HS-ETS1-3
Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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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
- 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.
- Space
What to wear on Mars
NASA released details of the new, more flexible apparel being designed for long-distance travelers — such as those bound for another planet.
- Tech
Digital displays get flexible
Flexible and unbreakable digital displays could soon be for sale, thanks to a new organic transistor made from plastic.
- Earth
Don’t let the bedbugs bite
A trio of teens has found a nontoxic way to stop bedbugs dead in their tracks. The method relies on a mesh of fibers that a bug can step into easily — but never leave.
- Tech
The road less worn
Two teens have found a new use for old tires. By grinding them up and adding them to asphalt, the old rubber can create stronger, longer-lived roads. And the bonus: The process recycles tires that might otherwise have been burned, creating pollution.
- Chemistry
Urine may make Mars travel possible
On Earth, urine is a waste. En route to Mars, it could be a precious renewable commodity: the source of drinking water and energy.
- Physics
Sending student science to space
Two teachers describe how they worked with the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program to get middle-school scientists excited about research and space.
- Physics
Filter lets in only the right light
Scientists have built a light filter that only permits light coming from one desired angle to pass through. Built from alternating layers of transparent materials, it could help minimize the glare in telescopes and cameras or boost the efficiency of solar cells.
