Science

Electrified Coral Reef in Bali

That trellis you see in this picture is made of electrical cables, and it’s covered in thriving coral. Apparently low-wattage energy emissions attract limestone, which is the basis for coral growth. Now countries like Bali (where this picture was taken on Wednesday) are setting up electrical grids to regrow their dying reefs. [Seattle Times]

March of the Spermbots

Spunk-seeking nanotechnology experts at Cornell say that sperm would make the perfect nanobots of the future. Robot sperm (pictured here in an artist’s rendering) would deliver new DNA or other molecules to your body by scooting through your bloodstream using a tail powered by its own energy source. Find out why sperm are self-contained power-houses…

Climate Change Traced to High Divorce Rate

Divorce is pushing global warming into the danger zone. Each time a family splits up, according to a study released yesterday, it creates a double-sized carbon footprint. And since global warming is causing a general rise in thunderstorms across the planet, when you and your spouse consider splitting up, you are threatening the world with…

Girls On Top For First Time in Siemens Competition’s History

A trio of girls has scooped the honors in Siemens’ Math, Science and Technology Prize, the first time in the competition’s nine-year history. According to James Whaley, President of the Siemens Foundation, the percentage of girls taking part in the competition has been steadily increasing each year—and this year, 48% of the contestants were female.…

Children Are a Sinister Threat to the Future

The latest craze among environmentalists is killing children by not having them. These people are appalled by the huge carbon footprint kids leave behind. Think of all the consumer electronics devices they’ll use up and throw away, not to mention all those gallons of gas parents use to ferry their little carbon emitters to toxic…

Tomorrowland Sucks

Disneyland promises visitors through its gates four separate worlds that are supposed to thrill and delight you: Fantasyland, Adventureland, Frontierland, and Tomorrowland. While the other lands deliver on that promise, Tomorrowland seems like it got stuck in Yesterdayland. Once a portal to the future, the amusement park has now been surpassed in coolness by several…

Secret Gene Sequencer in “Undisclosed Institution”

A relatively unknown biotech company in Waltham, Mass has secretly rolled out a machine that’s capable of sequencing an entire genome in 24 hours for $5,000. This is an extraordinary claim: current cutting-edge gene sequencing tech takes at least twice as long, and costs about $100,000. Intelligent Bio-Systems, the company who dropped this genetics hype…

Apparently no good science books were published this year. That’s according to the New York Times, which isn’t exactly a bastion of scientific rationality. [Laelaps]

Help! My Nervous System Has Been Remapped!

Neuroscientists announced yesterday that they can do something extremely creepy with your nervous system. Using delicate surgery, they can make you feel your hands in your chest. That’s right — they move your nerves around so that when somebody touches your chest, it feels like they are touching your hand. There are real applications for…

Let the Terraforming Begin

This machine looks like it should be creating a new biosphere on Mars, but instead it’s bringing solar power to Europeans on cloudy days. Called a “heat accumulator,” this massive, silvery ribbon of solar-power-sucking panels can store energy all day and then feed it to the power grid at night. German aerospace engineers put it…

100-Year-Old Inventor of the Taser Goes to Space, Makes Movie

The Tom Swift adventure novels have been optioned by former Nickelodeon executive Albie Hecht for a new Web, TV and film franchise. Tom Swift has been zooming around the universe and building retro-gadgets in nearly 100 books for roughly a century. What’s taken Hollywood so long to pay attention? These books have inspired at least…

GE Sponsors Your Cyber-Spine

We’ve got some artificial body parts, some bad brains, and some serious toxic sludge in the state of Washington for you in today’s science news headlines. General Electric is investing in artificial spinal discs that could replace parts of your diseased backbone. The springy metal discs are inserted directly into your spine and use a…

Harvesting the Saliva Glands of Mosquitoes

This dead mosquito’s saliva glands are being harvested by researchers using two tiny syringes. They hope to use the insect’s tainted spit to manufacture malaria vaccine more efficiently in the future. This delicate operation took place last month at Sanaria, Inc. in Maryland. Image by Tim Sloan for Getty.

Antidepressants Promise Long, Happy Lives to Roundworms

A recent clinical trial involving several members of the Caenorhabditis elegans species in Seattle showed that the worms that given antidepressants lived up to 31% longer than their unmedicated brothers and sisters. Of course, the scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center hope to someday apply this longevity trick to expand humans’ time on…

Pollution is a Great Source of Clean Energy

Today’s top science news story today will make Hedorah the Smog Monster happy. Heat emitted by smokestacks belching gloop could be harvested for thermal energy. Apparently there are nearly 50 thousand smokestacks in the United States alone whose emissions are hot enough to produce 50,000 megawatts of power. [Worldchanging] A University of Minnesota researcher has…

Oakley’s ‘O Lab’ Shoots Ball Bearings at, Drops Weights on Sunglasses

Oakley sunglasses are expensive. But apparently, they’re expensive for reasons other than the recognizable “O” logo that’s stuck on them. Nope, they’re resistant to shattering if something strikes them, unlike other sunglasses that’ll happily embed shards of themselves in your eyes when hit. They can also withstand 2 pound weights falling on them and handle…

Wind Power Sucks But Brain Damage Is Okay

I’ve got some good science news for you, and some bad. Wind power may not be a clean energy source of the future after all. Though Sweden has just built a massive wind farm at sea, most countries have found wind an inefficient and unreliable energy source. [New York Times] Why brain damage is okay…

High-Tech Bubbles Trap Heat In Olympic Swimming Pool

China is rushing to finish the 7,000 square foot “Water Cube” in time to host swimming events in the 2008 Olympics. This giant building’s outer cladding, which will keep the pool warm, is based on research by physicists into “how soap bubbles might be arranged in infinite array,” says architecture firm Arup. The bubbles themselves…

Alien bacteria may have seeded life on Earth, says the latest issue of Scientific American. Not only that, but alien bacteria may be among us right now, breeding happily.

Morally Pure Stem Cells And An Electronic Nose

Wake up and smell the science, people. A bunch of researchers say they can turn any cell into a stem cell. There’s always a big problem with stem cells, despite their potential to regrow brains and stuff, because they’re harvested from human embryos. That’s why the Bush Administration outlawed making them for a while. But…