Science + Technology

Beach bur, a native plant that helped to form dunes on a section of Santa Monica Beach in Los Angeles

Diatoms are one of the largest groups of phytoplankton, which serve as a foundation of the ocean’s food web.

In this image of the newly developed transmitter assembly, the small, brownish chip on the left is the electronic integrated circuit (EIC), and the larger, black-and-gold chip on the right is the photonic integrated circuit (PIC). The long structure on the left side of the PIC is the modulator, which converts the electrical signal into an optical one. Light gets coupled into and out of the chip through the fibers on the right side of the PIC. Everything is mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB), with gold wire bonds connecting the chips. Data flows from left to right, where the incoming electrical signal gets amplified by the EIC, converted to an optical signal by the PIC, and sent out via fiber to its destination.

A research diver conducts periodic monitoring of a kelp forest marine protected area

An AI-generated image depicts engineers working on an AI-enabled robot.

A forest community changes as trembling aspen succumb to drought in southwestern Colorado.

Multi-messenger astronomy enabled scientists to observe merging neutron stars for the first time in 2017 (artist’s impression).