HS-ETS1-2
Design a solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering.
- Physics
Future cars may offer personal sound zones — no earphones needed
Zones that offer each passenger personal listening are closer to reality. A new design improves performance by adapting to the conditions in your car.
- Materials Science
Analyze This: Hardened wood can make sharp steak knives
Researchers treated wood to make it hard and dense. Out of it, they carved sharp knives and nails that could substitute for ones made of steel.
- Chemistry
Chemistry solves a French royal mystery
Ink analysis reveals the hidden words of Marie Antoinette's letters and who tried to hide them.
- Chemistry
Everyday plastics can pollute, leaching thousands of chemicals
Plastic bags and containers leach potentially toxic chemicals into both food and water, but researchers yet don’t know how they might affect health.
- Brain
Ask the experts: How to create a top-notch science fair project
Five finalists in the Broadcom MASTERS middle-school competition reveal how they created nationally competitive projects.
- Animals
Bacteria make ‘spider silk’ that’s stronger than steel
Part spider silk, the material is better than what some spiders make. Researchers think it might make the basis for surgical threads or unusually strong fabrics.
- Tech
Will you learn better from reading on screen or on paper?
Some studies find students don’t learn as well by reading on screens as from paper. But that's not always true. Here’s how to make the most of reading in either format.
- Chemistry
Chemists win Nobel Prize for faster, cleaner way of making molecules
Both scientists independently came up with new process — asymmetric organocatalysis. That name may be a mouthful, but it’s not that hard to understand.
- Brain
A sense of touch could upgrade virtual reality, prosthetics and more
Scientists and engineers are trying to add touch to online shopping, virtual doctor appointments and artificial limbs.
- Climate
Research on climate and more brings trio the 2021 physics Nobel Prize
Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann pioneered work on simulations of Earth’s climate. Giorgio Parisi probed complex materials.
- Brain
A 2021 Nobel goes for discovering how our body reads touch sensations
David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian found nerve-cell sensors for temperature, pain and pressure.
- Ecosystems
Cheatgrass thrives on the well-lit urban night scene
Middle-grade campers team up with ecologists at Denver University to show that streetlights boost the growth of a reviled invasive species.
