Hokkaido University

When Orlando Rios first started analyzing samples of carbon fibers made from a woody plant polymer known as lignin, he noticed something unusual. The material’s microstructure — a mixture of perfectly spherical nanoscale crystallites distributed within a fibrous matrix — looked almost too good to be true. “I thought, this looks like a material that

  This new era of “bioprospecting” New technology for discovering antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs and other medicines inside soil microbes and other natural sources is reviving a treasure hunt that already has given humanity more than 50 percent of today’s prescription drugs. This new era in “bioprospecting” is the topic of the cover story in Chemical &

Software can let smartphones, Wi-Fi routers, and other hardware link up without centralized Internet service. After an earthquake crippled Haiti in 2010, killing and injuring hundreds of thousands and destroying the country’s communication networks, Paul Gardner-Stephen found himself thinking about all the cell phones that had instantly become useless. With cell towers out of commission

Image via Wikipedia CLIMATE CHANGE, BIODIVERSITY LOSS, NUCLEAR CONFLICT—ALL ARE CAUSED BY HUMAN ACTIVITY. WE NEED A WAY TO REORGANIZE AND REFOCUS THE SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES WITH A “MILLENNIUM ASSESSMENT OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR.” Many are aware that climate disruption may cause horrendous problems, but few seem to realize that this peril is not the only potentially catastrophic

  Researchers estimate that food availability must double in the next 25 years With fewer than a dozen flowering plants out of 300,000 species accounting for 80 percent of humanity’s caloric intake, people need to tap unused plants to feed the world in the near future, claims Cornell University plant geneticist Susan McCouch in the

National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Faculty of Engineering has invented a novel robotic walker that helps patients carry out therapy sessions to regain their leg movements and natural gait Survivors of stroke or other neurological conditions such as spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries and Parkinson’s disease often struggle with mobility. To regain their motor

Some of the worms and germs we’ve been warding off may actually keep us well. One solution, some scientists say, is to welcome them back I met William Parker just two days before World Toilet Day, an international campaign to break taboos about, yes, potties. It’s a subject not many like to talk about. The cause