Ultrastrong Plastic
Engineers have created a plastic that's as strong as steel, but lighter.
Vocal Joystick
A new computer program allows users to operate a mouse using just the sound of their voice.
Podcast
Whale-inspired windmills. Tracing the origins of a killer asteroid. Using vowels to sell. And more.
Whale Energy
The shape of humpback whale flippers could make wind energy more efficient.
Hot Ice Roundup
Science fiction becomes science fact: Researchers have invented ice that won't melt and a way to make people invisible.
Podcast
Ice that won't melt. Finches driven to cheat. How music effects the brain. Increased carbon dioxide produces super weeds.
HPV and cancer in men.
Checkers Solved
After eighteen years of work, scientists have designed an unbeatable checkers computer.
Useful Bacteria Roundup
Scientists are finding novel ways to put bacteria to good use.
Podcast
Sparrows that prefer up-to-date songs, glaciers and global warming, upwardly mobile robots, bacteria to combat oil spills, and how self-tanners work.
Hill-Climbing Robots
Scientists are teaching a robot how to climb hills.
Podcast
Do women really talk more than men? Insects that explode to foil predators. Energy from vibrations. What happens to our brains when we get thirsty. A skin test to predict behavioral problems.
Harvesting Vibrations
New devices generate power from environmental vibrations.
Podcast
How the solar system formed, determining the standard for the kilogram, how brain damage affects art, cancer drugs from trees, protecting ports with underwater using sound.
Podcast
Listening to muscles, yoga may stave off depression, a blood-based bandage, a protein inhibits aging in fruitflies, and whether lizards or snakes evolved first.
Energy Roundup
Power could go wireless, and sound could be made into electricity.
Podcast
Why cows have four stomachs, a new development in wireless electricity, babies' surprising eye for language, a genetic typo detector, and an archaeological debunking.
Podcast
Making sounds morph, a lost herd of elephants, twins' secret languages, runaway carbon emissions, and the marriage-obesity connection.
Helpful Cows Roundup
Some dairy cows naturally make skim milk, and manure could be a source of ethanol.
Diamonds and Lasers
A new technique uses diamonds and lasers to squeeze materials to high pressures.
Upper Atmosphere Roundup
A new technology could tap the jet stream for energy.
Podcast
Grilling could take a toll on your health, smarter doesn't equal richer, an infection could help prevent asthma, a step toward fusion reactors, and the closest living descendants of dinosaurs.