Engineering Design
- Materials Science
Here’s how to hide some objects from heat-sensing cameras
A special coating that conceals temperature information from heat-detecting cameras might someday be used as a privacy shield.
- Science & Society
A first: Kids advise hospital researchers on their medical studies
When the Mayo Clinic realized it was missing key voices, the hospital recruited kids to advise doctors about their research.
- Materials Science
Self-powered surface may evaluate table-tennis play
Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology built a 'smart' surface on which to play table tennis. It can track the location, speed and direction of the ball.
- Physics
Giving Notre Dame back her unique voice
A 2019 fire robbed Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral of more than her roof. She also lost her voice. Now scientists are using acoustics to return her unique soundscape.
- Physics
Here’s how quantum mechanics lets heat cross a vacuum
Heat can move across a vacuum if the span is small enough. As in really, really small. In a new experiment, the gap was only a few hundred nanometers.
- Health & Medicine
Viewing virtual reality of icy landscapes may relieve pain
Traveling to polar vistas via virtual reality eased a temporary burning in the viewers’ skin. The same VR also lessened simulated chronic pain.
- Computing
How math makes movies like Doctor Strange so otherworldly
In the 1970s, a mathematician introduced geometric patterns that he named fractals. Moviemakers are now using those patterns to create dazzling digital effects.
- Materials Science
The future of crystal-based solar energy just got brighter
Researchers have upped the efficiency of layered solar cells that could be printed or painted onto surfaces. Now they are working to make them more rugged.
- Climate
5 things to know about the climate-saving benefits of tree planting
A recent analysis of the benefits of massive efforts to plant more trees triggered a firestorm of controversy.
- Brain
Surprise! Exam scores benefit from months of regular sleep
Getting enough consistent, quality sleep accounted for nearly a fourth of the differences in students’ exam scores in class.
- Health & Medicine
Today’s nico-teen addicts: What role does ‘juuling’ play?
New data show that the most popular type of U.S. vapes deliver nicotine especially efficiently — boosting risk of addiction.
- Chemistry
Like Magneto? Microcrystals give magnets superpower over living cells
New iron-rich protein crystals could help researchers better understand the nerve cells that control movement and sensation. All they need are magnets.
