Explorer

If you didn’t get the chance to read as many science stories as you would have liked in 2018, fear not: CBC has compiled its top 10 list just for you. From the discovery of an ancient Mayan city to evidence of Planet X, there’s no shortage of fascinating stories to review.

You don’t need to travel all the way to Amsterdam to see the Anne Frank House. The museum recently launched a 25-minute virtual reality tour that takes you through the rooms—hidden behind an Amsterdam canal-side house—where Anne wrote her diary. Read the full article and watch a trailer for the virtual reality tour.

Petroleum pipeline leaks are costly – for business and for the environment. Researchers are now developing bacteria-based sensors to detect hydrocarbons released by a leak – and emit a wireless alert signal to technicians.

A new product will soon enable novice beekeepers to keep honeybees inside their houses. The BEEcosystem is modular honeybee habitat that can be hung almost anywhere; it simply needs to be placed near a window if inside, or in a sheltered location outside. Watch a video that shows how the technology works.

Researchers at MIT and the Max Planck Institute have developed a method for quick, on-site E. coli detection in food. While current food safety testing either requires days to complete or expensive equipment, this new method, paired with a smartphone and QR code, will make testing inexpensive and portable. The new detection process uses Janus emulsions, droplets consisting of two hemispheres of different densities. In water, the less dense, hydrocarbon hemisphere sits above the denser hemisphere

Since the deciphering of the honey bee ‘waggle’ in the 1920’s by Karl von Frisch, researchers have been measuring the dance-like form of communication that allows bees to convey direction and distance to a food source. While this observation process was initially manual and time-consuming – requiring humans, protractors, and stopwatches – techniques have evolved with technology. Recently, a team from the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the Free University of Berlin, Germany

Intended to replace the Avro Canada CF-100, the CF-105 Arrow was a technical masterpiece at the forefront of aviation engineering during its time. The Canadian government believed, however, that the manned bomber threat was diminishing and that air defence could be better handled by unmanned BOMARC missiles. The contract was cancelled on February 20, 1959 while test flying was still in progress. By then five Arrows had flown. The government ordered all completed Arrows, related documentation

Engineers are constantly taking cues from nature when designing new technologies, and the robotic tentacle arm created by German robotics company, Festo, is a great example.