Lina Zeldovich
AUTHOR / JOURNALIST
(An ancient sculpture from the Israel Beer Breweries (IBBL) museum in Ashkelon, Israel. Rafael Ben-Ari/Alamy )
As slow food and slow living movements are becoming the trend, it’s time to decelerate travel, too.
In labs around the world, scientists have used CRISPR to tweak genomes of mice, rats, and zebrafish. Are we next? Would it be ethical and beneficial to apply gene-editing techniques to ourselves?
In 2002, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a religious ruling, a fatwa, declaring embryonic stem cell research acceptable under Islamic law. (photo by Anne-Christine Pojoulat)
The putting-green yard sucks up to 10,000 gallons of water a year. So amateur scientist Jackson Madnick decided to breed a hardy, drought-resistant green grass. (Robert Schlie/Alamy)
The UTI-causing bacteria looks a bit like a squid with long filaments, at the end of which a protein called FimH can form a tiny hook. With that hook, the bacterium hangs on to a particular molecule on the outside of human cells. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson)
Federico Ciccarese turns on the hand, and its white chalky fingers clench into a fist. Then they unclench and the palm is open again. Finally, the index finger and the thumb form a circle, as if holding a small, delicate object.
If you’re a guy and you carry your smartphone in the front pocket of your pants, you may be inadvertently damaging your own very important equipment.
It’s not what you eat but when you eat it that impacts how your body burns it off. And not eating at the right time has an equally profound effect.
Metaphorically speaking, it’s like having a doctor in your pocket.
The unlikely breakthroughs in today’s medical science.
Particle accelerators can make you healthy and wealthy.
What’s wrong with the tomatoes we eat now? A few things.
Revising your daily menu is easier in summer, because stuff just tastes so good.
“We have this department called Imagineering,” says Lenny De George, Walt Disney World Executive Chef, who’s been cooking up the magic for 20 years. “So the imagineers would dream up what a new restaurant would be,”
Using bioreactors, a team of Columbia University bioengineers grew more than 50 healthy bones from stem cells.
The grass is always greener on Jackson Madnick’s lawn in Wayland, Mass.: green in a drought and green when it emerges from under the snow. Yet, he barely waters and mows it, and he never uses chemical pesticides or fertilizers.
Biochemical engineers can now download a piece of software and, with a few simple clicks, assemble the DNA for new life forms through their laptops.
Trees that grow and glow may one day replace street lamps, cutting down on electricity use and CO2 emissions, says a group of synthetic biologists at Singularity University in Moffett Field, Calif.
Solar-powered thermal batteries harness the sun’s heat to chill milk in regions with unreliable power in India.
A little colorful sticker you can slap onto your shirt may prove to be one of the most efficient methods to ward off malaria, dengue fever, West Nile virus and other mosquito-borne diseases.
Cornell University researchers build a sun-powered cancer-testing device.
Ants mastered husbandry way before us—about 50 million years ago, and they still continue farming today.
When it comes to water, some plants are picky drinkers. To measure plant water levels continuously, Cornell University researchers, equipped every plant with its own personal water sensor
Sitting on top of a volcano may be just what Nevis, a small sombrero-shaped Caribbean Island, needs to become one of the greenest nations on Earth.
“Each one of these when heated will release hydrogen gas,” says Cella Energy CEO Stephen Voller, of the small heap of pellets in his palm. “You get about a balloon worth of hydrogen gas from that.”
Once inside the body the robot unfolds like a NASA spaceship, communicates its position through a wire connected to an external computer, and follows instructions to advance, stop, tie sutures and perform other actions.
The mother tongues of today’s readers span from Russian to Turkish and from Greek to Farsi, as they follow Verne’s characters through the inner workings of his vessel and the mysteries of the aquatic life, discovering their own passions.
Dead bodies are in short supply, a fact that might surprise you unless you’ve been through medical school or dissected a corpse. So to solve the shortage of real dead folks, anatomists decided to create virtual ones.
In 2009, Eric Alm, a professor of biological engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hadn’t had a bowel movement at home for almost the entire year. Instead, every time he had to go, he’s drive to his MIT lab.
Dust mites are eyeless, headless, and heartless, yet they’re expert travelers. They’ve been trekking around the world for 400 million years; in the modern era, they travel fast and in style, stowing away inside our seat cushions, luggage, and clothes