Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Microbes show up on schedule after death
Microbes in the soil beneath dead bodies offer forensic clues for time and place of death.
- Physics
There’s no hiding from new camera
A new camera tracks objects hidden around a corner by detecting light echoes, similar to the way bats use sound to find prey.
- Tech
Roses rigged with electrical circuits
Bioelectric molecules can form wires and conduct electricity in cut roses, researchers find.
- Plants
Roses rigged with electrical circuitry
Bioelectric molecules can form wires and conduct electricity in cut roses, researchers find.
- Climate
Geoengineering is world’s last hope, new book argues
Geoengineering is humankind’s only viable solution to curb climate change impacts, a journalist contends in The Planet Remade.
- Computing
New algorithm cracks graph problem
A new algorithm efficiently solves the graph isomorphism problem, which has puzzled computer scientists for decades.
- Tech
Laser light turns graphene paper into a microbot
Tiny origami-inspired robot uses laser light to walks like an inchworm.
- Tech
Electronic skin feels the heat, hears the sound
Electronic skin inspired by human fingertips detects texture, pressure, heat and sound.
- Climate
Wi-Fi threatens weather forecasts
Interference from wireless technology threatens the usefulness of weather radar, meteorologists warn.
- Animals
‘Whalecopter’ drone swoops in for a shot and a shower
Whale biologists are monitoring the health of whales using drones that snap photos and then swoop in to sample spray.
- Quantum Physics
Future quantum computing could exploit old technology
Silicon transistors have been modified and patched together to form logic gates that could perform calculations in future quantum computers.
- Science & Society
For the real hits of fashion week, look to computer science
A machine learning algorithm that analyzes trends on the runway and those on the street could help designers and manufacturers better understand what fashion trends take off.
