In a darkened room in Rochester, N.Y., a baby girl in a pink onesie watches a computer screen. Wherever she looks, an eye tracker follows. It records what she looks at and for how long. The baby, about 6 months old, is neither deaf nor hard of hearing. And she’s never seen any kind of … Read more
Ramin Hassani looked at a tiny, crawling worm through a microscope. He thought it was fascinating. Later, he said, “It can move better than any robotic system we have.” This tiny worm has an even smaller brain, yet it can move around and explore with ease. Its brain has now inspired Hassani and his team … Read more
When Gijsbert Cirkel coached his son’s soccer team, he remembers the kids lying in the shade after games. They’d lift their legs in the air and yell, “Our legs are hot!” Their games were played on artificial turf. This heat-trapping plastic can get so hot it can burn. Cirkel’s Dutch research team recently developed a … Read more
The word orangutan means “person of the forest” – a good name for a group of primates that spend most of their time in trees. These great apes have long arms and long, curved fingers and toes for gripping branches. This helps them move easily around the tops of jungle trees on the Southeast Asian … Read more