Engineering Design
- Animals
The top side of an elephant’s trunk is surprisingly stretchy
Research on elephant trunks could inspire new artificial skins for soft robots.
- Animals
Gophers might be farmers, a controversial study suggests
Pocket gophers air out and fertilize the soil in a way that amounts to simple farming, two researchers claim. But not everyone agrees.
- Tech
Like an octopus, this glove lets fingers grip slippery objects
The octopus-inspired suckers on each fingertip grab and release objects on demand.
- Animals
Sleepy mosquitoes prefer dozing over dining
Mosquitoes repeatedly shaken to prevent slumber lagged behind well-rested ones when offered a leg to feed on.
- Tech
You might someday ‘wallpaper’ your bedroom with this loudspeaker
This thin, flexible and lightweight loudspeaker could reduce noise in loud spaces. It also might enable listeners to experience sound in new ways.
- Physics
When dominoes fall, how fast the row topples depends on friction
Two types of friction help determine how quickly a line of dominoes collapses, computer modeling shows.
- Chemistry
Simple process destroys toxic and widespread ‘forever’ pollutants
Ultraviolet light, sulfite and iodide break down these PFAS molecules faster and more thoroughly than other methods.
- Space
Let’s learn about surviving a trip to Mars
Getting to and surviving on the Red Planet will take lots of innovation.
- Computing
Scientists Say: Supercomputer
These ultrafast computers perform complex calculations for research on cancer, quantum physics and more.
- Computing
A new supercomputer just set a world record for speed
Able to perform more than a quintillion calculations per second, it will allow scientists to study exploding stars, subatomic particles and more.
- Tech
Virtual critters evolve bodies that help them learn
A combination of evolution and learning may lead to more intelligent and agile robots.
- Health & Medicine
To test for COVID-19, a dog’s nose can match a nose swab
Dogs can sniff out COVID-19 cases as well as PCR tests can — and are better at ID’ing cases having no symptoms, a new study finds.
