disrupting the touchscreen’s electric field. But this high-tech varnish isn’t ready to hit store shelves yet.
- Artificial Intelligence
Don’t trust AI for help with citations, science-fair judges warn
Fake, AI-generated citations have begun disqualifying major science-fair projects. Such ‘ghost’ references even haunt research journals.
