Engineering Design

  1. Microbes

    Some microbial hitchhikers may weaken body’s attack on COVID-19

    New research identifies an altered mix of microbes in the body — ones commonly seen in people with poor diets — that may worsen coronavirus disease.

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  2. Brain

    Active bodies build stronger brains

    Aerobic fitness and physical activity correlate with widespread brain health in adolescents, according to a new imaging study in England.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Some young adults will volunteer to get COVID-19 for science

    Researchers will soon give some healthy people the new coronavirus. Their young volunteers have agreed to get sick to speed coronavirus research.

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  4. Chemistry

    Extreme pressure? Diamonds can take it

    Diamond retains its structure even at extreme pressures, which could reveal how carbon behaves in the cores of some exoplanets.

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  5. Tech

    A robot made with a Venus flytrap can grab fragile objects

    Scientists have “borrowed” the hair-trigger leaves of Venus flytraps to make a gentle grabber that can be controlled by a cellphone app.

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  6. Math

    Scientists Say: Outlier

    Data points often fall within a normal range. When one data point sticks out a lot, it might be an outlier.

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  7. Science & Society

    New technology can get inside your head. Are you ready?

    New technologies aim to listen to — and maybe even change — your brain activity. But just because scientists can do this, should they?

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  8. Animals

    Newfound technique allows some tree snakes to climb wide trees

    When a tree is too wide to climb, brown tree snakes use a lasso-like trick to slowly ascend up to snacks.

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  9. Physics

    Scientists Say: Piezoelectric

    Piezoelectric materials produce an electric voltage when they are bent or squished. This can let us harvest electricity from movement.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Five questions about COVID-19 vaccine trials in teens, answered

    Scientists are now testing COVID-19 vaccines in teens. Why do teens need a separate trial? And what would happen? We’ve got answers.

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  11. Physics

    Physicists have clocked the shortest time span ever

    The experiment revealed how long it takes light to cross a hydrogen molecule: just a couple hundred zeptoseconds.

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  12. Environment

    Unmasking the pandemic’s pollution problem

    Discarding all the materials people use to protect themselves from COVID-19 has created a growing environmental problem.

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