Matter and Its Interactions
- Chemistry
Chemistry Nobel honors pioneers of world’s smallest machines
Three chemists are being honored with a Nobel Prize for their pioneering work creating itty bitty machines, including a microscopic ‘nanocar.’
- Math
Math predicts weird materials; leads to 2016 physics Nobel
The 2016 Nobel Prize in physics will go to three researchers that have made discoveries about exotic states of matter.
- Chemistry
Why trans fats became a food villain
Trans fats are now known as a dietary villain. But in the beginning, scientists thought they were better than butter.
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Scientists consider how to visit the closest exoplanet
Even at only a little more than four light-years away, a trip to our closest exo-world could take some tens of thousands of years — unless we’re willing to settle for virtual visits.
- Health & Medicine
‘Smart’ sutures monitor healing
Coatings added to the threads used to stitch up a wound let researchers use electrical signals to monitor a wound’s healing — even one covered by a bandage.
- Animals
Beetles offer people lessons in moisture control
Taking tricks from a beetle, researchers are designing surfaces that collect water from the air or resist frost buildup.
- Agriculture
The first farmers were two groups, not one
The humans that began farming 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent may have been two cultures living side-by-side.
- Earth
Something in plastics may be weakening kids’ teeth
The body can confuse some pollutants for a natural hormone. Researchers in France now find such pollutant exposures in childhood may lead cells to make defective tooth enamel.
- Earth
Helium discovery blows away shortage worries
Fears that the world may soon run out of helium have been set aside for now by the finding of a huge reservoir of the gas in East Africa.
- Brain
Gasp! At the movies, your breaths reveal your emotions
Researchers took air samples as they screened movies. What people exhaled were linked to film scenes’ emotional tone, they found.
- Computing
Clear, stretchy sensor could lead to wearable electronics
Researchers have combined plastics and metal to make a transparent, stretchable sensor. It could soon find use in touchscreens, wearable electronics and more.
- Chemistry
Scientists Say: Cyanide
Cyanides are poisonous. But they are more than that. This group of compounds is used in everything from mining to capturing fish.
