Innovations

Tamarix aphylla can survive in salty environments by excreting saline water from its leaves.

This Desert Plant's Salty 'Sweat' Can Collect Water From the Air

The athel tamarisk's hydration trick could improve on human techniques to harvest water in dry environments, researchers say

Aaron James is now five months out from his whole-eye and partial-face transplant.

Surgeons Perform World's First Whole Eyeball Transplant on Arkansas Veteran

The patient, who suffered a severe electrical accident in 2021, currently has no vision in the transplanted eye, but doctors say he's recovering well

Magnets can levitate over superconductors, which expel a magnetic field.

Paper That Claimed a Room-Temperature Superconductor Breakthrough Is Retracted by the Journal 'Nature'

The discovery, which would have revolutionized energy, was surrounded in controversy from the start

An early Minitel terminal made in France and introduced in the early 1980s

The History of the Internet, From MP3s to MySpace Tom

A new online museum explores the digital artifacts that defined the internet's early days

New research suggests rats can mentally navigate to locations they've visited before.

Rats Can Use Imagination to Navigate in Virtual Reality, Study Finds

Like humans, the rodents appear to be able to visualize walking through locations they've previously visited

An X-ray shows where the prosthetic metal fingers attach to the device.

Archaeologists Discover Centuries-Old Prosthetic Hand in Germany

Used by a man between 30 and 50 years old, the four prosthetic fingers date to between 1450 and 1620

A blood smear of a patient with sickle cell. The crescent-shaped sickle cells can be seen in the smear.

Gene-Editing Treatment for Sickle Cell Disease Moves Closer to Approval

FDA advisors said the benefits seem to outweigh any possible risks, and the agency will decide whether to approve it by December 8

A tornado churns up dust at dusk near Traer, Iowa.

How and Why Do Violent Tornadoes Form?

Scientists hope new technology and computing power will help them understand destructive twisters

Atlantic salmon spend most of their lives in the cool waters of the ocean. When they venture upstream in freshwater rivers to spawn, however, they encounter challenging warmer waters.

Engineers Create 'Air Conditioning' for Salmon With Chilled Patches of River Water

Wild Atlantic salmon can struggle with heat as they swim upstream to spawn—but artificial "thermal refuges" may help them cool off

Gene-editing silkworms produced this spider silk.

Genetically Modified Silkworms Can Produce Spider Silk That's Stronger Than Kevlar

The sturdy, biodegradable fibers could one day be used for surgical sutures or armored vests

A Herculaneum scroll being scanned at Institut de France by Brent Seales and his team

This 21-Year-Old Used A.I. to Decipher Text From a Scroll That Hasn’t Been Read in 2,000 Years

The papyrus scroll is one of hundreds that were carbonized in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E.

Researchers have only discovered a small fraction of the pre-Columbian earthworks in the Amazon rainforest, according to new research.

The Amazon May Be Hiding More Than 10,000 Pre-Columbian Structures

Based on a new aerial survey and modeling study, archaeologists suggest at least 90 percent of sites known as earthworks remain undetected

The winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry are displayed on a screen at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm during the award announcement on October 4. At the front are five vials filled with glowing quantum dots.

Explaining the Colorful Quantum Discoveries That Earned the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov won the award for their work developing tiny “quantum dots” that light TV displays and enable medical imaging

From left to right, pictures of the three winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics: Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier. L’Huillier is just the fifth women to receive the physics prize since the award's inception in 1901. 

Scientists Studying High-Speed Electrons With Lasers Win Nobel Prize in Physics

Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier created pulses of light so short that they can be used to observe the behavior of electrons

Scientists found inspiration in octopus suckers, which can hold onto surfaces underwater, to design a new drug-delivery method that sticks to the inner cheek.

New Patch Inspired by Octopus Suckers Could Deliver Drugs Without Needles

Medicine-filled suction cups attached to the inside of the cheek could be an effective alternative to oral tablets or injections, study finds

A premature newborn baby at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Australia in 2015. In 2020, 13.4 million babies were born prematurely, more than 10 percent of all births.

Artificial Wombs for Premature Babies Might Soon Begin Human Trials

An FDA panel discussed the new technology—tested only on animals so far—along with its risks and potential to improve survival of preterm infants

The James Webb Space Telescope will help scientists look for signs on life on other planets.

What Would Signal Life on Another Planet?

Astronomers have long debated what kind of chemistry might serve as a bona fide alien biosignature

BirdCast’s newest advances provide detailed flight forecasts of millions of birds.

Four Amazing Impacts of This A.I.-Powered Bird Migration Tracker

A reimagined tool called BirdCast is helping birders, scientists and even farmers

An artist’s illustration of Quetzalcoatlus flying

How Pterosaurs Might Inform the Next Generation of Flight

After paleontologists cracked the secrets of the ancient flying reptiles, researchers are thinking about how to harness their methods

Lab-grown chicken produced by GOOD Meat

Lab-Grown Meat Can Be Kosher or Halal, According to Religious Authorities

The approvals bring cultivated meat one step closer to becoming a feasible alternative to traditional meat for a wider audience

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