Ruth Seeley 206 posts 0 comments

Aerodynamicists from City, University of London Christoph Bruecker and Sir Richard Oliver and their team have transferred the idea of fish scales to arrays of bio-inspired scales capable of producing a streaky flow that could significantly…

The great advantage of robots over humans is, of course, that they don’t experience muscle fatigue or require bio breaks. While robots can be amazing tools for search-and-rescue missions and environmental studies, eventually they must…

Whether they were ever really a girl’s best friend, diamonds have been prized for centuries both for their industrial applications and jewelry. Now, an international team of scientists led by Nanyang Technological University and MIT…

Squid, one of the most successful ocean predators, are cephalopods that identify their prey by sight, confuse them by squirting ink at them, and move by rapid jet propulsion. Taking squid locomotion as their inspiration, engineers at the…

In 2012, the global market for graphene, driven by R&D in semiconductor, electronics, and composites, was $9 million. As new uses for and qualities of graphene are discovered, the global market was expected to reach $150 million by…

While it may seem that women’s health issues are covered by the separate OB/GYN specialty, there’s a lot more involved in eliminating sexism in medical practice than focusing solely on the reproductive system and its diseases. Recently,…

Missions to Mars have been planned since the 1950s, when the concept of life on Mars first seemed to captivate the general public’s imagination. Luckily, astronomers do study the other planets in our solar system, and recently University of…

The Panama Papers, files leaked from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca, was a 2016 data leak scandal that uncovered a vast global network of celebrities and world leaders  who used offshore tax…

Hydrogen, whose only byproduct is water, has to be produced from other energy sources: natural gas, nuclear, biomass, solar, or wind power. It isn’t yet a practical source of energy, because 95% of all hydrogen is currently produced from…

Anyone who’s ever watched a video of a zipper merge knows the chances of a group of random drivers actually collaborating to make it happen safely are slim to nil. While more and more vehicle manufacturers offer smart features such as lane…

Being able to accurately detect defects in metallic structures would enable real-time quality control and preventative maintenance. Industry applications include oil and gas pipelines, rolled products in the metallurgical industry, ships,…

As countries around the world increase energy generation from renewable — and variable — sources like wind and solar, the need for energy storage solutions increases. Europe has led the way in renewable energy generation, and by the…

While we consider ourselves Earth’s most successful life form, millions and millions of clever and amoral viruses might beg to differ. Infectious viruses come in many shapes and sizes and use slightly different attack mechanisms to make…

Machine learning takes time, exposure to massive data sets, and a lot of computing power to handle tremendous volumes of data. In 2016, a supercomputer beat the world champion in Go, a complicated board game. How? By using reinforcement…

Design, infrastructure, and slow adoption rates are all challenges to the adoption of electric vehicles. Initially available only as smaller passenger vehicles, EV trucks and SUVs are becoming more commonplace. But increased vehicle size…