Physics
- Materials Science
This electric ‘slime’ might help injuries heal faster
Our bodies call in healing cells with an electrical signal. When stretched or squeezed, this gel makes electricity that could boost that alert.
- Chemistry
Micro-sparks between water droplets may have started life on Earth
This micro-lightning can drive chemical reactions that produce compounds needed for the natural formation of life on Earth, experiments show.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Lepton
Leptons are a quirky class of particles. Besides electrons, they include ghostly neutrinos and hefty muons and tauons.
- Physics
Much of the sun’s light is green. Why does it look yellow?
Sunlight's peak intensity is at a green wavelength. Here’s why it doesn’t appear that way to us.
- Materials Science
A beautiful blue butterfly wing offers a new way to study cancer
Once a morpho butterfly wing is placed atop a thin slice of tissue, shining polarized light through it can help reveal how likely breast cancer is to spread.
- Materials Science
This engineer uses light to get hearts pumping
Pengju Li designed a new type of pacemaker to help doctors during open-heart surgery.
- Physics
Physics finally explains the sound of clapping
The “Helmholtz resonator” concept is responsible for the sound produced by hand-clapping.
- Microbes
Living lenses? Glass-coated microbes might take better photos
Bacteria with a gene from sea sponges can coat themselves in glass. Working as tiny, bendable lenses, they could lead to thinner cameras or sensors.
- Space
The universe: How will it end?
The Big Bang likely brought our universe into existence. What will mark its grand finale? Scientists blend imagination and data to make predictions.
- Physics
This weird ice may exist on alien planets
Scientists used high pressure and heat to create plastic ice, which has qualities of both ordinary ice and liquid water.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Lift
An airplane wing’s unique shape creates air pressure differences that result in this gravity-defying force.
- Tech
Experiment: Make the fastest rubber band paddleboat
With a rubber band and some cardboard, you can build your own paddleboat to speed across the surface of a pool.
