Engineering Design
- Chemistry
Gotcha! New test stalks diseases early
Chemists screen blood for disease markers by adapting a common DNA test. The test can find disease earlier, when it also may be easier to treat.
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Sewing circuits: A crafty way to get kids interested in STEM
Many classrooms teach electric circuits with batteries and wires. But with e-textiles, students can help design and light up their own art projects.
- Health & Medicine
Cool jobs: Brainy ways to battle obesity
Scientists from different fields are tapping into connections between food and the brain to help people fight obesity and overcome the urge to overeat.
- Chemistry
Smash hit: Making ‘diamond’ that’s harder than diamonds
Scientists had suspected extreme meteorite impacts might turn graphite into an unusual type of diamond. Now they’ve seen it happen — in under a nanosecond.
- Genetics
Genes: How few needed for life?
Scientists rebuilt a microbe using its old genes. But not all of them. They used as few building-blocks as they could get away with and still have the life-form survive.
- Microbes
Microbes mine treasure from waste
Like miniature factories, bioreactors house microbes recruited to chew through wastes to clean dirty water, make chemicals or generate electricity.
- Tech
Goo-oozing deicer protects surfaces
New, slime-oozing coating might someday help reduce ice and snow buildups on road signs and aircraft wings. The inspiration? The goo produced by slugs.
- Tech
Plastic that mimics insect wings kills bacteria
A new ‘antibiotic’ plastic uses nanotechnology to mimic the hairs on insect wings. Then ouch! Bacterial cells that land on it end up stabbing themselves to death.
- Tech
Cool Jobs: The power of wind
Science and engineering careers explore all aspects of wind, from terrible tornadoes to aeronautics and clean energy.
- Brain
When smartphones go to school
Students who use smartphones and other mobile technology in class may well be driven to distraction. And that can hurt grades, studies show.
- Tech
Ouchless measles vaccine could save lives
A new ‘ouchless’ vaccine patch that uses dissolving microneedles could make efforts to vaccinate against measles more practical.
- Animals
Picking a better porch light
Lights can vary in brightness and ‘color’ — even those that are sold as white. A new study tested which lights attracted the most bugs.
