Passive RFID (radio frequency identification) tags are small, inexpensive, battery-less labels that are already used to track and identify a wide variety of items. If MIT's experimental RFIQ system enters general use, they may also soon allow consumers to check if food products are contaminated.
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It's well reported that oil spills can have a catastrophic biological and environmental impact. But to date, few studies have examined the effect of whole crude oil on senses of a marine vertebrate. A new study is the first to confirm effects on stingrays' sense of smell.
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Jodrell Bank Observatory has released an audio recording from a 1968 Soviet mission that could have seen the United States losing the race to the Moon. The audio recording intercepted by the radio telescope is from the unmanned Zond 6 mission that might have put the Soviet Union on the Moon first.
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A new study suggests that the mantle is home to much more water than was previously believed. Seismic activity around the Mariana Trench have revealed that subducting tectonic plates are dragging more water deeper into the Earth, which could change our understanding of the global water cycle.
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The day of clean, limitless energy from nuclear fusion has taken another step closer after China's Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reached a core plasma temperature of over 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit).
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The O-Wind Turbine has taken out the UK£30,000 (US$39,000) first prize in this year's James Dyson Awards. This crooked, vented spherical device is designed to hang from skyscraper balconies and generate electricity in the chaotic wind conditions of a high-rise metropolis.
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Graphene has a great deal of potential applications, including its use in energy storage, building materials and medical devices. According to the National University of Singapore, however, most commercially-produced graphene is of a poor quality.
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Astronomers have discovered a super-Earth located just six light-years from our planet, orbiting the nearest lone star to our Sun. Named for its parent star, the exoplanet Barnard's Star b has a mass roughly 3.2 times that of the Earth, and has a frigid surface temperature of -170 °C (-274 °F).
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The mystery of a highly unusual Caribbean monkey has finally been solved. Xenothrix, a long-extinct primate, was so unlike any other living monkey that no one could agree what it was. Thanks to DNA analysis we now know that it is most closely related to South America's titi monkeys.
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Astronomers have spotted a mysterious “ghost” galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. Huge but extremely faint, the oddball galaxy has been named Antlia 2, and it might just be weird enough to force us to rethink what we know about galactic physics and dark matter.
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