Tech
- Tech
Electro-tweezers let scientists safely probe cells
These nanotweezers can sample the innards of cells without killing them. They use an electric field to net materials for study. And they are gentle enough to repeatedly probe the same cell.
- Computing
These young researchers take aim at sports
Three Broadcom MASTERS finalists invented sports-related devices. They illustrate that young inventors can find inspiration anywhere, even at work and play.
- Tech
New ways to clean up polluted sources of drinking water
Some 21 million people in the United States may get drinking water from sources that are polluted. Some new water treatments promise to greatly lower costs or tackle formerly hard-to-remove pollutants.
- Computing
This printer makes ‘visual’ aids for people with sight problems
A physicist’s vision loss was the inspiration to develop new printers. They create touch-to-read maps, charts and graphs. Some can even talk to blind users.
- Computing
New apps match donated items with people in need
Two 2018 Broadcom MASTERS finalists developed apps to help match donors’ aid of food or disaster relief with the people who need these.
- Tech
Prepping for drone exploration of Mars
Twelve-year-old James Fagan, a budding engineer from Riverside, Calif., has built a wind tunnel. He uses it to test scale models of drones and other vehicles under Mars-like conditions.
- Physics
Scientists vote to fix the world’s weight-loss problem
Scientists will soon vote to change the definition of the kilogram. The event shows how much we depend on a tiny metal cylinder locked in an underground vault in France.
- Tech
Super-water-repellent surfaces can generate energy
Scientists knew they could get power by running salt water over an electrically charged surface. But making that surface super-water-repellent boosts that energy production, new data show.
- Tech
Solar panels and more garner big prizes for middle-school researchers
A motorized system for solar panels garnered Georgia Hutchinson, 13, of Woodside, Calif., the top $25,000 prize at the Broadcom MASTERS teen science competition.
- Tech
Soft robots get their power from the skin they’re in
A flexible electronic “skin” embedded with air pouches or coils can wrap around inanimate objects, turning them into handy robots.
- Physics
The perfect spaghetti snap starts with a twist
A spaghetti-snapping machine helped scientists find the secret to cleanly breaking pasta in half: First, give it a twist.
- Tech
Scientists enlist computers to hunt down fake news
Who can you trust? What can you believe? Scrolling through a news feed can make it hard to decide what’s real from what’s not. Computers, however, tend to do better.
