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
Giving Notre Dame back her unique voice
A 2019 fire robbed Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral of more than her roof. She also lost her voice. Now scientists are using acoustics to return her unique soundscape.
- Health & Medicine
Viewing virtual reality of icy landscapes may relieve pain
Traveling to polar vistas via virtual reality eased a temporary burning in the viewers’ skin. The same VR also lessened simulated chronic pain.
- Computing
How math makes movies like Doctor Strange so otherworldly
In the 1970s, a mathematician introduced geometric patterns that he named fractals. Moviemakers are now using those patterns to create dazzling digital effects.
- Brain
Surprise! Exam scores benefit from months of regular sleep
Getting enough consistent, quality sleep accounted for nearly a fourth of the differences in students’ exam scores in class.
- Chemistry
Like Magneto? Microcrystals give magnets superpower over living cells
New iron-rich protein crystals could help researchers better understand the nerve cells that control movement and sensation. All they need are magnets.
- Animals
Drones help scientists weigh whales at sea
Drone imagery lets scientists estimate a whale’s weight. And that may help monitor the health of these big mammals for conservation purposes.
- Chemistry
Scientists look to hack photosynthesis for a ‘greener’ planet
Photosynthesis turns sunlight into energy for plants. Scientists want to know more about it, imitate it — even improve it.
- Chemistry
Chemistry’s ever-useful periodic table celebrates a big birthday
2019 is the International Year of the Periodic Table. But the traditional chart is just one of many shapes that chemists and other scientists have developed to organize the elements.
- Health & Medicine
Ultrasound might become a new way to manage diabetes
Ultrasound turns on production of the hormone insulin in mice. Someday, it might help maintain healthy blood-sugar levels in people who were recently diagnosed with diabetes.
- 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.
- 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.
