Tech
- Life
A new twist on a twist
Nature abounds with perfect helices. They show up in animal horns and seashells, in DNA and the young tendrils of plants. But helix formation can get complicated: In some cases, the direction of rotation can reverse as a helix grows.
- Tech
Lasers heal damaged rodent teeth
Handheld laser spurs stem cells into action, regrowing dentin in drilled teeth.
- Tech
Coffee beans sing distinct tune
Measuring the crackling noises made by roasting coffee beans could help engineers create automatic acoustic roasters.
- Computing
Diffusion may keep big knots out of DNA
A new computer simulation shows the way two knots on a strand of DNA could pass through each other without adding any additional snarls.
- Planetary Science
The ice of a distant moon
Jupiter’s moon Europa hides a liquid ocean, and conceivably life, under kilometers of ice. The challenge for engineers is how to penetrate that frozen barrier with technology that can be launched into space and operated remotely.
- Chemistry
Element 117 earns spot on periodic table
Atoms jam-packed with 117 protons have been produced at a particle collider in Germany, confirming the discovery of a new element.
- Chemistry
Color-changing polymer maps fingerprints
Tiny beads of sweat may offer new way to identify people’s fingerprints.
- Genetics
Gene therapy with electrical pulses spurs nerve growth
Deaf guinea pigs' hearing improves with electrical pulses from a hearing implant are combined with gene therapy, a new study shows.
- Quantum Physics
Major step taken toward error-free computing
Physicists have achieved nearly perfect control over a bit of quantum information, bringing them a step closer to error-free computation.
- Tech
‘You Are Here’ maps course for directionally challenged
A Boston Globe technology reporter chronicles the evolution of navigational and mapmaking tools in "You Are Here."
- Tech
Animated movies made by computer
A 17-minute animated movie made with a computer in 1964 took 2,000 hours of film processing and cost $600 per minute. The 2013 animated film Frozen cost about $1.5 million per minute to make.
- Tech
To do: Exhibits to explore this May in D.C. and New York
Events include a celebration of science and original watercolor paintings from John James Audubon.
