Science & Environment

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The Latest

3D-printed Soft Four Legged Robot Can Walk on Sand and Stone

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed the first soft robot that is capable of walking on rough surfaces, such as sand and pebbles. The 3D-printed, four-legged robot can climb over obstacles and walk on different terrains. Researchers led by Michael Tolley, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of California San Diego, will present the robot at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation from May 29 to June 3 in Singapore. The robot could be used to capture sensor readings in dangerous environments or for search and rescue.

UC San Diego Researchers Discover Human Burials and Artifacts in Ancient Mycenaean Tomb

The field researchers also collected paleo-environmental data concerning climate and environmental change during the Late Bronze Age.

UC San Diego Chemists Create the Ultimate Natural Sunscreen

Chemists, materials scientists and nanoengineers at UC San Diego have created what may be the ultimate natural sunscreen. In a paper published in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Central Science, they report the development of nanoparticles that mimic the behavior of natural melanosomes, melanin-producing cell structures that protect our skin, eyes and other tissues from the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation.

NVMW 2017 — Brain-Inspired Memory “At the Center of the Universe”

Reducing 'computational sprawl' with brain-inspired computing and re-thinking computing architecture from the ground up were two of many far-reaching ideas proposed at the eighth annual Non-Volatile Memories Workshop.

Don’t Count on Your Chickens Counting

Arguing against the current conventional wisdom – that there is an evolved capacity for number and arithmetic that we share with other species – Rafael Nunez says numerical cognition is not biologically endowed.

Rise of Aggressive Reef Predator From Overfishing May Impede Sea Urchin Recovery, Study Finds

A new study suggests that an aggressive reef competitor—the Threespot Damselfish—may have impeded the recovery of Caribbean long-spined sea urchin populations after a mysterious disease outbreak caused a massive die-off of these animals over three decades ago.