World Changing Ideas 2013

10 ways science may jazz up our gadgets, help to solve our most intractable problems and save lives

How Supercomputers Will Yield a Golden Age of Materials Science

With supercomputers and the equations of quantum mechanics, scientists are designing new materials atom by atom, before ever running an experiment

A Vault for Carbon Dioxide

Snap-Together Planes and Bridges

Soft Robots that Deform as They Move

Smart Phones as Thin as Credit Cards

Genetic Cures for the Gut

Protecting Your Data on The Cloud

The End of Bad Meds

iPad Becomes Flexible

Antiseptic Saves Newborn Lives

Strange Fungi Now Stalk Healthy People

A strange fungal disease in Canada and the U.S. heralds a new threat to human health

The Internet Has Become the External Hard Drive for Our Memories

For millennia humans have relied on one another to recall the minutiae of our daily goings-on. Now we rely on “the cloud”—and it is changing how we perceive and remember the world around us...

Insects Recognize Faces Using Processing Mechanism Similar to That of Humans

Conventional wisdom holds that the ability to recognize faces requires a complex mammalian brain. But some insects are surprisingly adept at this task

Physicists Eagerly Await Neutrinos from the Next Nearby Supernova [Excerpt]

Astrophysicists are gearing up to haul in neutrinos from an exploding star in our own galaxy in hopes that the subatomic particles will provide unparalleled insights into the physics of star death...

Less Is More When Restoring Wetlands

Many wetland recovery programs have failed by trying to re-create the original ecosystems. Recent successes have focused on one or two limited goals and have let nature take it from there...