Thursday, 9 February, 2012

When too much fertilizer reaches the Gulf of Mexico through the Mississippi River, a vast area gets robbed of oxygen. What can be done to reduce the dead zone that appears each summer?

What you can’t see can still interest you. Archeologists use radar, magnetic, electrical gizmos to see through the ground, find places to dig.

Brain electrodes allow monkeys to move robot arm and feed themselves. Experiment proves it’s possible to bypass spinal cord to create simple motion.

Construction matters. Hundreds of millions live and work in houses and schools that will collapse in the next earthquake. Chile and California prove that smart engineering saves lives.

To measure the molecules that give food taste, you need a standardized eating machine. One has finally arrived, courtesy of food technologists in France (of all places!). Meet the mechanical masticator!

After World War II, the “green revolution” sparked an explosion in farm output in developing countries. With soaring food prices and spreading food riots, what can we learn from the green revolution?

New snowflake generator reveals nature’s design principles; anti-reflective coating is nearly perfect, and so is mother-of-pearl inside an abalone. Dive into the nitty gritty of the itty bitty!

Pilot errors have dropped 40 percent over 20 years, but on-the-ground accidents have increased. Why have pilot errors declined? What work remains to increase airline safety?

For the scientist or wanna-be who’s (almost) got it all: We scour the planet to find ancient wood, ancient-er ice, and a bamboo microscope. Dive into our holiday gift catalog slide-show!

Plug-in hybrids mean more than just extra spending cash for drivers, though. They could offer a new path through the maze of the electric grid, and help to boost the use of alternative energy.