22+ hour, 7+ min ago   (304+ words) Plastic is one of humanity’s most useful, flexible, and inexpensive inventions. Inexpensive, that is, until you remember the massive environmental and health costs of plastic production and waste. Those costs further incur massive financial costs of fixing (or least reducing)…...

3+ day, 23+ hour ago   (713+ words) Parkinson’s disease is significantly less common among people who smoke cigarettes. It’s a paradox that has perplexed researchers for decades, drawing speculation that tobacco smoke somehow protects the brain from developing the neurodegenerative condition. A prospective study on more than…...

4+ day, 16+ hour ago   (361+ words) If you think that cockroaches are creepy and useless, we can prove you wrong. Well, at least the “useless” part. In recent years, cockroaches have been utilized to play a very important role in urban search-and-rescue missions. Now, researchers at…...

5+ day, 14+ hour ago   (437+ words) Few things make the career jump from regional cuisine delicacy to robotics actuator. Yet, in research vaguely reminiscent of RoboCop, scientists have used skeletal muscle from a literal frog leg as an actuator to control a tiny robotic manta ray....

6+ day, 18+ hour ago   (383+ words) So, who’s going to save you (or her)? If it’s up to an international group of researchers led by Japan’s Tohoku University and Thailand’s Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology (VISTEC), it might just be a massive insectobot – one that…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (543+ words) Fast fashion drastically changed the world by making clothes cheaper and more affordable than ever, but it came with a huge environmental cost. This has pushed scientists to look for new, more sustainable materials that could replace conventional synthetic fabrics....

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (294+ words) Currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign, the device is made by German startup Flectr. The company previously brought us the quick-mount CargoMate front rack, along with the Green Disc+'s predecessor, the Lubri Disc. As was the case with…...

2+ week, 15+ hour ago   (544+ words) By now, most of us have some knowledge that life on land involved transitioning from the water and evolving the physiological means to do so. But a new study has found reliable evidence that this formative process involved more diverse…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago   (496+ words) Chances are you’ve seen Hoberman spheres, those kinetic lattices made of joint-connected rods that, with a little manual effort, can contract or expand. Inspired by the ancient Japanese arts of origami (paper-folding) and kirigami (paper-folding-and-cutting), a team from Harvard University…...

2+ week, 5+ day ago   (273+ words) The new Space Age looks to be shifting into top gear as SpaceX signs an agreement with the state of Louisiana for the company to invest US$100 billion to build the world's largest spaceport that could conduct over 10,000 launches per…...