• In pictures: Arctic exploration tech

    In pictures: Arctic exploration tech

    The Catlin Arctic Survey sends international teams of explorers and scientists to some of the world's harshest conditions. At the Ice Base off the western coast of Ellef Ringnes Island, their mission is to gather scientific data on environmental change in the Arctic, particularly of the sort that satellites or submarines can't access or accurately measure. Previous surveys measured ice thickness and ocean acidification -- this year's will examine freshwater currents beneath the surface of Arctic Ocean ice to help understand their effect on bottom-up ice melting, which is disrupting global ocean circulation. Continue reading

  • Concrete that thinks it's cloth

    Concrete that thinks it's cloth

    Pitching your tent will never be the same. The Concrete Canvas Shelter is a rapidly deployable hardened structure that can be inflated by pump, sprayed with water and left to set -- leaving a fireproof, secure cover.

    The secret is "concrete cloth", a material that sets faster than regular concrete. "It enables many construction tasks to be finished in around a tenth of the time," explains 31-year-old Peter Brewin, Concrete Canvas's principal engineer. Continue reading

  • Inside Toyota Motorsport's wind tunnels

    Inside Toyota Motorsport's wind tunnels

    Air molecules not flowing over your car as aerodynamically as possible? Help is here. Toyota Motorsport GmbH's two wind tunnels in Cologne (pictured is Tunnel One) measure airflow down to single particles. A chamber is fed with a fine mist of diethylhexyl sebacate, which has the same density as air, and two cameras are focused on an area of the car, usually just behind the front wheel. Continue reading

  • Imaging dental plaque reveals the inner beauty of gum disease

    Imaging dental plaque reveals the inner beauty of gum disease

    Is it a frozen alien world?

    Afraid not -- it's a sample of bacterial colonies from the mouth of a patient with gum disease. Periodontal Bacteria was a winner in the Wellcome Image Awards 2011, a celebration of photography in the fields of science and medicine. Derren Ready, lecturer at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute in London, began his prize-winning snap with a sample of plaque. "We grow the bacteria Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans on a pale-coloured agar plate, then shine a light beneath it to emphasise the colony shape," says Ready. Continue reading

  • Can science be art?

    Can science be art?

    Can science be art? Albert Folch thinks so. The associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington has been creating art based on his microbiology and microfluidics work since 1994. "During my PhD, I did a lot of atomic-force microscopy and scanning-electron microscopy, which produces beautiful images," says Folch, 44. "In 1997, I uploaded the prettiest pictures [to the web]. They were an instant hit." Continue reading