Ruth Seeley 206 posts 0 comments

One of the reasons we can sometimes be slow to embrace new technology is because we don’t trust it. In January 2020, after three crashes involving Teslas that killed three people, scrutiny of its Autopilot driving system increased. If we're…

Although COVID-19 isn’t primarily spread by surface contact, the lack of testing and iyr failure, for the most part, to control its spread via social distancing, social isolation, and mask wearing has meant that since the pandemic began,…

Biologists have always been the world’s biggest fans of fruit flies, with Drosophila melanogaster considered superstars for their contributions to the science of genetics. Now, they’re being studied by engineers who, by examining how fruit…

The National Highway Safety Transportation Administration is clear: driver assistance technologies save lives and prevent injuries. Lane keeping, back-up warning, and automatic braking can help vehicles identify safety risks and avoid…

Food waste may not seem like a huge environmental problem now so many more people are composting, but in fact, it creates both carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions and methane. Recently, scientists led by Nanyang Technological University,…

Cold weather is the enemy of our current batteries, slowing the chemical reaction inside, making them less reliable and negatively affecting their performance. In the search for a reliable, quick-charging, cold-weather battery for…

Artificial intelligence, the disruptive technology behind autonomous vehicles, image recognition, search engines, spam filtering, and so much more, is extremely energy intensive. Training one AI model can generate 284 tonnes of carbon…

China plans to launch the largest battery manufacturing complex in the world this year, with a capacity of 800 MWh, approximately the amount of energy consumed annually by a 200-unit apartment complex. This facility is based not on the…

While there are situations when it is still preferable, open surgery means longer hospital stays, longer recovery, more pain, larger scars, and higher risks of complications such as bleeding and infection. Minimally invasive laparoscopic…

Discovering new materials has, until now, largely been a matter of chance rather than design. But solid-state inorganic materials are critical to the growth and development of many of the new technologies we need and want to improve upon:…

Edd China, the English television presenter, mechanic, motor specialist and inventor whose TV career began as special effects technician for the series Father Ted, has become a record-breaking legend. This year he’s broken yet another…

Auroras, the disturbances in the magnetosphere caused by solar wind, are one of the most beautiful and easily observed space phenomena. Now, a special type of aurora, draped east-west across the night sky like a glowing pearl necklace, is…

One of the three standard police field tests for  alcohol impairment is the walk-and-turn test, in which an officer asks the driver to take nine steps, heel-to-toe, along a straight line, turn on one foot and return nine steps in the…

Is it too soon to say silicon-based electronics’ days are numbered? They consume a substantial and ever-increasing share of the world's energy. And a number of researchers are exploring the properties of materials that are more complex than…

The power of many is increasingly being harnessed as scientists and citizen scientists work together to collect data we now have the computing power to quickly crunch. And citizen science is helping us complete our census of the Sun's…