Engineering Design
- Chemistry
Rewritable paper: Prints with light, not ink
Rewritable paper could save money, preserve forests and cut down on waste — and all without using any ink.
- Computing
Explainer: What is a computer model?
Computer models use data, math and computer instructions to predict events in the real world.
- Tech
Make your own mini hovercraft
Hovercraft aren’t just the cars of the future. You can make your own with just a few household items.
- Brain
Magnets may make helmets safer
Magnets in sports helmets could repel players’ heads as they move toward a collision. This should reduce the risk of the hard hits that lead to concussions.
- Genetics
Why animals often ‘stand in’ for people
Rats, birds, fish — even flies and worms — can stand in for people in laboratory testing. This allows scientists to safely evaluate harmful chemicals as well as to identify and test potential new drugs. But such tests will never be a foolproof gauge of effects in people.
- Tech
Wind power is looking up — to the clouds
Placing wind turbines high in the sky could let them harvest power from the faster, more reliable winds found at altitude.
- Planets
Picture This: Falling to a comet
After a more than decade-long ride, a robotic lander has left its spacecraft and floated down onto the surface of a comet. From there it should begin scouting for hints at how our solar system formed.
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Teachers launch weather balloons, and a passion for science
Making science hands-on can help inspire students and show how interdisciplinary research can be. Here, two teachers share their experiences working with a high-altitude research-balloon kit.
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Food can make an appetizing science fair project
Many students think they need a laboratory or special equipment for a winning research project. But finalists at the Broadcom MASTERS competition showed food-based research may require little more than your home kitchen
- Tech
Explainer: What is 3-D printing?
A new type of computer printer is already doing a lot more than spraying ink onto paper. Some dispense metal, plastic, food — even cells. In short order, people may be able to manufacture almost anything from their home or office.
- Microbes
Recycling the dead
When things die, nature breaks them down through a process we know as rot. Without it, none of us would be here. Now, scientists are trying to better understand it so that they can use rot — preserving its role in feeding all living things.
- Health & Medicine
Ebola treatments and vaccines could be near
Using experimental medicines against Ebola might help to slow or end an outbreak in Africa that has defied efforts to control it.
