Shoshannah Buxbaum

Winter athletes are used to the cold, and this year’s Beijing Olympics have been especially frosty. But the US Ski Team has a new tool for keeping warm while training: battery-powered, heated shorts. US Olympic skiers wear the specially-designed, heated shorts during practice runs. Ryan Mooney / University of Oregon The gear was designed by graduate students at the University of Oregon’s Sports Product Management Program. Lauren Samuels is one of the students and a former member of the US Ski Team.

There's a lot more going on beneath the forest floor than you might realize. A vast underground network of fungi help some 95% of plants survive, helping them absorb nutrients and commnicate with other plants. New research shows that this fungi network might also be protecting the forest's biggest trees against pests and pathogens. Sara Germain is a PhD candidate in ecology at Utah State University in the Wildlife Resources Department. Her latest study was recently published in the journal Ecology.

This week on UnDisciplined we're talking about teens and their smartphones. You've likely heard about how social media is making teens more depressed, anxious and lonely. However, there are some positives to teens staying connected virtually. Intriguing new research looks at how teens are using the internet to cope with stress. Kathryn Modecki is an associate professor of applied psychology at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia.