Engineering Design
- Chemistry
Scientists look to hack photosynthesis for a ‘greener’ planet
Photosynthesis turns sunlight into energy for plants. Scientists want to know more about it, imitate it — even improve it.
- Life
A new spin on lab-grown meat
A technique inspired by how cotton candy is spun could help produce lab-grown meat at a lower cost and on a bigger scale.
- Chemistry
Chemistry’s ever-useful periodic table celebrates a big birthday
2019 is the International Year of the Periodic Table. But the traditional chart is just one of many shapes that chemists and other scientists have developed to organize the elements.
- Chemistry
Explainer: What are acids and bases?
These chemistry terms tell us if a molecule is more likely to give up a proton or pick up a new one.
- Health & Medicine
Ultrasound might become a new way to manage diabetes
Ultrasound turns on production of the hormone insulin in mice. Someday, it might help maintain healthy blood-sugar levels in people who were recently diagnosed with diabetes.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: Vaccines are not linked to autism
Some parents say no to children’s vaccines because they worry immunizations could cause autism. But science has looked again and again and still finds no causal tie.
- Earth
Explainer: Why sea levels aren’t rising at the same rate globally
The ocean is rising all over the world. The rise seems speedier in some places. What gives? Many factors, it turns out, affect where — and why — the tide gets high.
- Earth
Explainer: How is water cleaned up for drinking
Unless you’re drinking well water, city folks typically get drinking water that has been treated in a water-treatment plant. Here’s what that means.
- Earth
Explainer: Where fossil fuels come from
Despite one oil company famously using an Apatosaurus as its logo, oil, gas and coal don’t come from dinosaurs. They do, however, come from a long time ago.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: What is a clinical trial?
Scientists perform these to compare the effects of a new drug or therapy in treated — and untreated — people. Always people.
- Planets
Asteroids may have delivered water to early Earth
Scientists shot mineral pellets at a simulated planet. It showed an impact wouldn’t have boiled off all of an asteroid’s water.
- Tech
New eyewear could help the visually impaired
Young inventors develop novel electronics to help people identify colors and navigate obstacles.
