Second Wind: Air-Breathing Lithium Batteries Promise Recharge-Free Long-Range Driving--If the Bugs Can Be Worked Out: Scientific American

Second Wind: Air-Breathing Lithium Batteries Promise Recharge-Free Long-Range Driving--If the Bugs Can Be Worked Out: Scientific American IBM-led research to create lithium-air electric vehicle batteries gets a boost from Japanese chemical companies toward the goal of 800 kilometers out of a full charge

By Larry Greenemeier  | April 20, 2012 | 30

Materials Inspired by Mother Nature: One-Pound Boat That Could Float 1,000 Pounds

Materials Inspired by Mother Nature: One-Pound Boat That Could Float 1,000 Pounds  ScienceDaily (Mar. 25, 2012) — Combining the secrets that enable water striders to walk on water and give wood its lightness and great strength has yielded an amazing new material so buoyant that, in everyday terms, a boat made from 1 pound of the substance could carry five kitchen refrigerators, about 1,000 pounds.

Fossil Free: Microbe Helps Convert Solar Power to Liquid Fuel: Scientific American

Fossil Free: Microbe Helps Convert Solar Power to Liquid Fuel: Scientific American  A new "bioreactor" could store electricity as liquid fuel with the help of a genetically engineered microbe and copious carbon dioxide.

Scientists revolutionize electron microscope: New method could create highest resolution images ever

Scientists revolutionize electron microscope: New method could create highest resolution images ever ScienceDaily (Mar. 6, 2012) — Researchers at the University of Sheffield have revolutionised the electron microscope by developing a new method which could create the highest resolution images ever seen.

New Energy-Dense Battery Could Enable Long-Distance Electric Cars: Scientific American

New Energy-Dense Battery Could Enable Long-Distance Electric Cars: Scientific American

A Global Plan For Sustainable Agriculture: Scientific American

A Global Plan For Sustainable Agriculture: Scientific American Use less land, eat less meat, waste less food. Sounds obvious, but these plans were developed after an intense examination of farm data and satellite images.

How do we feed 9 billion people by 2050 with roughly the same amount of land? An international team of researchers from Canada, the U.S., Sweden, and Germany has come up with a plan--using global models of agricultural systems and environmental impacts by combining crop data and satellite images from around the world--to double the world's food production while reducing agriculture's environmental impact.

Bill Gates Urges Young Scientists to Consider the "Needs of the Poorest"

Observations: Bill Gates Urges Young Scientists to Consider the "Needs of the Poorest": "LINDAU, Germany—Microsoft founder Bill Gates thrilled a crowd of 566 young researchers from 77 countries gathered here June 26 for the opening ceremony of the 61st Meeting of Nobel Laureates, and he wasted no time in telling them what to do." "I admonish you to consider the needs of the poorest in the work that you do," he told the scientists. "The advances there will be particularly important in coming years and without your attention they will not take place." Gates made his comments following his induction into the honorary senate of the Foundation of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings.

High-temperature superconductor spills secret: A new phase of matter?

High-temperature superconductor spills secret: A new phase of matter?: "An unprecedented three-pronged study has found that one type of high-temperature superconductor may exhibit a new phase of matter. As in all superconductors, electrons pair off (bottom) to conduct electricity with no resistance when the material is cooled below a certain temperature. But in this particular copper-based superconductor, many of the electrons in the material don't pair off; instead they form a distinct, elusive order (orange plumes) that had not been seen before. (Credit: Illustration by Greg Stewart, SLAC)"

The real avatar: Swiss researchers use virtual reality and brain imaging to hunt for the science of the self

The real avatar: Swiss researchers use virtual reality and brain imaging to hunt for the science of the self ScienceDaily (Feb. 18, 2011) — That feeling of being in, and owning, your own body is a fundamental human experience. But where does it originate and how does it come to be? Now, Professor Olaf Blanke, a neurologist with the Brain Mind Institute at EPFL and the Department of Neurology at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, announces an important step in decoding the phenomenon. By combining techniques from cognitive science with those of Virtual Reality (VR) and brain imaging, he and his team are narrowing in on the first experimental, data-driven approach to understanding self-consciousness.

