Beaches, Bandages, Batteries, and a Blueprint

Copper lights the way, nano delivers for osteoarthritis, machine learning fast tracks a gene hunt and new tech breaks through sign language barriers. It's "4 Awesome Discoveries You Probably Didn't Hear About This Week."

Hydrogen from industrial waste, gripping shrinkage, urban heat archipelagos, and shedding ice Ice-proof coating for big structures University of Michigan City trees can offset neighborhood heat islands University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial University of Newfoundland Harnessing sunlight to pull hydrogen from wastewater Princeton University, University of Colorado Boulder San Diego State University Idaho National Laboratory National Renewable Energy Laboratory Shrink films get a grip North Carolina State University Auburn University

Volcano music and other rockin' EARTH SCIENCE stories! It's 4 Awesome Discoveries You Probably Didn't Hear About! WHO DID THE RESEARCH? Volcanologist jams to the beat of the Earth's drummer https://around.uoregon.edu/content/volcanologist-jams-beat-earths-drummer University of Oregon Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University Geoscientists create deeper look at processes below Earth’s surface with 3D images https://www.utdallas.edu/news/science-technology/geoscientists-add-deeper-dimension-to-study-of-areas-below-earths-surface University of Texas at Dallas Fiber Optic Seismic Array in Pasadena Tracked the Rose Parade https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/fiber-optic-seismic-array-pasadena-tracks-rose-parade The California Institute of Technology OptaSense Inc. University of Alcalá and Spanish National Research Council in Spain New tool for identifying endangered corals could help conservation efforts https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=301169 The Pennsylvania State University NOAA Restoration Center University of North Carolina Wilmington

Can earthquakes be predicted? Can robots assist in HAZMAT disasters? How can wildfires be prevented? How can we stop flooding? It's research to the rescue: Smart Walls, robot responders, wildfire cocktail & seismic signs! And it's all here in episode 42 of "4 Awesome Discoveries You Probably Didn’t Hear About." WHO DID THE RESEARCH? Smart Walls Construction https://www.smartwallsconstruction.com Dr. Jorge Cueto and Anthony Nesci How Squishy Robotics created a robot that can be safely dropped out of a helicopter https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/18/how-squishy-robotics-created-an-robot-that-can-be-safely-dropped-out-of-a-helicopter Squishy Robotics, Inc, https://squishy-robotics.com UC Berkeley, Berkeley Emergent Space Tensegrities Lab Wildfire Rx: Where medical science meets wildfire prevention Dr. Eric Andrew Appel and Dr. Anthony Yu, Stanford University LaderaTECH, https://www.ladera.tech Perimeter Solutions, https://perimeter-solutions.com Small quake clusters can’t hide from AI Rice University

4 Awesome Discoveries You Probably Didn’t Hear About - Episode 41 A mattress becomes a skateboard wheel!?! Something missing in a mammoth Maya monument. Rock 'n roll -- with real rocks! And a deep relationship. (Except one eats the other.) It’s 4 Awesome Discoveries You Probably Didn’t Hear About…all with funding from the National Science Foundation. Utah’s rock arches continue to whisper their secrets https://attheu.utah.edu/uncategorized/arches-whisper-secrets/ University of Utah Upcycling spongy plastic foams https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=300522 Northwestern University Exploring Methane Seep Ecosystems https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/deep-sea-worms-and-bacteria-team-harvest-methane California Institute of Technology Largest and Oldest Known Maya Structure Found https://nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=300785&org=SBE&from=news University of Arizona

The singing, song-writing robot, privacy advisory, cloud seeding succeeding, safer self-driving, and arming yourself with tentacles. It’s 4 Awesome Discoveries and a Thing You Probably Didn’t Hear About. New infrastructure will enhance privacy in today’s Internet of Things https://cylab.cmu.edu/news/2020/02/19-privacy-assistant.html Carnegie Mellon University Internet of Things (IoT) Portal: https://www.iotprivacy.io/login IoT Assistant app is available in both the Apple iOS and Google Play stores Shimon: Now a singing, song writing robot https://www.news.gatech.edu/2020/02/25/shimon-now-singing-songwriting-robot Georgia Institute of Technology “Into Your Mind,” music video by Shimon the Robot Scientists demonstrate that cloud seeding can generate snowfall https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=300089 University of Colorado National Center for Atmospheric Research University of Wyoming University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Idaho Power Company Researchers look under the road to aid self-driving cars https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=300108 MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab Octopus-inspired robot can grip, move, and manipulate a wide range of objects https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2020/02/tentacle-bot Harvard University Beihang University in Beijing, China Festo SE & Co. KG, Germany Credit: National Science Foundation

