All Stories by Maria Temming
- Health & Medicine
A patch studded with tiny needles may help heart attack survivors recover
A bandage that sticks to the surface of the heart exudes proteins and other molecules that help muscle cells grow.
- Tech
How Twitter bots get people to spread fake news
Automated bot accounts on Twitter help spread misinformation by strategically encouraging people to make it go viral.
- Microbes
Mini ‘solar panels’ help yeast shine at churning out drug ingredients
Microbes equipped with light-harvesting semiconductor particles generate useful chemicals much more efficiently than ordinary microbes.
- Chemistry
These fragile, futuristic batteries run longer with a little oil
A redesign for batteries that use aluminum and oxygen could help these inexpensive, lightweight power cells last longer.
- Computing
Virtual avatars learned cartwheels and other stunts from videos of people
A new computer system that lets animated characters learn acrobatic skills from videos could be a cheaper alternative to traditional motion capture.
- Physics
Vanadium dioxide’s weird phase transition just got weirder
When shifting from one crystalline structure to another, the atoms inside vanadium dioxide bumble around a lot more than expected.
- Tech
Virtual reality therapy has real-life benefits for some mental disorders
Cheap, user-friendly virtual reality hardware could help VR therapy go mainstream. Some treatments are ready for primetime, while others are still in early testing.
- Tech
A new robot decides how and when to transform to get the job done
A bot made of smaller robotic pieces autonomously changes its shape to trundle across flat ground, squeeze into tight spaces or climb stairs.
- Chemistry
New devices could help turn atmospheric CO2 into useful supplies
New electrochemical cells transform carbon monoxide into useful chemical compounds like ethylene and acetate much more efficiently than their predecessors.
- Tech
A new palm-sized drone is mini, but mighty
Unlike other small drones, this flying robot can tote objects up to 40 times its own weight.
- Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence crowdsources data to speed up drug discovery
A new AI that judges whether drugs will interact with certain proteins can train on data from multiple sources while keeping that info secret.
- Planetary Science
Saturn’s ‘ring rain’ is a surprising cocktail of chemicals
NASA’s Cassini probe got a closeup view of the material falling from Saturn’s rings into the planet. The data could help illuminate the belts’ origins.
