2019 in review: science and technology
Science past. Science present. And science yet to come.Dec 29th 2019ONE OF THE year’s most significant scientific events was…
Armed with smartphones, Colombians are taking on the local mozzies
Jul 6th 2019IF YOU SEE a pothole, smell gas or step in water from a burst main, you can report the details online immediately….
How to make a better raincoat with tiny “water bowls”
Jul 6th 2019A FEW YEARS ago Kripa Varanasi, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, made the news with a ketchup…
Beetles and flies are becoming part of the agricultural food chain
Jul 6th 2019SOME VISIONARIES hope that insects will play a big role in future human diets. Insects are nutritious, being packed…
A team of chemists are searching for a new red pigment
Jul 11th 2019HUMANS ARE creatures with sophisticated colour vision, so the market for pigments is big—about $30bn a year. In…
A new type of engine for electric cars
Jul 11th 2019AT THE DAWN of the motor industry one of its pioneers, Ferdinand Porsche, caused a sensation at the Paris World Fair…
The oldest known Homo sapiens outside Africa was Greek
Jul 11th 2019EARLY HUMAN fossils are so rare that each new discovery may rewrite the textbooks. A chance find two years ago in…
Buried metal artefacts gather stories on their surfaces
Jul 6th 2019COINS AND other metal artefacts dug from archaeological sites bear witness to their burial in the form of the patinas…
Heatwaves are more dangerous in cities
Pavement and plants can counter the urban heat-island effectJul 21st 2019AMERICA HAS been baking this weekend. An estimated 128m…