Scientists are discovering engineering details of the biological structures that enable some animals to jump exceedingly far for their sizes. Froghoppers are insects that can jump 100 times their body length, and it turns out that sheer muscular strength is not nearly sufficient to account for this feat.

Computerized tomography (CT) scans use computing power to compile two-dimensional X-ray images into a three-dimensional view, and researchers are optimistic that a new form of high-resolution CT scanning at the molecular level will give “scientists precious new information about how Mother Nature forms shells, bones, and other hard structures.”¹ They hope to learn how to mimic the st

Advances in solar cell technology have produced a new European record of 39.7 percent efficiency. The result was attributed to improved “contact structures” of solar cells, according to Frank Dimroth at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg.¹

Scientists put an age on what they believe is earth’s oldest rock, but their figure doesn’t match other geologic or historical facts.

The jawbone of a very small camel was unearthed in Syria in August 2008. According to Heba al-Sakhel, head of the Syrian National Museum, it is the oldest fossil camel on record, clocking in at one million years.¹ Last year, the same team of Syrian and Swiss researchers also discovered a giant camel that would have stood at about 12 feet tall, but it was “only” 100,000 years old.