Invention & Innovation | Science News for Students

Invention & Innovation

A series made possible with generous support from the Lemelson Foundation

three surgeons operating on an unseen person

To reshape living tissue, surgeons usually cut into cells and stitch the wound. This type of surgery creates scars. A new, painless approach would damage few cells and might take only a few minutes.

andrei_r/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Technology
 
Aug 19, 2019
A new electric surgery tool may someday fix nose, ear and eye problems
a photo of a discarded styrofoam cup on the ground surrounded by plants

Unlike this Styrofoam cup, made from plastic, a new kind of foam is biodegradable.

tomschirtz/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Materials Science
 
Jun 24, 2019
Trees may become the key to ‘greener’ foam products
a photo of a group of green disk robots

Individually, each of these disks can only expand and contract in place. But together, when loosely connected by magnets, they can complete a task like moving toward a light.

Shuguang Li/Columbia Engineering

Robotics
 
Jun 3, 2019
This robot’s parts are helpless alone, but turn smart as they team up
a young boy smiling and sitting in wheelchair, he's wearing a blue hat

Chemotherapy can cause your hair to fall out and make you feel tired and sick. Delivering the chemo drugs inside nanoparticles could reduce these side effects by making sure the drug goes only to the cancer.

Steve Debenport/E+/Getty Images

Chemistry
 
May 6, 2019
Remote-controlled nanoparticles could fight cancer — gently
Afghan minefield

This sign in English and Arabic warns pedestrians that live land mines still litter this field in Afghanistan.

manxman/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Physics
 
Apr 30, 2019
Heat signatures help track down old and still deadly land mines
Kasper Moth-Poulsen shows off a solar collector

Kasper Moth-Poulsen shows off the solar collector his team used to test its liquid battery.

Johan Bodell/Chalmers University of Technology

Chemistry
 
Mar 29, 2019
Shape-shifting chemical is key to new solar battery
a photo of a porthole into an underwater habitat, fish are swimming past the round window

A new kind of glass can keep itself clean underwater. The key is microscopic pancake-shaped structures that let liquid flow between them.

ES3N/iStockphoto

Materials Science
 
Feb 11, 2019
A self-cleaning glass keeps itself spotless underwater
a photo of a green spiral of cyanobacteria printed onto a white mushroom marked with black graphene ink

Researchers 3-D print a green spiral of cyanobacteria onto a mushroom. The microbes give off electrons when exposed to light. Those electrons flow into the black graphene ink to produce an electric current.

American Chemical Society

Technology
 
Feb 6, 2019
This bionic mushroom makes electricity
a close-up of a new kind of bandage

A new bandage uses electrical pulses to help wounds heal faster. It’s powered by the patient’s natural body motions.

Sam Million-Weaver/Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison

Materials Science
 
Feb 1, 2019
This bandage uses electrical zaps to heal wounds faster
a photo of a person writing "Bye" on rewritable paper

A special pen heats the blue ink on this rewritable paper. As the ink warms, it turns clear. The white paper beneath reveals a written message.

Luzhuo Chen

Chemistry
 
Dec 31, 2018
This rewritable paper depends on disappearing ink