This Week’s NOVA Next Feature Article
Every single building on the planet has a unique and dynamic microbiome. Hospitals, too. NOVA Next correspondent Brooke Borel reports on the way architects are rethinking hospital design to minimize the spread of pathogens.
In other news from NOVA and around the web:
- In the race to discover another Earth, scientists have just hit a major milestone. Kepler 186f isn’t too large, too hot, or too remote. In fact, it’s just about right .
- Molecules called “photoswitches” can generate solar power—even in the dark.
- You can drip water across graphene to create electricity.
- A stretch of highway in the Netherlands now has glow-in-the-dark roads .
- See Saturn’s newest moon being born .
- Still enjoying “Cosmos” on the National Geographic Channel/FOX? Catch up on some important new information about the universe.
- Enjoy this rare audio of Einstein explaining “Why I Am an American” on the day he passed his citizenship test.
- Do you think you could pass a Harvard exam administered by cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker? Give this test a try .
- In a post-Sandy world, we ought to start thinking like the Dutch . Go inside an 18th century Dutch windmill with our video .
- The White House is being pressed to help rescue the monarch butterfly . Watch “Journey of the Butterflies” streaming online to learn more about their wondrous annual migration.
- Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday was Tuesday. Celebrate belatedly by watching “Mystery of a Masterpiece,” in which art expert investigate whether a portrait sold for about $20,000 in 1998 is actually a lost Leonardo worth millions. It’s free and streaming online .
- Why does your pooch have a wrinkly face? And why is your St. Bernard so big? Watch our video .
- Your average dog’s nose is tens of thousands of times as sensitive to odors as yours.
Did you miss "Inside Animal Minds: Dogs & Super Senses"? Stream it here—and remember, it will only be available for the next four weeks.
- Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings . The victims, though they still face challenges, benefit from significant strides in bionics .
- Prosthetics limbs are getting more and more advanced. But sometimes the most revolutionary device isn’t one that’s state-of-the-art.
- Humans understand the face holistically. Could facial recognition technology ever come close to that level of nuance?
- And finally, gear up for the 118th Boston Marathon by watching “Marathon Challenge,” streaming online .