MS-ETS1-2
Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
- Tech
Think twice before using ChatGPT for help with homework
ChatGPT is a new AI tool that generates well-formed writing and code. Despite many benefits, it makes cheating easy and can supply bad information.
- Tech
New robot can pick up a single drop of liquid
The new device, which looks like a pair of plastic pinchers, is the first to be able to pick up individual droplets of liquid.
- Environment
For a better brick, just add poop
Sewage sludge. Cow dung. They’re not just waste — scientists are finding uses for processed poop in construction materials.
- Tech
Will the internet soon reach the one-third of people without it?
Access to the internet is a human right, yet much of the world can’t get online. New tech has to be affordable and usable to end this digital divide.
- Environment
Bacterial ‘living wires’ could help protect the seas and climate
Long, thin bacteria that conduct electricity may be able to help clean up oil spills and reduce emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
- Chemistry
Explainer: What is a hydrogel?
These unusual materials have a host of unusual properties. You can even make a starch-infused version in your kitchen.
- Health & Medicine
Should we use a genetic weapon against mosquitoes carrying malaria?
One gene drive to eliminate malaria seems to work in the lab. Now it’s time to ask local people if they want it released in the wild.
- Tech
A shape-shifting robotic tooth-cleaner might one day brush for you
A swarm of billions of magnetic, bacteria-killing nanoparticles can be shaped into bristles to fit any surface, including between teeth.
- Chemistry
Could we make vibranium?
The ‘perfect’ metal may belong to the fictitious Marvel world of Wakanda, but scientists hope to one day mimic some of its key traits.
- Materials Science
These fabrics change color as they stretch
Stretchy, color-shifting cloth may lead to new art, fashions and sensors. A century-old Nobel-prize-winning invention served as its inspiration.
- Life
Let’s learn about modern Frankensteins
Modern scientists are creating strange new combinations of living tissue and trying to give dead things new life.
- Tech
Can computers think? Why this is proving so hard to answer
In 1950, Alan Turing proposed a test to tell a human from a computer. Today, that Turing test may tell us more about ourselves than about machines.
