Science

Some scientists are staking out extreme frontiers in science and technology. Author W. Patrick McCray recounts how their visions have shaped - and could shape - our world.

February 27, 2013 3:00am | By Mari Silbey

Calories, percent daily values, proteins, fats, and carbs. We see these on nearly everything we eat. How did they come up with these numbers? It started in the 1800s with a man named Wilbur.

January 3, 2013 11:18pm | By Janet Fang

Science shows how the body reacts to simple external factors like heat and light -- and how that can drastically hurt or improve our productivity.

February 19, 2013 7:52pm | By Laura Shin

Scientific American named their biggest stories of the year. Which did they get wrong or forget?

5 | December 27, 2012 8:32pm | By Laura Shin

The Take's C.C. Sullivan wonders why designers, architects and artists think that recycling is automatically an aesthetic success. It takes a bit more than just reusing old stuff to create good...

2 | May 22, 2013 3:00am | By C.C. Sullivan

In a Q&A published Tuesday by ScienceDebate.org, Obama and Romney answered the nation's most pressing science questions, on topics spanning innovation, education, energy, climate change, and the...

4 | September 8, 2012 3:16pm | By Jenny Wilson

A video aimed at getting girls interested in science was panned for buying into the stereotypes it was trying to dispel. A contest rounded up a few good replacements.

4 | December 17, 2012 7:18pm | By Laura Shin

While at the Google Science Fair on Monday, I spoke to one of the judges, Tierney Thys, a marine biologist and explorer with National Geographic about the importance of science education....

1 | July 13, 2011 9:43am | By Boonsri Dickinson

Insects see brilliantly through thousands of tiny lenses in "compound eyes." Researchers have built a camera using the same principle. Killer panoramas. Good for spying and seeing up your nose too.

3 | May 2, 2013 4:00am | By Mark Halper

The old adage that "practice makes perfect" hasn't held up to scientific scrutiny.

13 | May 20, 2013 8:12pm | By David Worthington

Leila Takayama imagines a world where human-friendly robots interact successfully with people. But it's not always easy teaching a 500-pound machine not to block the office coffee maker.

May 20, 2013 3:00am | By Christina Hernandez Sherwood

Viruses were used in the pre-antibiotic 19th-century to treat infections. Now researchers are bringing them back, using them to fight bacterial infections on catheters and stents.

1 | May 19, 2013 9:38pm | By Janet Fang

Is 'big data' the revolutionary font of business insights many claim it to be, or is it over-hyped, oversold, and essentially useless to enterprises?

4 | May 10, 2013 9:22am | By Joe McKendrick

She bakes bioplastics, creates magnetic paint and says we can experiment with these smart materials, too.

May 6, 2013 3:00am | By Christina Hernandez Sherwood

Welcome to SmartPlanet's newest blog, Science Scope. From astronomy to zoology, scientist-turned-journalist Boonsri Dickinson will cover the latest scientific discoveries and help us understand...

February 28, 2010 6:49pm | By Andrew Nusca

Will black carbon cause the death of space tourism before it has taken off?

9 | May 16, 2013 10:49am | By Charlie Osborne

Billionaire Samuel Yin contributed $100 million to establish the Tang Prizes for topics like sustainable development and biopharmaceutical science. The winnings are bigger than the Nobel.

February 3, 2013 8:11pm | By Janet Fang

The same machine that analyzes those cloth swatches that TSA agents wipe against your carry-on could now be retrofitted to detect black powder explosives.

May 8, 2013 2:00pm | By Janet Fang

The "tractor beams" described in science fiction are one step closer to becoming a reality, but the benefits could first be realized in medical laboratories before space.

5 | January 28, 2013 7:08pm | By David Worthington

Energy analyst Chris Nelder reports from a foreign country deep in the throes of shale gas fever.

35 | May 15, 2013 3:00am | By Chris Nelder