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Articles

Ozcan (in his UCLA lab) started a company, Holomic, to market microscope-outfitted smartphones, which he calls “a telemedicine tool” for improving health care in the developing world.

Inside the Technology That Can Turn Your Smartphone into a Personal Doctor

The fantastic tricorder device that “Bones” used to scan aliens on “Star Trek” is nearly at hand—in your cellphone

Crawling bare ivy on wall.

How to Bring a Devastated Forest Back to Life

Humans have damaged the world’s forests, but not irreparably

When a sodium-filled model of the Earth’s outer core spins at full speed, it could generate a dynamo.

What Will Happen When the Earth’s Magnetic Field Begins to Reverse?

On the University of Maryland campus, a giant whirligig tries to predict the planet’s next big flip

An Iraq war veteran with PTSD has trouble with motivation.

Will Scientists Soon be Able to Erase Our Most Traumatic Memories?

PTSD treatments could soon extend beyond therapy

Less than a mile from the South Pole, the Dark Sector Lab’s Bicep2 telescope (at left) searches for signs of inflation.

Listening to the Big Bang

Just-reported ripples in space may open a window on the very beginning of the universe

Phoenix glows even after 10 p.m. one April night in this image made with a camera sensitive to infrared light, which is generated by heat and invisible to the naked eye. Researchers call the city an “urban heat island.”

The Reality of a Hotter World is Already Here

As global warming makes sizzling temperatures more common, will human beings be able to keep their cool? New research suggests not

Life in the Cosmos

Sara Seager’s Tenacious Drive to Discover Another Earth

Planetary scientist Sara Seager has turned tragedy into tenacity in her search for new Earths among the stars

Preparing for the Next Step in Manned Spaceflight

NASA prepares to send humans into deep space

How Do Rockets Ignite Their Engines in Space Without Oxygen and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

A woman depositing a plastic bottle in a recycling bin in Worcestershire, UK.

Recycling: You May Be Doing It Wrong

As more things are able to be recycled, the world of recycling grows ever more complicated

Washington, D.C.

Portraiture in the Time of Mad Men

The Portrait Gallery takes a look at portraiture as it faces Abstract Expressionism in the era of Don Draper’s mid-century modernism

A tea party. Inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: "Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea."

What it Takes to Cook Some of Literature’s Most Famous Meals

Dinah Fried’s new photo book brings the words of authors such as James Joyce and Lewis Caroll to life

Five Ways to Eat Seaweed

For years a staple of Asian cuisine, the leafy green is becoming a popular new “super food” in the U.S.

These inflatable wind turbines are capable of delivering two to tree times the amount of energy produced by conventional towers, a Boston-based startup says. The turbines will be part of a pilot that will power a dozen homes in Alaska.

Tech Watch

Massive Flying Wind Turbine Could Offer A New Path To Clean Energy

A Boston-based startup is piloting its invention in Alaska, but could soon bring alternative energy to the masses.

Oil floats on the surface of Gulf waters in June 2010. Is it still there today?

Breaking Down the Myths and Misconceptions About the Gulf Oil Spill

Does oil stick around in the ecosystem indefinitely? What was the deal with the deformed fish? Can anything bad that happens in the Gulf be blamed on oil?

Female on top: A female Neotrogla insect mates with a male in a cave in eastern Brazil.

In This Community of Brazilian Cave Insects, Females Wear the Penises, Literally

A genus of insect that inhabits caves in eastern Brazil has reversed sex organs, say scientists

What future will our children inherit?

New Poll Reveals Americans’ Predictions of the Future

What are they most fearful of? What are they most optimistic about?

Mom's ample body serves as this baby's bed for now, but soon she'll grow up to build sleeping nests of her own.

New Research

Chimpanzees Are Extremely Picky About Where They Sleep

The primates painstakingly rebuild their nest from scratch every night—a pre-bed ritual reminiscent of the “Princess and the Pea”

The old and the new and the cardboard meet in Tokyo, by Luke aan de Wiel.

These Intricate Cardboard Models Perfectly Capture the Look and Feel of World Cities

A photographer and model-maker created these dreamscapes, including a forest animal, to convey the essence of the urban metropolis

Israeli-based research firm StoreDot is looking to revolutionize batteries with a system that uses tiny nanodot crystals to quickly store energy.

Tech Watch

This Battery Could Charge Your Smartphone In 30 Seconds

An Israeli startup has developed a bio-organic material that uses tiny nanodot crystals to quickly store energy.

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