MS-ETS1-2
Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
- Health & Medicine
Patches and robotic pills may one day replace injections
Instead of a shot in the arm, a light-activated patch or robotic pill may one day deliver your medicine.
- Environment
Bubbles could help remove trash from rivers
One young engineer devised a way to make bubbles sweep away the trash floating down a creek, like the one in her backyard.
- Plants
Electric shocks act like vaccines to protect plants from viruses
To protect crops against viruses in their home country of Taiwan, two teens invented a novel approach to fight blights.
- Tech
Smartphones can now bring Ice Age animals back to ‘life’
Scientists bring Ice Age creatures to life with augmented reality. You can view these creatures in your own world on a smartphone.
- Materials Science
This new fabric can ‘hear’ sounds or broadcast them
With special fibers that convert tiny vibrations to voltages, a new fabric senses sound. Someday, such fabrics could monitor the body or aid hearing.
- Computing
Facial expressions could be used to interact in virtual reality
New technology allows people to interact with virtual environments using just their facial expressions.
- Animals
The scent of queen ‘murder hornets’ can lure males into traps
Traps baited with compounds found in the mating pheromone of hornet queens attracted thousands of males.
- Materials Science
Engineers borrow a tree’s cellulose to toughen new materials
Cellulose gives plants their strength. Engineers are turning this renewable, environmentally friendly resource into brand new materials.
- Animals
Mosquitoes see red, which may be why they find us so appealing
Mosquitoes not only see colors, but also prefer certain ones, such as the hues of human skin.
- Tech
Robots made of cells blur the line between creature and machine
Scientists are using living cells and tissue as building blocks to make robots. These new machines challenge ideas about robots and life itself.
- Tech
A new device uses atoms’ quantum weirdness to peer underground
Quantum sensors like this one could monitor magma beneath volcanoes or uncover archaeological artifacts.
- Materials Science
A disinfectant made from sawdust knocks out deadly microbes
It’s made by pressure-cooking sawdust and water, is cheap and easy to make — and could lead to greener cleaning products than chemicals used today.
