Maria Temming | Science News for Students

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Maria Temming

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a horse stuffed animal with white wraps around its legs is walking across a the screen against a black background, electric wires trail behind it

A new bendable, stretchable skin can wrap around inanimate objects — such as this stuffed horse’s legs — creating a soft robot.

J.W. Booth et al./Sci Robotics 2018

 Robotics
Soft robots get their power from the skin they’re in
Given bendy, stretchy skin, everyday objects can morph into useful — or just adorable — robots
chemistry nobel

This year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry went to Frances Arnold (left), George P. Smith (middle) and Gregory P. Winter (right) for research on proteins, including enzymes and antibodies.

CalTech; University of Missouri; Aga Machaj/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

 Chemistry
Three take home chemistry Nobel for harnessing protein ‘evolution’
The scientists created bio-based techniques to speed up the development of drugs, fuels and more
spaghetti machine

Researchers used a custom spaghetti-snapping machine (above) to discover the best way to break dry spaghetti in half.

RONALD HEISSER AND VISHAL PATIL

 Physics
The perfect spaghetti snap starts with a twist
Novel machine reveals secret to cleanly breaking the dry pasta in half
fake news

Researchers are building computer algorithms that can check the veracity of online news.

juststock/iStockphoto

 Technology
Scientists enlist computers to hunt down fake news
And these automatons tend to outperform people at scouting out bogus claims
Obama and Putin

A new computer program can manipulate the subjects in a video so that one of them mirrors the movements of someone else in some other video. Here, images of Russian President Vladimir Putin are altered to match those of former President Barack Obama.

H. KIM ET AL/ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS 2018

 Computers & Electronics
Computers can now make fool-the-eye fake videos
It can put expressions and movements — even from other people — onto people on screen
071218_MT_vr-therapy_feat.jpg

In a new virtual reality therapy app, an animated coach guides people with a fear of heights through activities such as saving a cat from a tree.

Oxford VR

 Psychology
Are you scared of heights? Virtual reality could help
In a therapy app, an avatar coaches people through sky-high situations