Stinging snot bombs, graphene from trash in a flash, coronavirus creature feature, and sweating robots – cool! Researchers create 3D-printed, sweating robot muscle http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/01/researchers-create-3d-printed-sweating-robot-muscle Cornell University Italian Institute of Technology’s Center for Micro-BioRobotics Rice lab turns trash into valuable graphene in a flash https://news.rice.edu/2020/01/27/rice-lab-turns-trash-into-valuable-graphene-in-a-flash/ Rice University Universal Matter Ltd. C-Crete Technologies Coronavirus outbreak raises question: Why are bat viruses so deadly? https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/02/10/coronavirus-outbreak-raises-question-why-are-bat-viruses-so-deadly/ University of California, Berkeley Albert Einstein College of Medicine Princeton University Charité Universitätsmedizin, Germany Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research Stinging water mystery solved - Jellyfish can sting swimmers, prey with 'mucus grenades' https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-02/s-swm021020.php U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History National Aquarium University of Kansas Rice University Texas A&M University Stanford University California State University

Body surfing bees, unsinkable metal, faster space forecaster, and gutsy mealworms purge plastic! Stanford researchers show that mealworms can safely consume toxic additive-containing plastic https://news.stanford.edu/press/view/31674 Stanford University Detecting solar flares in real time https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=299753 NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information University of Colorado Boulder Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder Bees “surf” atop water https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=299799 California Institute of Technology Spiders and ants inspire metal that won’t sink https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/superhydrophobic-metal-wont-sink-406272/ Related technology by High-Intensity Femtosecond Laser Lab: http://www2.optics.rochester.edu/workgroups/guo/media.html University of Rochester Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics, and Physics in China Credit: National Science Foundation

Spider eyes - jumping wise, kirigami graphene, design for the blind, and coming up for landing Kirigami inspires new method for wearable sensors https://mechanical.illinois.edu/news/kirigami-inspires-new-method-wearable-sensors Keong Yong and Ezekiel Hsieh, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Most complete exploration of fly landing maneuvers to advance future robots https://news.psu.edu/story/593959/2019/10/23/research/most-complete-exploration-fly-landing-maneuvers-advance-future The Pennsylvania State University Colorado State University National Centre for Biological Sciences in India Stanford increasing access to 3D modeling through touch-based display https://news.stanford.edu/2019/10/29/touchable-display-helps-blind-people-create/ Stanford University Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute Compact depth sensor inspired by spiders https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2019/10/compact-depth-sensor-inspired-spiders Harvard University UC Berkeley National University of Singapore

High five… and a half, snakehead stroll, designer meat, and capturing the symphony of life... It's 4 Awesome Discoveries You Probably Didn’t Hear About! Walking Frankenfish, and other news Walking Frankenfish, and other creature features Bizarre creature’s feature Extra-long finger, super-short thumb Another bizarre feature of this bizarre creature Power of High-Speed Microscope to Illuminate Biology at the Speed of Life https://zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/columbia-scientists-demonstrate-power-high-speed-microscope-illuminate-biology-speed-life University of Columbia Nagoya City University in Japan Gimme Six! Researchers Discover Aye-Aye’s Extra Finger https://news.ncsu.edu/2019/10/aye-aye-extra-finger/ North Carolina State University Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris Real texture for lab-grown meat https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2019/10/real-texture-lab-grown-meat Harvard University Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Harvard Materials Research Science and Engineering Center Poor water conditions drive invasive snakehead onto land https://news.wfu.edu/2019/10/22/poor-water-conditions-drive-invasive-snakeheads-onto-land Wake Forest University Maryland Department of Natural Resources