What do you do when a major winter storm or a bolt of lightning has left you without power and the temperature in your home begins to plummet? Even if your back-up generator kicks in, you worry about the potential for fire and toxic fumes. Researchers are developing a sodium-based battery as an alternative power source to lithium-ion batteries that, when produced on a large scale, might one day make generators obsolete. Learn more at NSF’s “The Discovery Files.”

Imagine one day being able to use the entire back side of your cell phone as a camera! Researchers have developed a camera the size of a grain of salt that, despite being just a half millimeter wide, it can take clear, full-color images as crisp as cameras 500,000 times its size. Such a micro-sized camera could lead to extraordinary advances in medical diagnosis and care, and significant improvements in robotic sensors. Learn more at NSF’s “The Discovery Files.”

The human brain has billions of neurons that communicate by sending chemical and electrical signals. Mapping these electrical signals is critical to successful brain surgery and treatment of diseases like Epilepsy and Parkinson’s. Researchers have developed an array of brain sensors that record electrical signals directly on the surface of the brain at a higher resolution than before, improving a surgeon’s ability to remove brain tumors with minimal risk of damaging healthy tissue and to identify areas where epileptic seizures are born. Learn more at NSF’s “The Discovery Files.”

Websites rely on computer programming scripts that track browsing history and collect private data. Many people turn to privacy browsers and tools, which sometimes block privacy-harming scripts and break websites or sacrifice privacy and allow the sites to continue functioning. “SugarCoat” changes the game, integrating existing tools to replace privacy-threatening scripts with privacy-preserving versions. Learn more at NSF’s “The Discovery Files.”

The way we walk can be determined by our sex, height, age, and muscle strength. But for many, an accident or a health disorder can impact their ability to walk. A team of researchers have developed a wearable, soft robotic “exosuit” that could improve the quality of life for millions with walking impairments or who lift heavy loads. Learn more at NSF’s “The Discovery Files.”

Prescription drugs can be costly because they are pharmaceutical compounds that use expensive and rare metals as the glue that binds them together. Iron could prove an inexpensive alternative, but is very unstable in that role. Yet, researchers have reduced its instability and increased its binding capacity, which could make prescription drugs much cheaper. Learn more at NSF’s “The Discovery Files.

The oceans hold many mysteries. One such mystery was the Tasman Leakage, an ocean current that runs only a third to just over a half-mile beneath the surface. Scientists believe it began carrying water around the world more than 7 million years ago, but it was discovered just in the last 20 years. It could reveal important information about world climate history. Learn more at NSF’s “The Discovery Files.

Finger snapping is one of the fastest things the human body can do. Researchers studying the physics of finger snapping have learned that friction plays an intricately important role in the process. Such research could lead to the design of prosthetics that mimic the broad functionality of the human hand and the promise of bioinspired robots. Learn more at NSF’s “The Discovery Files.

Imagine! The body’s own heat powering a simple medical device you wear to take your temperature! Researchers have developed battery technology that uses thermal energy, produced by body heat, to power a low-profile, wearable device that detects if you have a fever. It could also do temperature checks and accurate, rapid fever detection in large crowds. Learn more at NSF’s “The Discovery Files.

Some volcanoes are short-lived, erupting only once over their lifetime. Yet, that eruption can last for days, years or even decades. Called monogenetic or “one birth” volcanoes, scientists believe an active one represents a major environmental threat and see the tortured terrain they leave behind as a beacon of the steps needed to save lives! Learn more at NSF’s “The Discovery Files.