Smokin’ hot! Altered tobacco plants point toward race-car photosynthesis

Photosynthesis — creation of sugar from carbon dioxide with solar power — is the basis of life on Earth. Could photosynthesis become More »

Giving the ultimate gift

Listing your Facebook status as “organ donor” seems to induce friends to sign up at organ registries. A new study finds a strong quick More »

Layer by layer, 3-D printers fuse tiny particles of plastic or metal, building complex parts from computer instructions — forget hold More »

Smelters refine aluminum ore, but not iron ore, with electricity. A new electrolytic process for refining iron ore could save vast More »

Spears helped our ancestors eat and defend themselves. Spearmaking required ingenuity, experiments and communication. Symmetrical stone More »

Native agriculture could be a sophisticated response to a challenging environment. What were the secrets of permaculture, companion More »

A “permanent” calendar could finally answer the annual, “Uh, what day is New Year’s eve this year?” question. This calendar would place More »

With space shuttles in museums, the near-term American plan to return to space relies on other countries or private firms. More »

Long ago, nature devised the hinge and ball and socket for appendages like legs and wings. More »

Could soil help? One-third of soils are degraded. In fighting desertification, erosion and nutrient loss, some soil-restoring More »

With three nuclear reactors and three pools of spent fuel teetering on the edge of meltdown, Japanese technicians struggled to throttle More »

Ocean technology on the move: 1: a robot sub smart enough to find stuff in the deep ocean 2: a metal fish glides for weeks under the More »

A small constriction in a buried pipe shows that the Maya were using pressurized pipes before year 750. It’s more proof that when it More »

London pioneered video surveillance in public, but it’s catching on fast. Many major cities have systems, and more are coming. More »

We celebrate eating — and food. Hungry: Is that your “food clock” ringing? Why does a fruitfly need to smell? More »