Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Tech
Self-driving cars are not a thing of the past
Engineers have not given up on self-driving cars. The focus has shifted from a mechanical approach to using batteries and GPS.
- Animals
See your lawn through a bird’s eyes with YardMap
A new web tool lets you map your outdoor spaces and wildlife habitat, helping scientists understand how birds use urban and suburban spaces.
- 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."
