Science News
Hydrogen Headway
The Obama administration has turned away from fuel cells, but there's still promising research in the field. 06.18.2009
Forget Lightning. How Do We Catch Sunshine in a Bottle?
Renewable power is inspiring clever new ways to store electricity—and to uncork it exactly when and where it is needed. 06.17.2009
Building an Interstate Highway System for Energy
Tomorrow’s smart grid will keep the lights on and factories humming with clean (but fickle) renewable energy. 06.10.2009
New Tech Could Make Nuclear the Best Weapon Against Climate Change
Two new designs aim to make nuclear reactors safer and vastly more efficient. 06.08.2009
The Next Source of Green Energy: Your Car Itself
A new MIT invention turns shock absorbers into electric generators. 05.03.2009
Can Smart Tech Keep Chevy Volt's Battery Running Longer Than Your Laptop's?
GM says that tightly controlling how the battery charges will keep it alive for 10 years/150,000 miles. 04.09.2009
The Weirdest New Source of Alternative Energy: Underwater Vibrations
Researchers say this longtime bane of offshore drilling is more cost-efficient than wind and solar. 02.25.2009
Can Clean Coal Actually Work? Time to Find Out.
The first "clean coal" power plant is now up and running. 01.25.2009
The Best and Worst of the Latest Science News
Endangered humpback whales may be saved, but Navy sonar can still cause them problems. 01.18.2009
Super Trees Clean up Superfund Sites
One remarkable forest is busy purifying the planet. 12.26.2008
#1: The Post-Oil Era Begins
Electricity may be what fuels our future—electricity from renewables, nuclear, and even from burning biomass. 12.22.2008
#21: Plants Inspire a Better Way to Store Solar Energy
Using the principles of photosynthesis, scientists create more efficient storage for solar power. 12.18.2008
#26: Sun Catcher Promises Cheaper Solar Power
Using laser technology, scientists build a low-cost solar concentrator. 12.17.2008
Go Green This Thanksgiving: Turn Turkey Guts Into Oil
A Missouri plant successfully turns practically anything into black gold. But profitability is another matter. 11.25.2008
20 Best Brains Under 40
Young innovators are changing everything from theoretical mathematics to cancer therapy. 11.20.2008
How—and Where—Will We Live in 2015?
The future is now for sustainable cities in the U.K., China, and U.A.E. 10.08.2008
Can Engineers Achieve the Holy Grail of Energy: Infinite and Clean?
All they need to do is tame 200-million-degree plasma—without using too much energy. 10.06.2008
Anything Into Ethanol
Forget about corn—future biofuels will be made of wood chips and trash. 10.03.2008
The Element That Could Change the World
Making green energy work may depend on three unlikely heroes: an Australian engineer, a battery, and the element vanadium. 09.29.2008
The King of Green Architecture
William McDonough aims to create buildings that produce oxygen, sequester carbon, and produce more power than they use. 09.28.2008
From Booze to Garbage to Fusion: The Future of Energy
How will we fuel the world in 50 years? By putting everything from wood chips to balloons to liquid plasma to work for us. 09.24.2008
High-Flying Windmills Blow Away Their Ground-Based Cousins
Next-generation turbines may catch all the energy we need, thousands of feet up. 09.24.2008
Turning the "Freight Trains of the Ocean" Into Hybrids
As the fuel crisis continues, container ships look to innovation to clean up their act. 09.23.2008
Powering the Planet With Sun-Harnessing Balloons
One innovator says the greatest threat to a clean-energy world is kids with BB guns. 09.19.2008
The Second Coming of Biofuels
Plant-based fuels have been a big disappointment to date, but new "green biofuels" might fulfill their promise. 09.02.2008
Can Future Olympic Cities Go Greener Than Beijing?
After China's last-minute push to clean up for the games, the next three hosts aim to do better. 08.25.2008
Wind Turbine That Imitates Flippers Could Increase Efficiency
The bumps on a humpback's flipper prevent the beast from stalling as it turns. 08.15.2008
10 Ways Genetically Engineered Microbes Could Help Humanity
Fighting cancer, producing renewable fuels, and making your clothing glow in the dark. 08.06.2008
20 Things You Didn't Know About... Oil
Learn more about the world's biggest fuel source—while it's still around. 06.28.2008
Under the Hood of the First Real Fuel-Cell Car
The Honda Clarity is for real, but it's not zero-emissions. 06.08.2008
Two Strokes and You're Out
Impressive new tech reduces pollution from small engines by almost 90 percent. 05.21.2008
The Next Steps Toward a Sustainable Planet
Environmental activist Laurie David gives a state of the union on the environment. 05.16.2008
Is Nuclear Energy Our Best Hope?
Even the creator of the holistic Gaia hypothesis has come around. 04.25.2008
Biofuel Farming Looks to Be an Environmental Disaster
Growing corn for ethanol may increase greenhouse gases for over a century. 04.03.2008
The Great Forgotten Clean-Energy Source: Geothermal
The U.S. uses less than 1 percent of our available geothermal energy. 04.03.2008
Has Science Found a Way to End All Wars?
