Tech

  1. a close-up on a person's eye, with a tear streaming down their cheek
    Health & Medicine

    A new technology uses human teardrops to spot disease

    A proof-of-concept technique to analyze microscopic particles in tears could give scientists a new way to detect eye disease and other disorders.

    By Meghan Rosen
  2. photo of someone's hand wearing a wetsuit glove with octopus suckers
    Tech

    This octopus-inspired glove helps humans grip slippery objects

    The human hand, for all its deftness, is not great at grasping slippery stuff. A new glove aims to change that.

    By Maria Temming
  3. a flexible clear implant with a wavy design in the center, held up by tweezers
    Health & Medicine

    This soft, electronic ‘nerve cooler’ could be a new way to relieve pain

    A tiny electronic device implanted in the body generates targeted pain relief by cooling off nerves, experiments in rats suggest.

    By Meghan Rosen
  4. a football player tackles a quarterback during the 2015 Goodyear Cotton Bowl
    Tech

    A neck patch for athletes could help detect concussions early

    The small sensor is sleeker and cheaper than other devices used to monitor neck strain in athletes.

    By Nikk Ogasa
  5. a curled robotic finger covered in living human skin against a blue backdrop
    Tech

    Scientists grew living human skin around a robotic finger

    In the hopes of one day building super realistic cyborgs, researchers built a robotic finger that wears living human skin.

    By Maria Temming
  6. Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    Computing

    The world’s fastest supercomputer just broke the exascale barrier

    The Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee clocked in at more than 1.1 quintillion calculations per second.

    By Emily Conover
  7. six nesting dolls at different distances, all in focus
    Tech

    This camera lens can focus up close and far away at the same time

    Inspired by the eye of an extinct trilobite species, the large depth of field can help with imaging techniques to create 3-D photos.

    By Anna Gibbs
  8. an aerial photo showing a solar farm. There are rows and rows of solar panels grouped into squares as far as the image stretches. The sun is low in the sky.
    Tech

    50 years ago, the future of solar energy looked bright

    In the 1970s, scientists and engineers were coming around to the idea of “farming” the sun’s energy on a large scale.

    By Aina Abell
  9. woman checking her phone in a crowd
    Science & Society

    Social media crackdowns during the war in Ukraine make the internet less global

    Social media has become an important battleground, and now stands to split along geopolitical lines.

    By Erika Engelhaupt
  10. image of numbers written on a chalkboard
    Math

    How the way we’re taught to round numbers in school falls short

    A rounding technique taught in school doesn’t work well for machine learning or quantum computing, but an alternative approach does, researchers say.

    By Rachel Crowell
  11. historical photo of a 1920s radio broadcast station with men wearing headphones
    Science & Society

    What made the last century’s great innovations possible?

    Science paved the way for antibiotics, lasers, computers and COVID-19 vaccines, but science alone was not enough.

    By Jon Gertner
  12. image of a computer chip with red hues
    Computing

    Now that computers connect us all, for better and worse, what’s next?

    The digital revolution has brought chess-playing robots, self-driving cars, curated newsfeeds — and new ethical challenges.

    By Matthew Hutson