Virtual reality helps shape and respond to artistic impulses
In February 2020, weeks before the pandemic made such a thing nearly impossible, the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes, UK,…
Author: Stephen Ornes
The 100-Day Vaccine
The first vaccine for COVID-19 broke records: Only 342 days passed between the virus being sequenced and an FDA-authorized vaccine.…
Coping with Chemo Brain
BEFORE MEGAN-CLAIRE CHASE received her first round of chemotherapy in October 2015, her oncologist told her that side effects of cancer…
The New Math of Wrinkling
A few minutes into a 2018 talk at the University of Michigan, Ian Tobasco picked up a large piece of paper and…
Will Transformers Take Over Artificial Intelligence?
Imagine going to your local hardware store and seeing a new kind of hammer on the shelf. You’ve heard about…
Some ecologists value parasites — and now want a plan to save them
Chelsea Wood always wanted to be a marine biologist. As a child growing up on New York’s Long Island, she…
Researchers turn to deep learning to decode protein structures
Twenty-eight years ago, computational biologists led by John Moult then at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, launched an ambitious, large-scale…
Research Has a “Trash Island.” Some Are Trying to Clean it Up.
Bad science can do lasting damage. A study falsely connecting COVID-19 to 5G wireless technology, for instance, was quickly retracted for its…
How Mathematicians Cracked the Zodiac Killer’s Cipher
In the late 1960s, a serial killer self-identifying as “the Zodiac” killed at least five people in Northern California and…
Genes point to how some bacteria can gobble up electricity
Bacteria can have superpowers. Some flourish in almost any environment. Others can transform toxic materials into harmless sludge. A bacterium…