Poised at the starting gate are palm oil, sugar cane, corn cobs, and switch grass. On your mark, get set… This is not a race among fruits and vegetables, but instead a real-life contest to decide which biofuel raw materials and technologies make i…
Phosphate-free automatic dishwashing detergents — introduced to combat the phosphate-fed algae blooms that foul the nation’s lakes and rivers — may be making the fish happy. But they’re putting a frown on the faces of some consumers who say th…
People in a jetliner act and feel one way when crammed together like sardines in a can. But they have quite a different mindset when the middle seat is empty and they have more personal space. Scientists are pursuing a remarkable parallel that exist…
CORVALLIS, Ore. — In a short, violent battle that could have happened somewhere this afternoon, the lizard made a fast lunge at the dragonfly, bit its head off and turned to run away. Lunch was served.
But the battle didn’t happen today, it happ…
Long-awaited advances in reducing the cost of certain catalysts — substances that kick-start chemical reactions — have quietly led to production of super-strong forms of the world’s most widely used plastics, according to the cover story of th…
As children in Western cultures grow, they learn to place numbers on a mental number line, with smaller numbers to the left and spaced further apart than the larger numbers on the right. Then the number line changes to become more linear, with small…
China’s monopoly on the global supply of elements critical for production of computer hard disc drives, hybrid-electric cars, military weapons, and other key products — and its increasingly strict limits on exports — is setting the stage for a…