Instruments

The chips may be the smallest ever human-designed flying machines.
Charles Q. Choi, Contributor
A new heat sensor offers an option for incorporating thermal imaging into phones.
Meeri Kim, Contributor
Miniature aircraft, powered by light, might offer new ways to explore the atmosphere of Earth -- or other planets.
Katharine Gammon, Contributor
Seventy-five years after Hans Geiger’s death, we explore how his most famous invention detects radiation.
Abigail Malate, Staff Illustrator
Testers who wore these devices that track sweatiness found the data useful for monitoring emotions and managing stress.
Yuen Yiu, Staff Writer
Particle physicists have overcome one of the biggest obstacles to a collider that would smash particles for less.
Meredith Fore, Contributor
Instead of packing more pixels into displays, engineers are learning how to trick our eyes and brains to see higher resolutions in the virtual world.
Yuen Yiu, Staff Writer
Researchers combine old whaling records with aerial photographs to estimate the large animals’ weights.
Joshua Learn, Contributor
New technology could lower the cost of ultrasound machines
Karin Heineman, Executive Producer
Explore the applications of state-of-the-art clocks -- and the math that describes their performance and limitations.
Yuen Yiu, Staff Writer
New tools are creating a trend in archaeology research: excavation without digging.
Katharine Gammon, Contributor
Super high-pressure experiments take science to extremes.
Yuen Yiu, Staff Writer