Engineering Design

  1. Tech

    Experiment: Make the fastest rubber band paddleboat

    With a rubber band and some cardboard, you can build your own paddleboat to speed across the surface of a pool.

    By Science Buddies
  2. Earth

    Analyze This: Smartphone data may help improve GPS

    Data from millions of phones helped fill in maps of the ionosphere, an atmospheric layer that can muddle radio signals key for navigation systems.

    By Carolyn Wilke
  3. Artificial Intelligence

    AI-designed proteins target toxins in deadly snake venom

    The current way to produce antivenoms is outdated. In lab tests, AI-designed proteins could save mice from a lethal dose of snake toxin.

    By Meghan Rosen
  4. Artificial Intelligence

    DeepSeek pioneers a new way for AI to ‘reason’

    Chatbots answer one question at a time. Reasoning agents work through a problem step by step. DeepSeek makes this new type of AI far less costly.

    By Kathryn Hulick
  5. Science & Society

    Does your natural history museum need a makeover?

    A lot of their old-fashioned dioramas — a type of exhibit — are biased, boring or even unscientific. Here’s what modern museums are doing to fix that.

    By Amber Dance
  6. Tech

    A robotic hand helps piano players’ fingers move faster

    Robotic devices like this might someday help musicians, gamers, athletes or even surgeons improve their dexterity.

    By Kathryn Hulick
  7. Genetics

    This young biologist looked for links between diet and dyslexia

    Thermo Fisher JIC finalist Giselle Drewett wanted to know how lifestyle might influence a gene related to dyslexia.

    By Maria Temming
  8. Tech

    Meet 5 types of robots with living body parts

    Creature-machine mash-ups seem weird or even creepy. But biohybrids that make use of living tissue could be the future of robotics.

    By Kathryn Hulick
  9. Plants

    Microbes give plants a way to make ‘meaty’ nutrients

    Enzymes from animals helped a test plant make two nutrients essential for a balanced diet. Normally, those nutrients would only be found in meat.

    By Skyler Ware
  10. Artificial Intelligence

    Scientists Say: Large language model

    Large language models, or LLMs, are language-processing systems that underpin advanced AI technologies such as ChatGPT.

    By Katie Grace Carpenter
  11. Tech

    High-speed lasers write data — to last millennia — inside glass

    Project Silica is advancing a new way to store data — potentially forever. Some students plan to use this new media to send a message into space.

    By Kathryn Hulick
  12. Computing

    This computer scientist uses math to help people be treated fairly

    Ariel Procaccia has designed computer algorithms that help split up credit on group projects, distribute donations, pick citizens’ assemblies and more.

    By Maria Temming