Engineering

Future of Energy

Move Over Solar: There’s New Energy Right At Our Feet

Engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are turning wood pulp, a common waste material, into a flooring that generates electricity

November 1, 2016

New Research

New Method Could Store Massive Amounts of Data in Diamond Defects

Scientists use lasers to probe the gem’s flaws, creating data storage that could potentially last forever

October 27, 2016

How Bats Ping On the Wing—And Look Cute Doing It

Researchers reveal how bats turn echolocation signals into a 3-D image of moving prey

November 2016

New Research

Feeding Silkworms Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene Makes Super-Tough Silk

A diet rich in graphene or carbon nanotubes causes the creatures to produce a fiber twice as strong as normal silk

October 13, 2016

New Research

Coming Soon: Otter-Inspired Wetsuits

A team at MIT has figured out exactly how otter and beaver fur keeps the animals warm in cold water

October 10, 2016

New Research

Watch This Faux Flower Bloom Thanks to Shape-Shifting Plastic

Researchers developed a new polymer that changes shape over time, which could lead to a new class of medical implants

October 3, 2016

The Innovative Spirit fy17

When the Inventor of the Diesel Engine Disappeared

Rudolf Diesel’s fate is still intriguing to this day

September 29, 2016

New Research

Watch Acoustic Holograms Create Complex Shapes and Levitate Droplets

These mesmarizing effects are created using only a plastic 3-D printed plate and speaker

September 26, 2016

The Innovative Spirit fy17

These Photos of Deconstructed Devices Reveal Their Hidden Beauty

Engineer-artist Todd McLellan finds marvel in blowing out the mundane

September 8, 2016

Cool Finds

After Two Years, Lost NASA Spacecraft Phones Home

Using the Deep Space Network, mission control has reestablished contact with the solar observatory STEREO-B

August 23, 2016

Art Meets Science

These Mesmerizing Paper Sculptures Explore Nature’s Mirrored Structures

Artist Matt Shlian folds, cuts and glues paper to create faceted and curved works of art

August 22, 2016

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Tiny “Neural Dust” Sensors Could One Day Control Prostheses or Treat Disease

These devices could last inside the human body indefinitely, monitoring and controlling nerve and muscle impulses

August 19, 2016

Robotics Can Get Girls Into STEM, but Some Still Need Convincing

The lack of women leaders in STEM creates “a catch-22 death spiral.” Robotics teams try to change that

August 16, 2016

Google Thinks These 20 Teenagers Could Change Our World for the Better

These kids from around the globe have created innovative new technologies, from malaria-testing apps to water-saving agriculture systems

August 11, 2016

3D Print Your Own Breakfast

A team of researchers at Columbia University has developed a 3D food printer capable of printing and cooking multiple ingredients at one time

August 9, 2016

Cool Finds

New Observation Tower Is World’s Thinnest

Brighton’s West Pier comes back to life…as a crazy vertical viewing tower

August 4, 2016

Technology for the Poor Should Help, Not Hurt: An Interview With MIT’s Cauam Cardoso

The PhD candidate is working on ways to systematically evaluate new technologies for the developing world

August 3, 2016

New Research

Researcher Discovers First Written Evidence of Laws of Friction in Leonardo Da Vinci’s Notebooks

A scientific breakthrough was dismissed as a useless doodle—until now

July 22, 2016

Future of Energy

Meet Eight Young Energy Innovators With Ingenious Ideas

From community “solar gardens” to energy pellets made from coffee grounds to a phone-charging device that you plug into soil

July 18, 2016

Why People Abandon High-Tech Prosthetics

That Luke Skywalker prosthetic arm may strike the average user as less than sensational

June 29, 2016