My machine learns better than me
Have you ever used Siri to check the weather for the week, for your trip to the beach, or to check if that cough you have this morning means you’re […]
Category Archives: Technology
Thermophiles: Hot Microbes on the Biofuel Frontier
If you’ve ever been lucky enough to visit Yellowstone National Park (or looked at pictures), then you have probably seen the colorful, steaming mats that surround many of the park’s […]
CSI Athens: Crime Scene Science
Every contact leaves a trace. ‘Locard’s Exchange Principle’, the underlying premise of modern forensic science, describes a perpetrator’s involuntary act of leaving traces behind in a crime scene in exchange […]
Bright and Bedazzled… Camouflage?
Have you ever looked at the shimmer of a peacock’s feathers or the metallic shine of a green June beetle and thought, “I bet those bright colors help that animal […]
Crowd-funded Dams
Infrastructure development is a major issue in many countries of the developing world. Countries with developing economies often suffer from a negative balance of trade and weak institutions, […]
Smart(y) Pants: Putting the Tech in Textiles
Nowadays, it feels like we’re living in a sci-fi movie with the development of self-driving cars, technology we can talk to, and watches that monitor our day-to-day activities. All that’s […]
Your Latest [Artificial] Intelligence Report
With the technology introduction of the personal assistant Siri and the promise of a completely self-driving car from Tesla soon, artificial intelligence (AI) is radically changing the modern world. AI […]
Turning (Saw)dust into Gold
A year ago, I was invited to present my research findings at a conference held at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. So, there I was, standing in a room full […]
Bioterrorism & Chemical Weapons: Part 1
Smallpox blankets given to Native Americans. Gas chambers in concentration camps. Chemical weapons in the Syrian War. Russian spies poisoned by a nerve agent. What do these have in common? […]
Science in your Laundry Detergent
When I was a kid, if I got a grass stain or a blood stain on my clothes it was probably not coming out no matter how much presoaking and hand scrubbing was involved. Nowadays, if I get food on my clothes, I admonish myself for being clumsy then throw it in the wash with some liquid detergent and hope that it magically comes out looking new. It still amazes me that it usually does. How have laundry detergents improved their cleaning efficacy so much in just the last few decades?
