Engineering Design
- Climate
Explainer: Why sea levels aren’t rising at the same rate globally
The ocean is rising all over the world. The rise seems speedier in some places. What gives? Many factors, it turns out, affect where — and why — the tide gets high.
- Chemistry
Explainer: How is water cleaned up for drinking
Unless you’re drinking well water, city folks typically get drinking water that has been treated in a water-treatment plant. Here’s what that means.
- Climate
Explainer: Where fossil fuels come from
Despite one oil company famously using an Apatosaurus as its logo, oil, gas and coal don’t come from dinosaurs. They do, however, come from a long time ago.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: What is a clinical trial?
Scientists perform these to compare the effects of a new drug or therapy in treated — and untreated — people. Always people.
- Chemistry
Asteroids may have delivered water to early Earth
Scientists shot mineral pellets at a simulated planet. It showed an impact wouldn’t have boiled off all of an asteroid’s water.
- Tech
New eyewear could help the visually impaired
Young inventors develop novel electronics to help people identify colors and navigate obstacles.
- Computing
Fingerprints could help keep kids from dangerous websites
A teen develops a program that estimates age based on someone’s fingers
- Science & Society
Heating up the search for hidden weapons
Using an off-the-shelf camera and an innovative bit of software, a high-school student developed the means to inexpensively detect a hidden weapon.
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Protecting deer with high-pitched noises
After her uncle crashed his truck into a deer, this teen decided to find out if there was a sound that would drive the animals away from roads.
- Tech
Hurricane crisis inspires teen’s water-cleanup system
In the wake of last summer’s devastating Hurricane Maria, a Puerto Rican Intel ISEF finalist developed a do-it-yourself system to create clean drinking water.
- Health & Medicine
Drug-detection system could help partygoers protect themselves
Fed up with people getting unwittingly drugged at parties, a teen designed a special bracelet. It can alert drinkers to the presence of certain hidden drugs.
- Tech
This robot can wash a skyscraper’s windows
Cleaning windows on high-rise buildings can be perilous. But an Australian 12th-grader has created a robot to spare people the risk.
