Morphing dimpled skin could help cars reduce drag
The "smorph" surface can change its aerodynamic properties on the go to best suit the wind speeds it encounters, which could reduce drag on cars and planes
Pollution on other worlds may show advanced alien life
A NASA telescope should be able to sniff the atmospheres of Earth-sized worlds for industrial gases like CFCs – a sign of civilisation
Shoppers tracked as they go wild in the aisles
A system of motion-tracking cameras and smartphone-locators monitors shoppers as they move around a store, giving insights to managers on customer behaviour
A vampire mite injected this bee with a deadly virus
Bloodsucking parasitic mites are injecting the UK's honeybees with a lethal virus that deforms their wings
Make robots useful by teaching them to talk like us
Teaching robots how to handle the complex ways that humans communicate will make them better at dealing with our requests – or asking for help
Forget passwords – to log in, just start typing
Software can identify people based solely on the way they use their mouse and keyboard, and it could let us do away with passwords altogether
Child refugees can be dogged by poor health for life
Half of the world's 51 million refugees are children, a report revealed last week. Now 20th century conflicts are revealing the likely impacts of displacement on their future health
Feedback: Dolls of destiny
Toy torture, disclaimers as art, Danube detonation danger and more
Huge 'whirlpools' in the ocean are driving the weather
Giant spinning vortexes in the ocean up to 500 kilometres across are affecting our planet's climate on a massive scale
Ethical land-grabbing could feed 100 million people
Land grabs by foreign companies in poor parts of Africa and Asia could produce a lot of extra food, but it will only help if it stays in poor countries
Better to see the beautiful, ugly truth of the cosmos
The assumption that the cosmos is symmetrical over large scales is an elegant one, but how far must evidence deviate from expectations before we rethink it?
Even online, emotions can be contagious
Be careful you don't catch those Facebook blues – positive and negative feelings can spread like viruses through online social networks.
The wonder food you've probably never heard of
It's a protein-packed fruit that can grow in the ever-saltier soils climate change is bringing – could breadfruit feed the world? One determined woman says yes
Crystal cocoons kept bacteria safe in space
Radiation experiments on the International Space Station hint that life on early Earth may have survived in protective shields created by asteroid impacts
Fog catchers pull water from air in Chile's dry fields
Just south of the Atacama desert, prototype fog catchers are watering Chilean farms struggling with drought and climate change
Turbines reveal there's no business like snow business
The weather outside was frightful but a late-night Minnesota snowstorm let a team trace turbulent airflow around wind turbines with snowflakes
First quantum transmission sent through space
The basic parts of a quantum key have been bounced off mirrored probes flying 2600 kilometres above Earth, paving the way for ultra-secure satellite communications
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