The Discovery Files

University of Utah mathematicians have developed a brand new cloaking method that functions through wave cancellation and could someday shield submarines from sonar, planes from radar, buildings from earthquakes, and coastal structures from tsunamis. Most previous research used interior cloaking, where the cloaking device envelops the cloaked object. Researchers say this new method "is the first active, exterior cloaking" technique.

Stanford engineers and others have created a structural design that lets buildings rock during earthquakes, then correct themselves when the shaking stops, confining damage to replaceable steel "fuses."

A Northwestern University study is the first of its kind and demostrates that having musical training can help a listener distinguish between background noise and sound that the listener is meant to hear.

Oregon State University researchers are pioneering the concept of "rich interaction" -- computers that do, in fact, want to communicate with, learn from, and get to know you better as a person.

An international team of researchers deduced that early modern humans living on the coast of the southern tip of Africa used fire to increase the quality and the effectiveness of their stone tools.

University of Illinois researchers report that they have assembled a new cancer drug delivery system that, in a cell culture, is able kill tumor cells and spare healthy cells.

Based on a study of 84 students divided into four separate experiments, University of Oregon researchers found that students with high memory storage capacities are better able to ignore distractions and stay focused on their assigned tasks.

A team of international scientists led a two year study into trends of overfishing and population management tools. They found that highly managed fisheries caused 10 large troubled fish stocks to grow over the course of the study.

A hyper-realistic Einstein robot at the University of California, San Diego has learned to smile and make facial expressions through a process of self-guided learning.

Reseachers at the University of Michigan are using sound waves to push sample fluids through tiny detectors that are only millimeters or centimeters in size.

Using nanodiamonds, researchers at Northwestern University have deomonstrated a method for delivering and releasing curative medicines to a specific location in the body.

A team of computer scientists at the University of Washington developed a prototype system called Vanish that can place a time limit on information uploaded to the internet that causes all the information to become useless when the time is up.

Chemists at Stanford University have created new algorithms that use the computer technology behind today's video game systems to rapidly calculate and depict the structure of molecules.

A University of Utah study shows that brain signals controlling arm movements can be detected accurately using new microelectrodes that sit on the brain but don't penetrate it.

A University of Southern California research team found that whether or not a person moves their finger from side to side quickly or slowly, they are able to maintain almost the same amount of downward force on an object. This finding calls into question theories that are over 70 years old regarding how human muscles function.