Breakthrough in converting heat waste to electricity: Automotive, chemical, brick and glass industries could benefit from discovery

Breakthrough in converting heat waste to electricity: Automotive, chemical, brick and glass industries could benefit from discovery: "ScienceDaily (Jan. 18, 2011) — Researchers at Northwestern University have placed nanocrystals of rock salt into lead telluride, creating a material that can harness electricity from heat-generating items such as vehicle exhaust systems, industrial processes and equipment and sun light more efficiently than scientists have seen in the past."

Secret of ultra-hard graphite unlocked - physics-math - 06 November 2010 - New Scientist

Secret of ultra-hard graphite unlocked - physics-math - 06 November 2010 - New Scientist In 2003, an experiment suggested that graphite, which is normally soft, could become ultra-hard when compressed. Graphite squeezed between two diamond jaws at pressures of 170,000 atmospheres managed to produce a crack in the diamond. The atomic structure of the material remained elusive, however.

New Scientist TV: Best of web video: Halloween special

New Scientist TV: Best of web video: Halloween special

Take the ultimate intelligence test - life - 27 October 2010 - New Scientist

Take the ultimate intelligence test - life - 27 October 2010 - New Scientist Click here to go straight to the ultimate intelligence test

You might think it's obvious that one person is smarter than another.

But there are few more controversial areas of science than the study of intelligence and, in reality, there's not even agreement among researchers about what this word actually means.

Super-futuristic cars will be 'grown from seeds' rather than built - Yahoo! India News

Super-futuristic cars will be 'grown from seeds' rather than built - Yahoo! India News London, Oct 26 (ANI): Some of the world's most famous car manufacturers have come up with futuristic designs for vehicles that would be "grown" rather than built and which will be powered by compressed air.

New liquid crystals could improve digital displays

New liquid crystals could improve digital displays Chemists at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., created a new class of liquid crystals with unique electrical properties that could improve the performance of digital displays used on everything from digital watches to flat panel televisions.

First frictionless superfluid created - physics-math - 07 October 2010 - New Scientist

First frictionless superfluid created - physics-math - 07 October 2010 - New Scientist Superfluidity is a bizarre consequence of quantum mechanics. Cool helium atoms close to absolute zero and they start behaving as a single quantum object rather than a group of individual atoms. At this temperature, the friction that normally exists between atoms, and between atoms and other objects, vanishes, creating what is known as a superfluid. Robert McKellar of the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa and colleagues turned to hydrogen, which exists as pairs of atoms. The team created a compressed mixture of hydrogen and carbon dioxide gas and shot it through a nozzle at supersonic speeds. Once released, the molecules spread apart, cooling and arranging themselves so that each CO2 molecule sat at the centre of a cluster of up to 20 hydrogens.

Robert Edwards Wins Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for Pioneering In Vitro Fertilization [Update]: Scientific American

Robert Edwards Wins Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for Pioneering In Vitro Fertilization [Update]: Scientific American Robert Edwards has won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work to develop in vitro fertilization (IVF), the Nobel committee announced Monday. The procedure allows a human egg to be fertilized outside of the body and then implanted in a woman's; it has been used as a treatment for infertility for more than three decades.

Beyond God and atheism: Why I am a 'possibilian' - opinion - 27 September 2010 - New Scientist

Beyond God and atheism: Why I am a 'possibilian' - opinion - 27 September 2010 - New Scientist When it comes to the big questions, why should we have to either deny God or believe? Surely good science doesn't so restrict us, says David Eagleman.When we reach the end of the pier of everything we know, we find that it only takes us part of the way. Beyond that all we see is uncharted water. Past the end of the pier lies all the mystery about our deeply strange existence: the equivalence of mass and energy, dark matter, multiple spatial dimensions, how to build consciousness, and the big questions of meaning and existence.

Indian scientists grow world's first GM "protato" spuds - Yahoo! India News

Indian scientists grow world's first GM "protato" spuds - Yahoo! India News A team of Indian scientists have grown for the first time, a genetically modified spud called 'protato' that makes up to 60 per cent more protein per gram than ordinary potatoes.

Real spray-on clothes to hit the catwalk - tech - 17 September 2010 - New Scientist

Real spray-on clothes to hit the catwalk - tech - 17 September 2010 - New Scientist