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

Bompas & Parr say the prototype pops last “hours longer” than regular popsicles under the same temperature.

Inventing a Longer-Lasting Popsicle

A British design firm has used a half-forgotten World War II technique to create ice pops that don’t melt as fast as the ordinary ones

The next generation of robotic hands will have to be extremely dexterous, but also simple to build. The three-fingered version designed by engineer Matei Ciocarlie can adapt to a wide array of objects, yet hold each of them in a firm grasp (composite image shows the more open hold on an apple and a tighter pinch on a marker). Its semi-soft fingers are controlled by a series of wire “tendons” that lead to a single motor in a robot’s wrist.

The Quest to Build Robotic Hands

Humans can readily manipulate all kinds of objects. But robots need better mechanics—and a lot more intelligence

When Was the Earliest Internet Search?

Years before the birth of the Google, a forgotten experiment laid the groundwork for the ubiquitous search engine

Biobot Analytics is tracking the use of opioids, neighborhood by neighborhood, by analyzing the sewage in Cary, North Carolina.

Sewage May Hold the Key to Tracking Opioid Abuse

Public health managers are hoping to pinpoint how and when people abuse drugs in order to prevent deaths

A child tests the Superpower Glass.

“Superpower Glass” Helps Kids With Autism Understand Emotions

A new Stanford-designed technology pairs Google Glass with a face-identifying AI app that tells wearers what emotions they’re seeing

FOG (fats, oils and greases) in various stages of treatment

Turning Fatbergs Into Biofuel

Researchers have developed a new method for recycling greasy sewer blockages into green fuel

A pair of Aedes albopticus mosquitoes mating. These mosquitoes are very closely related to the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes used in the WeRobotics/IAEA trials, and both can carry Zika, yellow fever and dengue. The female is much larger.

Do Not Fear the Drones Air-Dropping 50,000 Mosquitoes From Above

These horny buggers are actually here to help us fight the spread of disease

Milwaukee Bucks center Lew Alcindor (13), later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Los Angeles Lakers center Wilt Chamberlain, left, at the L.A. Forum on November 21, 1970.

A Brief History of the One-Size-Fits-All Tube Sock

Originally marketed as sportswear, the tube sock became a stylish accessory thanks to Farrah Fawcett and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

These electrode-embedded chopsticks can simulate saltiness.

Using Electric Currents to Fool Ourselves Into Tasting Something We’re Not

Nimesha Ranasinghe is bringing a new dimension to virtual reality, embedding electric taste simulation technology into utensils

A proposed street of the future could be made of hexagonal blocks containing lights.

Rethinking How We Build City Streets

Sidewalk Labs envisions modular streets that can morph to meet the everyday needs of a neighborhood

Apple I

The Computers That Changed the World

A Seattle museum keeps its vintage computers in working order, so that visitors can experience the evolution of the machine

Page 51 of 154