Students stick their heads out of car sunroofs as part of a car parade.

Amid a pandemic, educators reimagine the future of K-12 schools

May 20, 2021

Education researchers are increasingly seeing the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to rethink how we teach kids in the United States, making school curricula more relevant to the lives of young people.

This scanning electron microscope image shows the distinct bow tie shape of an optical rectenna.

Scientists debut world’s most efficient 'optical rectennas,' devices that harvest power from heat

May 18, 2021

For decades, researchers have theorized that optical rectennas could sit on everything from bakery ovens to dirigibles flying high above Earth to harvest waste heat and turn it into electricity. But to date, those goals have remained elusive. Now, engineers have unveiled the most efficient optical rectennas yet.

Galago moholi bundled up in a cloth

Pet trade may pose threat to bushbaby conservation

May 17, 2021

At night in southern Africa, primates called bushbabies emit "spooky" vocalizations that sound like crying children. What may be even spookier is the possible future these adorable creatures face.

Image of the globe surrounded by satellites

Crashing Chinese rocket highlights growing dangers of space debris

May 12, 2021

In this Q&A, aerospace engineer Hanspeter Schaub says that the odds of people getting hit by debris falling from space are astronomically low. But collisions in orbit around Earth could still pose a threat to satellites and astronauts.

Stephanie Toliver in a comic book store reading an issue of "Ironheart"

Dreaming of new worlds: Stephanie Toliver celebrates Black women in science fiction and fantasy

May 6, 2021

Stephanie Toliver was in college the first time she read a science fiction and fantasy novel featuring a Black woman as a protagonist. Today, she's working to make sure that the next generation of Black girls don't face the same obstacles.

Gloved hands hold a vaccine vial

To safely return to ‘normal,’ 70% of Coloradans must get COVID vaccine

April 28, 2021

The state is heading in the right direction, but still has a lot of work to do before it can remove all public health restrictions, such as mask mandates, researchers say.

Artist's conception of a flare ejecting from a star with a planet nearbyArtist's conception of a flare ejecting from a star with a planet nearby

Humongous flare from sun’s nearest neighbor breaks records

April 21, 2021

On May 1, 2019, researchers observed a record-setting flare from the star Proxima Centauri—a burst of energy roughly 100 times more powerful than any similar event seen from Earth's sun.

Painting of army invading the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan

Across centuries and diseases, poverty, conflict and racism fuel pandemics

April 16, 2021

The current COVID-19 pandemic and other disease outbreaks aren't just biological phenomena, a team of archaeologists argue—these events are also shaped by the broader welfare of human societies.

Two people wearing spacesuits walk through the Utah desert

Science, spacesuits, dehydrated food: Simulating Mars in the Utah desert

April 8, 2021

Graduate student Shayna Hume will get a taste of what life on Mars could be like during a two-week mission at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah.

Engineers work on the EMM spacecraft in a cleanroom

How years of international collaboration led to Hope circling Mars

April 1, 2021

Beginning in 2015, dozens of researchers and engineers from the United Arab Emirates traveled to the foot of the Rocky Mountains to work toward an ambitious goal—to launch the first mission to Mars from an Arab nation.

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