
Stories by Sourish Basu


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?