Popcorn Smell
Why is popcorn so aromatic? (The chemicals responsible are very potent.)
Stuttering
People who stutter have more abnormalities in the brain areas responsible for language.
Navajo Bones
Traditional foods provide elderly Navajos with adequate calcium for strong bones.
Wood Water Filters
Wood removes organic contaminants from polluted runoff.
Artificial Star
A laser beam creates an artificial star in the sky for a telescope's adaptive optics system
Biting Insects
Tropical wasps bite each other to divide labor, may be form of insect communication, not bullying.
Math Anxiety
Students anxious about math do worse on tests, even when they know the material, because their anxiety takes up valuable energy that could have been …
Inflatable Wings
NASA is building aircraft with inflating wings to save space on probes in our atmosphere... and others.
Robotic Scorpion
A robot modelled after a scorpion that can be used to spy under harsh, desert-like conditions.
Smell and Behavior
Teasing out how the nose works and how the sense of smell is important in everyday life.
Computer Personality Test
Psychologists will give an artificially intelligent machine named GAC (developed by the Mindpixel project) a psychological exam.
Insect Sweet Tooth
Will insects that are attracted to sugar be attracted to artificial sweeteners?(insects aren't really attracted to sugar, but to other cues that …
Cause and Effect
Seeing an effect, people will think they've also seen the cause.
Friendly Microbes
Bacteria in your gut change how your genes express themselves, making it easier for other friendly microbes to enter and affecting your physiology as …
Zeolites
Special compounds might one day be used to trap dangerous, radioactive contamination in soil.
Seasonal Fat
Studying how hamsters gain and lose weight so quickly may teach us more about how humans can do it, too.
Mars Garden
Genetically engineered plants can tell us a lot about Mars' atmosphere and pave the way for human colonies on Mars.
Fixing Diabetes
In mice, diabetes type 1 can be cured by killing off the cells that murder islets and educating other cells not to kill islets. The islets make a full …
Traveling Dust
Dust that gets blown around the world harbors bacteria, fungi and viruses that can spread disease.
Smart Violins
Devices that can manipulate the way a violin vibrates can reproduce the sounds of the masters in cheap violins