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Innovation

New "robotic skins" technology developed by Yale researchers allows users to turn everyday objects into robots.

These “Robotic Skins” Turn Everyday Objects Into Robots

A team at Yale University has developed flexible robotic sheets that can make just about anything move

A Boeing 747 takes flight.

Traveling the World Was Never the Same Once the Boeing 747 Debuted

Wave goodbye to the beloved jet that took us to new heights

How Wireless Water-to-Air Communication Could Revolutionize Marine Research

Solving a longstanding puzzle, MIT researchers have developed a way of sending signals from underwater to airborne devices

"The Right Trousers"

These Robotic Pants Could Help Some Disabled People Walk Again

‘The Right Trousers’ combine soft artificial muscles and electric stimulation to get people moving

The vibrant Baltimore Oriole can be found migrating throughout large portions of eastern and central North America.

Scientists Can Predict When Birds Will Migrate Up to a Week in Advance

A new forecasting model using years of bird migration data and weather radar could help us protect migrating birds from harm

A jaw of an Eoconodon coryphaeus—a house cat-sized omnivore that lived between about 66 and 63 million years ago—that Williamson collected in the San Juan Basin.

Nuclear Technology May Help Bring Early Mammal Evolution Into Focus

Using a neutron scanner at Los Alamos, paleontologists are generating high-resolution imagery of early mammal fossils

Rice University scientists have programmed drones to coordinate their tracking efforts with each other.

Teaching Drones to Sniff Out Toxic Air

Swarms of the flying devices, using sensors and AI, will learn to find and track harmful gases

A concussion occurs when the brain impacts the inside of the skull with enough force to temporarily affect brain function.

How Virtual Reality and Sideline Brain Scans Could Help Diagnose Concussions

Determining if an athlete or soldier has a concussion often depends on what they tell you, but new technologies could provide a more objective approach

Aerial view of crop circles

How Center Pivot Irrigation Brought the Dust Bowl Back to Life

Crop circles saved the Great Plains when farmer Frank Zybach invented a new sprinkler system in the 1940s

How Scientists Can Learn About Human Behavior From Closed-Circuit TV

While researchers used to rely on interviews and experiments, raw video reveals subtle, previously hidden reactions

Bloede Dam (ca. 2016) near Ilchester, Maryland

Drones Will Track One of the Largest Dam Removals on the East Coast

When a Maryland dam comes down this fall, a team of scientists will deploy drones to monitor the flow of more than two million cubic feet of sediment

Oils extracted from the citronella plant are a powerful mosquito repellent.

Why Plant-Based Mosquito Repellents Are So Hard to Make

Bug sprays with DEET feel oily and smell gross. But turning natural plant oils into commercial products isn’t easy

A Brief History of the RV

In 1915, technology merged with the “back to nature” movement, leading to the invention of the motorhome

A landslide in the Cusco region of Peru destroyed more than 100 houses in March 2018.

New Software Can Predict Landslides Weeks Before They Happen

Australian researchers are using AI and mathematics to detect tiny changes that may precede the often-deadly events

When the U.S. Government Tried to Make It Rain by Exploding Dynamite in the Sky

Inspired by weather patterns during the Civil War, the rainmakers of the 1890s headed to west Texas to test their theory

An artistic rendering of Edward Jenner vaccinating eight-year-old James Phipps in 1796.

The Mysterious Origins of the Smallpox Vaccine

Though the disease was declared eradicated in 1980, the era of smallpox is far from over

In acoustophoretic printing, sound waves generate a controllable force that pulls each droplet off of the nozzle when it reaches a specific size and ejects it towards the printing target.

Watch This New Device Print Using Sound Waves

Harvard scientists develop a printing technique that could impact a slew of industries, from biopharmaceuticals to food and cosmetics

RangerBot is an autonomous underwater vehicle designed to identify and kill crown-of-thorns starfish by lethal injection.

Sea-Star Murdering Robots Are Deployed in the Great Barrier Reef

The RangerBot is a new line of defense against coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish

Could This Brain Implant Stop Epilepsy Seizures?

A new approach, which involves an implantable device delivering neurotransmitters to the brain, proves effective in mice

The hand dryer-sized device can detect E. coli, salmonella, norovirus, hepatitis A, and listeria.

This Device Tracks How Well You Wash Your Hands

Biomedical engineers have developed a wall-mounted scanner that can detect microbes that cause foodborne illness

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