Thursday, 9 February, 2012

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

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!

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?

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.

By marketing to billions of lower-income people, business can do well by doing good: Affordable green goods for “the base of the pyramid” could improve lives and cut environmental damage. Could this work?

Wildfires are a tragedy, but are human actions making them worse? What is the role of global warming and zoning? Can we build safer houses in safer locations?

Most adhesives can’t be reused. But a radical new design, based on the foot of frogs, lizards and insects, shows how engineers can learn from nature to make smarter materials.

Using a chemical reaction that changes color when specific chemicals are present, a new “dipstick” may detect spoilage better than the human nose.