A New Way to Shape Metal Nanoparticles—With a Magnetic Field
We are constantly immersed in magnetic fields. The Earth produces a field that envelops us. Toasters, microwaves and all of…
Peanut the Waiter Robot Is Proof That Your Job Is Safe
Robots also lack the kind of intelligence, manual dexterity, and people skills that any good cook, host, or server relies…
This Dam Acts Like a Water Cannon. Let’s Do Some Physics!
When people build dams—giant walls that hold back entire lakes and rivers—they have to build an overflow channel called a…
Where’s the Dark Matter? Look for Suspiciously Warm Planets
We’re bathing in an uncertain universe. Astrophysicists generally accept that about 85 percent of all mass in the universe comes…
This Human-Sized Origami Reimagines Emergency Shelters
“A lot of times,” he continues, “these things get built, but then they get left behind or they get destroyed.”…
35 Years Later, Studies Show a Silver Lining From Chernobyl
Cancers are caused by mutations in human DNA. A few lines of genetic code get deleted or mixed up and…
This Sticker Absorbs Sweat—and Might Diagnose Cystic Fibrosis
In the Middle Ages, a grim adage sometimes turned up in European folklore and children’s stories: Woe to that child…
Sneaky New Bacteria on the ISS Could Build a Future on Mars
In mid-March, NASA researchers announced that they’d found an unknown life-form hiding aboard the International Space Station. And they were…
It’s Finally Time to Take Out the Space Trash
Could the solution to eliminating dangerous space junk be a mini-fridge-sized spacecraft equipped with a big magnet, or maybe an…
NASA Gets a Quick Peek at a Mysterious Layer of the Sun
Imagine for a minute that you have been transported to the middle layers of the sun’s atmosphere. The sun’s surface,…