Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
- Physics
Science offers recipes for homemade coronavirus masks
New studies provide data on what types of mask materials protect best against the virus that causes COVID-19. They also point to the value of a really snug fit.
- Health & Medicine
Tackling the novel coronavirus calls for novel ideas
Teams around the world are proposing new innovations to fight COVID-19. Projects tackle supply shortages, new treatments, vaccines and more.
- Chemistry
COVID-19 victims could breathe easier with these innovations
Feared equipment shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic have prompted research teams to develop novel technologies to help oxygen-starved lungs.
- Environment
Here’s one way to harvest water right out of the air
Need water but you have no access to rain, lakes or groundwater? Materials known as metal-organic frameworks could be used to slurp that water from the air, new data show.
- Environment
Legos could last a disturbingly long time in the ocean
By looking at toys washed up on beaches, scientists have estimated how long it takes hard plastics to break down in the oceans. And it’s a long time.
- Chemistry
Batteries should not burst into flames
Because lithium-ion batteries power modern life, they need to store a lot of energy. Now scientists are focusing on making them safer.
- Earth
Laundry tweaks can help clothes last longer and pollute less
Clothes washed in cooler water and for less time shed less dye and fewer fibers, a new study finds. That’s better for clothes — and the environment.
- Health & Medicine
Silk can be molded into strong medical implants
Freeze-dried and powdered silk has a long shelf life. It also is cheap to ship and can be molded into sturdy medical implants.
- Chemistry
Converting trash to valuable graphene in a flash
Flash heating of carbon-rich wastes creates graphene, which has many commercial uses.
- Physics
How to temporarily ‘fossilize’ a soap bubble
Here’s how to freeze a soap bubble in midair. Warning: The environment needs to be frosty, and even then it can take a certain amount of trial and error.
- Materials Science
New twist can hush — even cloak — some sounds
Swiss engineers developed clear, spiral structures to make a new sound-dampening system. Those twists block some vibrations and lets others through.
- Materials Science
Here’s how to hide some objects from heat-sensing cameras
A special coating that conceals temperature information from heat-detecting cameras might someday be used as a privacy shield.
