Matter and Its Interactions
- Climate
Ancient Arctic ‘gas’ melt triggered enormous seafloor explosions
Methane explosions 12,000 years ago left huge craters in bedrock on the Arctic seafloor. Scientists worry more could be on the way today as Earth’s ice sheets melt.
- Chemistry
To test pill coatings, try a stomach in a flask
Which pain reliever should you buy? The tablet, gel tab or compressed caplet? A teen did an experiment to find out.
- Chemistry
BPA-free plastic may host BPA-like chemical, teen finds
Something has to replace the BPA in ‘BPA-free’ plastics. A teen has been probing what that is.
- Health & Medicine
Adding ice to medics’ kits could help patients survive blood loss
Placing an ice bag on the face should increase blood pressure — and oxygen to the brain — in people who have experienced life-threatening blood loss, a new study finds.
- Health & Medicine
Cooking can alter a food’s vitamin C content
Scurvy plagued pirates and sailors on the high seas. It also inspired a teen to find out more about the vitamin C in her veggies.
- Chemistry
Cool Jobs: Counting calories
Do calories count? A nutrition label doesn’t tell the whole story. Meet three researchers working to shed light on the complex connections between food and health.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: All about the calorie
Calories are a measure of how much energy is in a food. But when it comes to powering our bodies, not all calories are equally available to the body.
- Materials Science
Teen’s invention could help light up bikes at night
A teen researcher from Georgia has developed a light that could replace reflectors on bike wheels. Flexing tires provide all the power it needs.
- Health & Medicine
This mix turns pink when sunscreen wears thin
Many people know to put on sunscreen. Remembering to put more on is harder. A teen invented an indicator that glows pink when it’s time to reapply.
- Microbes
Tweaked germs glow to pinpoint buried landmines
Finding landmines could become much safer with a new technology. It uses genetically modified bacteria that glow under laser light.
- Materials Science
A better way to stop a bullet?
A teen researcher's tests suggest that fabric body armor might stop bullets better if it were woven using a three-fiber, triangular mesh instead of the typical two-fiber-mesh configuration.
- Physics
After 30 years, this supernova is still sharing secrets
It’s been 30 years since astronomers first witnessed the stellar explosion known as SN 1987A. Today, researchers are still learning from this cataclysmic phenomenon.
