Sure it's been the lead story on CNN and a big story on Gawker, but there just wasn't enough DIY mechanics or cellphone-related mayhem for us to pounce on this little gem. As a dad, I don't like seeing shit like this, but knowing there's a happy ending made it a bit easier to view. Oops, did I give too much away? [Gawker]

Hairband balladeers from the roaring '80s will be disappointed to learn that holes in the heart previously only able to be filled by some girl who is already dating some other guy can now be filled by a patch made of stem cells. As for the rest of us, we naturally assumed that if stem cells could give Christopher "Butthole" Reeve real Superman strength and build replica's of Shakey's Pizza, well, of course they can patch heart holes. [PopSci]

By March of next year, many British police officers will be handed a smartphone in order to maintain communication while increasing time in the field. It may work, assuming they block like a million distractions. Frankly, the only reason I wanted to even mention this in Remainders was to remind the world of that stroke of British police genius, Hot Fuzz, through Photoshop. It was that or an image of the gmilfy Prime Suspect herself, Helen Mirren. Did I choose wrong? [BBC via Engadget]

Science produces explanations great and small, and finally got around to one we've been waiting for since Heinrich "Coca" Cola invented the fizzy beverage: Why do we love the carbonation? Everyone used to think it was the exploding carbonation bubbles, but sure enough, it's the carbon dioxide itself—you listening, Al Gore???—that sends a message to open up the sour taste buds, delivering a genuine flavor change. Sure, it's not gadget news, but now, when you head out to the bars, you can order beer in the name of science. [Daily Mail UK]

This scientific discovery was printed in the renowned chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, who deemed the breakthrough as "very important." According to Gizmag, "scientists have been able to make carbon dioxide react with a stable organocatalyst called N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) under mild conditions in dry air." After that, a dash of silica and a touch of hydrogen are added in, where the entire mixture is subjected to hydrolysis to produce the methanol.

The most promising part is that this NHC is a supposedly abundant gas. So here's hoping we actually see this move past the idea stage. [Gizmag]

The carbon dioxide is the main reason for the excitement because, under the right circumstances, it could have a connection to biological activity as it does on Earth. The very fact we are able to detect it and estimate its abundance is significant for the long-term effort of characterizing planets to find out what they are made of and if they could be a possible host for life.

Until now, the Hubble was mostly used for observations of stars and galaxies in the distant universe. However, the new analysis method created by Mark Swain, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., uses the space telescope's near infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer to make these findings.

The technique requires the planet to block its star. At that time, the light of the star could be subtracted from the light of the star and the planet prior to the eclipse. That way, scientists can analyze the chemical composition of the planet's atmosphere by looking at the resulting light, because the gases "absorb certain wavelengths of light from the planet's hot glowing interior".

According to NASA, HD 189733b is too hot to actually have life (at least, life as we know it), but the method opens the door to the discovery of life in distant solar systems.

As if Tom wasn't proof enough that aliens actually exists. [NASA]

The scrubber takes in air and binds the CO2 to sodium hydroxide. The heavier concoction is then sent through a few more chemical intermediaries, eventually resulting in a batch of separated CO2 that can be piped away, while the hydroxide gets fed back into the machine.

According to the university, the scrubbers can capture around a ton of carbon dioxide for less than 100 kwh of electricity, about ten times as much CO2 as was released to keep it running. Unfortunately, that's not quite enough to keep it from being prohibitively expensive. The cheapest way to keep CO2 emissions out of the air is still not generating it in the first place. [Popsci]

The Spremberg plant is tiny by most standards, pumping out just 30 megawatts while many plants can pull off 10 times that output. Even so, compressing and chilling the CO2 can be a real energy drain in and of itself, so the efficiency of the plant is seriously compromised by the green initiative.

Still it is worth tweaking the basic system for enhanced efficiency, as Vattenfall says that the system can theoretically gather up to 98% of the CO2 produced by the plant, making it nearly pollutant free.

Critics say that this is just a diversion from investing resources in truly non-polluting technologies. While I tend to lean with those critics, I am a fan of clean coal because the US uses so much coal to produce electricity for cities. Still, I'm not 100% clear on the whole pumping-greenhouse-gases-into-the-earth thing. I know it gets sealed away in places that previously contained massive amounts of natural gas, but still, isn't anyone concerned that this is just set up for massive CO2 geysers in decades or centuries to come? There, I said it—science nerds, please feel free to bludgeon me with the Stick of Enlightenment. [Technology Review; Vattenfall]