Engineering Design
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Cookie Science 14: One experiment, 400 cookies
Making delicious gluten-free cookies requires testing. And this means baking a lot of cookies with scientific precision.
- Computing
3-D Recycling: Grind, melt, print!
A new 2-in-1 desktop machine quickly recycles plastic trash into low-cost 3-D printer ‘ink’ at the push of a button.
- Tech
‘Smart’ clothes generate electricity
Scientists in South Korea have developed a fabric that captures energy from its wearer’s motions and turns it into electricity.
- Space
Galaxy cluster creates ‘magnifying glass’ in space
A massive galaxy’s gravity is so strong that it bends light, creating a “lens” in space. This natural magnifying glass is giving astronomers a rare view of a supernova on the other side of the universe.
- Tech
Museum app fleshes out old bones
Museum app breathes life into skeletons. But it will need more funding to make it shine.
- Health & Medicine
How hot peppers can soothe pain
Peppers can burn the tongue, but soothe sore tissues. Scientists have now sleuthed out how, and the answer shows a role for stretch sensors on cells.
- Health & Medicine
Vision-ary high tech
New devices are being developed to improve, restore or preserve the vision of people with eye diseases, such as glaucoma and macular degeneration. One device is a telescopic contact lens than can be zoomed with a wink.
- Materials Science
‘Smart’ windows could save energy
Tiny chemical droplets in a liquid sandwiched between panes of glass turn cloudy when they warm up. This will block some sunlight and potentially save on air conditioning bills.
- Brain
Screen time can mess with the body’s ‘clock’
Reading on an iPad in the evening can make it harder to fall asleep — and harder to wake up the next morning, a new study finds. The light from its screen tinkers with the body’s clock. And that could risk harming your health.
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Cookie Science 13: The deal with gluten
To find out how to improve my gluten-free cookies, I learned a lot about what gluten does, and what other baking ingredients might take its place.
- Plants
Desert plants: The ultimate survivors
Creosote, mesquite and other desert plants rely on different adaptations to thrive, even when no rain falls for an entire year.
- Climate
Fast sea level rise is a very recent change
Sea levels have been rising for more than a century. But that rise is now speeding up. That suggests that what is driving the rise — climate change — also has increased dramatically in recent years.
