All Stories
- Physics
How to mix oil and water
Bouncing an oil-coated water droplet creates a tiny emulsion and reveals physics of mixing.
- Agriculture
Nation by nation, evidence thin that boosting crop yields conserves land
Intensifying agriculture may not necessarily return farmland to nature without policy help.
- Chemistry
Metal gives pigment the blues
Researchers studying manganese oxides unexpectedly discover a new way to achieve blue hue.
- Earth
Toxic playgrounds
No kid should ever play in arsenic. Especially at school. Yet many probably do, according to findings of a study presented today.
- Computing
First programmable quantum computer created
System uses ultracold beryllium ions to tackle 160 randomly chosen programs.
- Chemistry
PCBs: When green paint isn’t ‘green’
It seems we're literally painting the air -- from the Great Lakes to Antarctica -- with persistent pollutants. Including at least one whose safety has never been studied.
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Low-tech approach stifles high-risk Nipah virus
Protecting palm-tree sap from bats may limit spread of deadly disease, a study in Bangladesh shows.
- Chemistry
Case of the toxic gingerbread man
Featured blog: A search for the source of some indoor-air anomalies turns up a surprising culprit.
- Humans
Visual illusion stumps adults but not kids
Finding suggests that sensitivity to visual context develops slowly.
- Earth
Where humans go, pepper virus follows
Plant pathogen could help track waters polluted with human waste.
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Breaking the Speed Limit
Studies examine physiology and technology to better foresee the ultimate edge of human performance.
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Botanical Whales
Adventures in the Tortugas reveal that seagrass fields need saving too.
