Engineering Design
- Chemistry
Hard-to-burn ‘smart’ wallpaper even triggers alarms
Scientists have made wallpaper that won’t easily burn. And embedded nanowires can be linked to a sensor to sound an alarm when the paper gets too hot.
- Chemistry
Banana plant extract can slow how fast ice cream melts
Food scientists now show that adding these tiny plant particles to ice cream may delay the rate at which this treat melts into a soupy mess.
- Chemistry
Light could make some hospital surfaces deadly to germs
A new surfacing material can disinfect itself. Room lighting turns on this germ-killing property, which could make the material attractive to hospitals.
- Animals
Cool Jobs: Diving for new medicines
Scientists mix research with underwater adventure as they search the oceans for new chemicals to treat infections, cancer and more.
- Life
This power source is shockingly eel-like
The electric eel’s powerful electric charge inspired this new squishy, water-based new approach to generating power.
- Animals
Explainer: DNA hunters
Snippets of DNA can be left behind by a passing organism. Some researchers now act as wildlife detectives to identify the sources of such cast-off DNA.
- Genetics
Explainer: Why scientists sometimes ‘knock out’ genes
How do we learn what a particular molecule does in the body? To find out, scientists often 'knock out' the gene that makes it. Here’s how.
- Climate
Explainer: Weather and weather prediction
The sun and Earth combine to create the planet’s weather systems. And science is getting good at predicting what they’ll do.
- Physics
Disabilities don’t stop these experts in science and tech
People with disabilities are as varied as the careers some of them pursue in science, technology, engineering and math.
- Animals
Listening to fish love songs can predict their numbers
Gulf corvinas croak for mates while in groups of millions. By listening to their undersea serenades, scientists may be able to estimate how many are out there.
- Health & Medicine
Therapeutic robots may soon swim within the body
Scientists are designing tiny robots that may one day do work inside the human body.
- Chemistry
New rules point scientists toward next-gen germ-killers
Shape and other features help germ-killing drugs make it through barriers to enter bacteria. Knowing how they do this could lead to more and better better antibiotics.
