Engineering Design

  1. Materials Science

    New black hair dye uses no harsh chemicals

    Scientists have developed a new black-carbon-based hair dye. Instead of using damaging chemicals to dye hair, flexible flakes of carbon coat each strand.

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  2. Physics

    An ancient plant inspires a new lab tool

    Researchers have designed a lab tool that moves liquids from one place to another by mimicking a plant called a liverwort.

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  3. Chemistry

    Hard-to-burn ‘smart’ wallpaper even triggers alarms

    Scientists have made wallpaper that won’t easily burn. And embedded nanowires can be linked to a sensor to sound an alarm when the paper gets too hot.

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  4. Chemistry

    Banana plant extract can slow how fast ice cream melts

    Food scientists now show that adding these tiny plant particles to ice cream may delay the rate at which this treat melts into a soupy mess.

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  5. Materials Science

    Light could make some hospital surfaces deadly to germs

    A new surfacing material can disinfect itself. Room lighting turns on this germ-killing property, which could make the material attractive to hospitals.

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  6. Chemistry

    Cool Jobs: Diving for new medicines

    Scientists mix research with underwater adventure as they search the oceans for new chemicals to treat infections, cancer and more.

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  7. Tech

    This power source is shockingly eel-like

    The electric eel’s powerful electric charge inspired this new squishy, water-based new approach to generating power.

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  8. Genetics

    Explainer: DNA hunters

    Snippets of DNA can be left behind by a passing organism. Some researchers now act as wildlife detectives to identify the sources of such cast-off DNA.

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  9. Genetics

    Explainer: Why scientists sometimes ‘knock out’ genes

    How do we learn what a particular molecule does in the body? To find out, scientists often 'knock out' the gene that makes it. Here’s how.

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  10. Science & Society

    Explainer: Weather and weather prediction

    The sun and Earth combine to create the planet’s weather systems. And science is getting good at predicting what they’ll do.

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  11. Physics

    Disabilities don’t stop these experts in science and tech

    People with disabilities are as varied as the careers some of them pursue in science, technology, engineering and math.

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  12. Animals

    Listening to fish love songs can predict their numbers

    Gulf corvinas croak for mates while in groups of millions. By listening to their undersea serenades, scientists may be able to estimate how many are out there.

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