Financial search engine image.
Is it sexy to be spiritual? New research has found that spirituality has a greater effect on the sex lives of young adults — especially women — than religion, impulsivity, or alcohol.
“I think people have been well aware of the role that religious and spiritual matters play in everyday life for a very long time,” said Jessica Burris, one of the study’s researchers at the University of Kentucky. “But in the research literature, the unique qualities of spirituality — apart from religiousness — are not usually considered.”
Photo: Cheap coal: This demonstration plant in Wilsonville, AL, uses a transport gasifier to turn two tons of cheap, low-quality coal per hour into a clean-burning gas. A plant based on similar technology is scheduled for China. Credit: KBR
From CNET:Global biofuel use is expected to increase twofold by 2015 and Brazil will remain the world's top exporter of biofuel, according to a report released Wednesday by Hart Energy Consulting.
The U.S. is expected to see the largest increase in biofuel use per country, increasing its current consumption by more than 30 percent, according to data from the "Global Biofuels Outlook: 2009-2015" report.
The overall increased use of biofuel in many countries around the world will make a dent in the world's consumption of traditional gasoline, according to Hart.
From The BBC:Sir John Maddox, twice the editor of the journal Nature, was one of the most thoughtful voices in science journalism of the past five decades. He died on April 12 of this year, but his spirit lives on in this unique appreciation of Stephen Hawking, appearing in publication for the first time. Also see the related look at Hawking's recent work, "Stephen Hawking Is Making His Comeback."
On November 30 of 2006, in the august premises of the Royal Society of London, I had dinner with professor Stephen Hawking. To boast of having had dinner with Hawking creates a false impression. The circumstances were these. Since the summer I had been badgering the “graduate assistant to Professor Hawking” for an interview. Early in November, word came that Hawking was to receive the Copley Medal, the most venerable of the Royal Society’s gifts. I was invited; the date was plainly a license to join the scrum around the wheelchair after the group photographs had been taken.
New England Patriots' linebacker Ted Johnson, left, listens to coach Pepper Johnson during an afternoon training camp in 2001. Charles Krupa/Associated Press
A cloaking device is made of copper rings, each surrounded by 10 layers of meta-material. (© Duke Photography www.dukephoto.duke.edu)
Canadian space tourist and founder of Cirque du Soleil Guy Laliberte jokes during space suit testing prior to his blast off from a Russian leased Kazakh Baikonur cosmodrome on September 30, 2009 in a Russian Soyuz TMA-16 rocket to the International Space Station (ISS) together with Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev and a U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams. Photograph by: Alexander Nemenov, AFP/Getty Images
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The MODIS sensor aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite observed a heavy pall of pollution (gray pixels) over much of eastern China in this image from 2003. Plumes of harmful air pollutants can be transported across oceans and continents -- from Asia to the United States and from the United States to Europe -- and have a negative impact on air quality far from their original sources. (Credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC)
Young, healthy muscle (left column) appears pink and red. In contrast, the old muscle is marked by scarring and inflammation, as evidenced by the yellow and blue areas. This difference between old and young tissue occurs both in the muscle's normal state and after two weeks of immobilization in a cast. Exercise after cast removal did not significantly improve old muscle regeneration; scarring and inflammation persisted, or worsened in many cases. Credit: Morgan E. Carlson and Irina M. Conboy, UC Berkeley
Photo: (iStockphoto)
Petra Diamonds chief executive Johan Dippenaar holds a white diamond weighing 507.55 carats.
A twisted nudibranch, (Chromodoris Elizabethina), on the reef face off Heron Island, discovered by researchers last year. Photograph: Gary Cranitch/Queensland Museum
With hydrogen and oxygen both abundant on the moon's surface, man may be able to have all the water and rocket fuel needed for space exploration
WIND IN A BOTTLE: From flywheels to batteries, companies are developing ways to store energy from renewable sources. FLICKR/THE RUSSIANS ARE HERE
New research suggests that the types of shoes women wear, specifically high-heels, pumps and sandals, may cause future hind-foot (heel and ankle) pain. (Credit: iStockphoto)
Transonic Hull: Graham Murdoch
The Northrop B2 American stealth bomber (Image: Alisdair Macdonald/Rex Features)
Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington.
From CNN:
From The BBC:
Time you were going: The red-tailed hawk shrieks in pain as the brave kingbird sinks its talons in
Image: If the science truly succeeds, it will make it possible to supplant the world created by Darwinian evolution with one created by us.
From Newsweek:
Credit: GE Global Research 
Chemical engineers at Oregon State University are using extraordinarily small films at the nanostructure level to improve the performance of eyeglasses and, ultimately, solar energy devices. These films, which resemble millions of tiny pyramids, reduce the reflectance of any light that strikes the material. (Credit: Image by Seung-Yeol Han)
A reconstruction of the Trichomonas-like infection of the T. rex commonly known as "Peck's Rex." Note the yellowing at the back of the mouth and the lesions in the jaw that penetrate the full thickness of the bone. Credit: Chris Glen, University of Queensland
Adam Kazmierski
Slick Hull A fine sheen of slime could someday cover Navy vessel hulls such as this, and cut fuel consumption to boot. U.S. Navy Slime ships ahoy! A vessel that oozes a continual slick layer of slime from its hull could shed barnacles and other marine life forms, and possibly cut its fuel consumption by up to 20 percent.
Such a novel idea tackles the problem of removing marine plants, barnacles and tube worms from ship hulls every year, lest the buildup cut into both speed and fuel efficiency. The fuel savings in particular may look especially tempting for the U.S. Department of Defense, which has backed the project and previously invested in hull-cleaning bots.
This means war (Image: ColorBlind Images/Getty)
Opportunity in Crisis? Although the Great Depression made have had a severe impact on the American economy, the crisis was actually good for U.S. health, according to a new study. The findings offer a silver lining for today's financial crisis. StockPhoto
A study over 50 years has revealed that popular school children are less likely to suffer conditions such as heart disease and diabetes than their unpopular counterparts. Credit: iStockphoto
Photo: Time lens: This silicon chip, called a time lens, is patterned with waveguides that split optical signals and combine them with laser light to speed data rates. Credit: Alexander Gaeta 
Standing up for GM: Kurzweil believes that opposition to advances such as genetic modification harm humankind. GETTY IMAGES
View of wetlands and tidal streams in the Ashe Island area. (Credit: NOAA)
Geologist points to the edge of a boulder of reddish volcanic rock from the fossilized supervolcano in Sesia Valley, Italy. The volcanic rock is encased by a light-gray tuff, a relationship characteristic of deposits produced during caldera-forming, explosive eruptions. Credit: Silvano Sinigoi, Universita di Trieste
From The Threat Level:
The google logo that celebrates the search engine's eleventh birthday
From BBC:
Supertyphoon Sepat bears down on the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean on August 15, 2007. Increasingly powerful storms will devastate countries in the western Pacific Ocean, including Japan, as rising temperatures add fuel to storms, scientists said in September 2009. Photograph by NOAA/AP 
Photo: Pollutant chemicals found in breast milk have been linked to testicular cancer Photo: GETTY 
Image: Soft touch: This four-fingered robotic hand contains sensors that help it pick up a variety of objects. Credit: Leif Jentoft 
Photo: Hot body: These thermal images were taken of space shuttle Discovery on September 11. Temperature data was used to make the color images (middle and bottom), blue being the lowest temperatures and red the highest. Credit: NASA/HYTHIRM team 
