Engineering Design
- Animals
Got milk? Roach milk could be a new superfood
Scientists have just figured out the recipe for cockroach milk. And that could be a first step toward making it part of the human diet. Yum!
- Animals
End of Latin America’s Zika epidemic is in sight
A computer simulation suggests the Zika epidemic in Latin America is peaking and may not strike hard again for up to three decades.
- Health & Medicine
New study raises questions about cell phone safety
U.S. government study in rats links cell-phone radiation to a small increase in brain cancers and heart tumors. Some scientists now worry about lifetime risks to today’s children and teens.
- Health & Medicine
Don’t use dinner-table spoons for liquid medicines!
Kids are safer when parents use precise tools to measure liquid medicines. Switching from teaspoons to metric tools could help, a new study finds.
- Health & Medicine
To remember something new: Exercise!
People who exercised strenuously for a half hour after learning something new cemented those memories. But the trick: Wait four hours before getting the heart pumping vigorously.
- Chemistry
E-cigs create toxic vapors from harmless e-liquids
New study finds a primary source of toxic vaping compounds. It’s the heat-driven breakdown of the liquids that hold nicotine and flavorings. And older, dirtier e-cigs make higher amounts of the toxic chemicals.
- Computing
Moral dilemma could limit appeal of driverless cars
Driverless cars will have to be programmed to decide who to save in emergencies — passengers or pedestrians. Many people aren’t yet sure they are ready to choose cars that make the most moral decision.
- Brain
Gasp! At the movies, your breaths reveal your emotions
Researchers took air samples as they screened movies. What people exhaled were linked to film scenes’ emotional tone, they found.
- Health & Medicine
Zika vaccines look promising
As a Zika epidemic surges through Brazil and northward, scientists are looking for drugs to keep more people from becoming infected. Several vaccines show promise in early tests — but none has yet been tried in people.
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Teen makes sure bacteria stay hands-off
Germs are everywhere. One teen has designed a way to keep them from sticking to a surgeon’s gloves.
- Computing
Clear, stretchy sensor could lead to wearable electronics
Researchers have combined plastics and metal to make a transparent, stretchable sensor. It could soon find use in touchscreens, wearable electronics and more.
- Earth
Earth’s tectonic plates won’t slide forever
Earth’s surface morphs, owing to the movement of its tectonic plates. But those plates didn’t use to move so quickly. And in a few billion years they’ll grind to a halt, new research suggests.
