Engineering

Natural disasters do not destroy buildings evenly. By studying which fall and which are left standing, engineers can develop new strategies for the future.

When a Natural Disaster Hits, Structural Engineers Learn From the Destruction

StEER engineers assess why some buildings survive hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and tsunamis, and why others do not

The microCOVID project was started by a group of friends and housemates who wanted to be more equitable about safety precautions.

Innovation for Good

This Calculator Estimates Your Risk of Getting Covid-19

The online tool draws on recent data to approximate your chances of contracting the virus in different scenarios

Heavy metal-fortified mandibles help leafcutter ants save energy and muscle mass.

Heavy Metals Give Ants a Powerful Bite

A combination of metal atoms and natural proteins is the secret behind the super-strong jaws, claws and stingers of some tiny animals

Scientists recreated the famous beef, which is prized for its fat marbling, or sashi.

Innovation for Good

Scientists Create First 3-D Printed Wagyu Beef

The cultured cut matches the texture and marbling of the famous Japanese meat

A chameleon’s exterior can dapple on demand with a remarkable variety of colors and patterns. Researchers are inching towards realizing that capability in robots.

Scientists Design a Robotic Chameleon That Crawls and Changes Color

A new artificial skin can sense its surroundings and create a camouflage coat

The researchers flew their fridge on parabolic flights to simulate a microgravity environment.

Innovation for Good

The Quest to Build a Functional, Energy-Efficient Refrigerator That Works in Space

Designed and tested by Purdue University engineers, this new appliance would lengthen the shelf life of food on long missions

Four robots printed the steel structure in just six months.

Innovation for Good

World's First 3-D-Printed Steel Bridge Debuts in Amsterdam

The newly opened overpass measures 40 feet long and weighs 6 tons

Officials unveiled the hypogeum—a system of underground tunnels beneath the Colosseum—during a ceremony on Friday.

The Tunnels Beneath Rome's Colosseum Are Open to the Public for the First Time

The chambers are finally on view after a $29.8 million restoration

Fire ant swarms form tentacles when they float on water.

Floating Fire Ant Rafts Form Mesmerizing Amoeba-Like Shapes

Researchers say the morphing colonies help ants feel for solid land in a flooded environment—and might inspire swarming robots one day

DARPA's initial, modest goal is to alleviate jet lag.

Innovation for Good

This Implant Could One Day Control Your Sleep and Wake Cycles

The so-called 'living pharmacy' will be able to manufacture pharmaceuticals from inside the body

An engineer demonstrates a car phone five months before the historic first call on a competing company’s commercial mobile telephone service in 1946.

The First Mobile Phone Call Was Made 75 Years Ago

The evolution of the cell phone illustrates what it takes for technologies to go from breakthrough to big time

An African elephant gives itself a dust bath by blasting dirt from its trunk.

New Research

Elephant Trunks Can Suck Water at 330 Miles Per Hour

A new study puts impressive numbers to some of the elephant trunk's many feats

The device allowed the man to write about 18 words per minute

New Research

New Device Allows Man With Paralysis to Type by Imagining Handwriting

When the man visualizes his written messages, a pair of electrical sensors measure his brain activity and translate it into letters

Researchers created a new pasta shaping technique that allowed this noodle to transform from a straight to curlicue after seven minutes in boiling water.

Innovation for Good

Mighty Morphing 'Flat-Pack' Pasta Changes Shape in Boiling Water

The new noodle could save packaging materials by eliminating airspace inside food cartons

The 516 Arouca surpasses the previous record holder—Switzerland’s 1,621-foot Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge—by about 70 feet.

World's Longest Pedestrian Suspension Bridge Opens in Portugal

The 1,693-foot overpass hangs 570 feet above a roaring river and wobbles as people walk across it

An origami-inspired tent had to be flexible enough to inflate, but sturdy enough to withstand the elements.

Innovation for Good

Inflatable Origami Structures Could Someday Offer Emergency Shelter

An applied mathematics team created origami-inspired tents that can collapse to the size of a twin mattress with ease

Xiulin Ruan, a Purdue University professor of mechanical engineering, holds up his lab’s sample of the whitest paint on record.

Innovation for Good

This Ultra-White Paint May Someday Replace Air Conditioning

Developed by researchers at Purdue University, the paint reflects 98.1 percent of sunlight

Researchers took cross sectional scans of a spider web with a laser to make this 3D image of its structure that they eventually translated into music.

Art Meets Science

Researchers Turn Spider Webs Into Music

The eerie compositions offer humans an approximation of how spiders experience their surroundings through vibrations

Because of their honeycomb shape, the huts can fit together like a beehive, expanding to fit growing needs.

Innovation for Good

The World's First 3-D Printed School May Soon Be a Reality

Thinking Huts, a nonprofit founded by a 15-year-old, plans to kick off construction in Madagascar this summer

Grooming miles of track is a job that starts long before January, when drivers start taking to the ice.

Why Automakers Flock to This Small Swedish Town Every Winter

From January to April, the population of Arjeplog more than quadruples, as almost every brand test drives its vehicles on the region's frozen lakes