Stories by Sourish Basu

Data Points Hit or Miss

Oceangoing Iron

A venture to profit from a CO2-eating algae bloom riles scientists

Déjà Vu Disks

For Blu-ray and HD DVD, encryption and court orders prove futileagain

Quantum Ferrofluid: A Bose-Einstein Condensate of Tiny Magnets

Tiny magnetic atoms of chromium display superfluidity—and the possibility of exotic quantum phases

Counterfeiters Beware: You Left Your Signature

A new technology sniffs an ink's chemical signature in seconds

The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain. Or Does It?

Climate change explains shifting rainfall patterns: wet places getting wetter and dry places drier

Robots That Walk on Water

In another case of nature-inspired engineering, scientists create robots that take a walk on the wet side

Shaping Up a Möbius Strip

Mathematicians finally calculate the shape of Escher's muse

But Madame Butterfly, Where Are All the Males?

Darwin's Rx: natural selection defeats a male-killing bacterial strain and restores a more balanced sex ratio among Samoan blue moon butterflies

New Superlensing Technique Brings Everything into Focus

Ultratight focusing over very short distances beats the best lenses; the discovery could bring the nanoworld up close and into focus

Clouds That Rival Auroras Now Bigger and Brighter

Are bigger, brighter "night shining" clouds a symptom of climate change? A NASA mission aims to find out

Traffic Light on a Spoon

Why does pumpkin seed oil appear red in a bottle but green on a plate?