Given adequate food, fuel, and gender equality, mass conflict just might disappear. 03.13.2008
A New Source of Green Energy: Burning Tires?
If rubber recycling hits a glut, there may be little choice. 02.12.2008
The Latest Weapon Against Global Warming: Your Fridge
Smart appliances react to the grid to prevent blackouts—and pollution. 02.11.2008
If Life Gives You Methane, Make Methane Energy
The global warming risk that's also a great opportunity 01.31.2008
The Cheapest Way to Power Your Car
If you had the right ride, hydropower could lop 2/3 off your gas bills. 12.18.2007
Green House vs. Greenhouse
To save the environment, imitate mobile homes and go pre-fab. 11.29.2007
Solar Power, At Last?
The long-sought mechanism for a superior solar cell may now be at hand. 11.16.2007
Better Planet: Nuke Power is Earth's Friend
It’s time to replace coal power with wind and, yes, nuclear. 08.01.2007
The First Nuclear Refugees Come Home
Chernobyl-area natives return to find a city of ghosts. 06.08.2007
The Ultimate Garbage Disposal
A power station eats up dirty landfill and churns out clean electricity. 05.18.2007
Can Coal Come Clean?
How to survive the return of the world's dirtiest fossil fuel. 12.18.2006
Life After Oil
Everyone from GM to President Bush is suddenly infatuated with ethanol. Here's how Big Corn could really replace Big Oil. 08.01.2006
Homegrown Fuel
New research on reducing our dependence on foreign oil—with paper. 07.25.2006
A Better Energizer
An ultracapacitor is what really keeps going and going. . . . 05.28.2006
All Aboard The Cow Train
Natural gas from the manure of about 30 cows powers a train. 05.28.2006
Anything Into Oil
Turkey guts, junked car parts, and even raw sewage go in one end of this plant, and black gold comes out the other end. 04.02.2006
The Energizer
Amory Lovins has a vision: The U.S. economy keeps going and going and going—without any oil 02.20.2006
Wave Energy
Can a mechanical snake that surfs the ocean squeeze enough watts from water? 12.02.2005
Energy
Who needs oil or coal or gas when the world is full of plain old algae? 10.24.2005
Discover Dialogue: Chemist Rick Smalley
We are used to a world where we are rich in energy, driven by low-cost oil. That will not go on for much longer 02.06.2005
Don't Hold Your Breath for Hydrogen
07.25.2004
China Gets Greener
07.25.2004
Anything Into Oil
07.25.2004
Greenmark
On a tiny island off the Danish coast, life after oil is working out just fine 06.26.2004
Fire From Ice
05.29.2004
Catch the Fire!
Innovative dotcom engineers ReInvent Solar Power 08.01.2003
Bush Gambles on Fusion Energy
06.01.2003
Anything Into Oil
Technological savvy could turn 600 million tons of turkey guts and other waste into 4 billion barrels of light Texas crude each year. 05.01.2003
Unplugged
Self-sustaining homes could mean the end of utility bills or even the end of utilities 04.01.2003
Future Tech
Fusion could solve all our energy problems, if only we could get it to work 03.01.2002
Perpetual Locomotion on Alien Worlds
01.01.2002
Wind Power Goes to Town
01.01.2002
At Last, a Good Use for Airplane Food
10.01.2001
Christopher Flavin Energy Without Regrets
07.01.2001
The (slow) Rise of Alternative Energy
Wind and solar power become increasingly important. 05.01.2001
Hot Fusion in a Can
03.01.2001
Future Tech
This tube of supercharged sound could make the biggest bang since internal combustion 05.01.2000
Future Tech
Hybrid cars are electric efficient, gasoline convenient, and the biggest auto innovation in a century 04.01.2000
The Tenth Annual Discover Magazine Awards for Technological Innovation TRANSPORTATION
WINNER MIT's MicroplasmatronInnovator: Daniel Cohn 07.01.1999
Plasmamobiles
12.01.1998
Edible Motor Oil
08.01.1998
Physics Watch: Fusion's Future?
Will tomorrow's power plants run on a few ounces of hydrogen and boron instead of several hundred tons of coal? Physicist Hendrik Monkhorst is betting on it. 05.01.1998
At Play on a Field of Trash
Hastily converted landfills can be unruly dragons, belching garbage, gas, and fire. But done right, a dump can be a thing of beauty. 06.01.1997
Their Game Is Mud
05.01.1997
Reinventing the Wheel
A flywheel may be the key to a car that's both powerful and efficient. 08.01.1996
State of the Earth: 1995
01.01.1996
The Amazing All-Natural Light Machine
Scientists are using a molecule hidden in pond murk to create sugar like a bacteria. 12.01.1995
Power Lunch
With a couple of million microbes and a little bit of sugar, Peter Bennetto hopes to produce enough electricity to run a watch, a car, or even a city. 03.01.1995
