Engineering Design

  1. Climate

    Concerns about Earth’s fever

    Burning fossil fuels is causing the planet to heat up, causing weather patterns to change, sea levels to rise and diseases to spread.

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  2. Agriculture

    Profile: A human touch for animals

    Temple Grandin uses her own autism to understand how animals think. The animal scientist is famous for fostering the humane treatment of livestock.

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  3. Environment

    Wildlife forensics turns to eDNA

    Environmental DNA, or eDNA, tells biologists what species have been around — even when they’re out of sight or have temporarily moved on.

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  4. Physics

    Boom! Sounding out the enemy

    Armistice Day marked the end of the Great War. But what arguably won the war was acoustics — the science of sound. It allowed Allied troops to home in on and rout the enemy.

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  5. Chemistry

    Some air pollutants seep through skin

    The skin is the body’s largest organ. And it can let in as much or more of certain air pollutants than enter through the lungs, a new study finds.

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  6. Physics

    Einstein taught us: It’s all ‘relative’

    One hundred years ago, a German physicist shared some math he had been working on. In short order, his theory of relativity would revise forever how people viewed the universe.

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  7. Microbes

    Slime cities

    Biofilms are like tiny cities of bacteria — some harmless, others destructive. Scientists are learning how to keep these microscopic metropolises under control.

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  8. Brain

    Males and females respond to head hits differently

    Men and women are playing sports equally — and getting concussions in comparable numbers. But how their brains respond may differ greatly.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    These bubbles treat wounds

    New research shows bubble-powered drugs can travel upstream, against the flow of blood, to seal wounds shut.

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  10. Psychology

    Friends’ good moods can be contagious

    Good mental health spreads through teen social networks, but depression doesn’t, a new study finds.

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  11. Tech

    How to print shape shifters

    3-D printing was only the beginning. Scientists are pursuing 4-D printing, creating objects that can move and interact with their surroundings.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Cool Jobs: Finding foods for the future

    What's for dinner... tomorrow? Scientists are developing new foods to meet the demands of the growing population in a changing world.

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