Precious Metals That Could Save The Planet

The Rare Earth Research Institute is in Baotou City, above,
in the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia, China

From The Independent:

Rare earth elements are driving a revolution in low-carbon technology. Cahal Milmo reports on the commodity that has become the new oil.

Baotou was of little interest to the outside world for millennia. When one of the first visitors reached its walls in 1925, it was described as "a little husk of a town in a great hollow shell of mud ramparts". Some 84 years later, this once barren outpost of Inner Mongolia has been transformed into the powerhouse of China's dominance of the market in some of the globe's most sought-after minerals.

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The Real Frankenstein Experiment: One Man's Mission To Create A Living Mind Inside A Machine

Professor Markram believes that if his 'Blue Brain' project is successful,
it will render vivisection obsolete

From The Daily Mail:

His words staggered the erudite audience gathered at a technology conference in Oxford last summer.

Professor Henry Markram, a doctor-turned-computer engineer, announced that his team would create the world's first artificial conscious and intelligent mind by 2018.

And that is exactly what he is doing.

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Microorganisms Cited As Missing Factor In Climate Change Equation

The research incorporates into global computer models the significant impact an enzyme, carbonic anhydrase, has on the chemical form of carbon dioxide released from the soil and reduces uncertainties in estimates of CO2 taken up and released in terrestrial ecosystems. (Credit: iStockphoto/Stefan Klein)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Jan. 4, 2010) — Those seeking to understand and predict climate change can now use an additional tool to calculate carbon dioxide exchanges on land, according to a scientific journal article publishing this week.

The research, publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, incorporates into global computer models the significant impact an enzyme, carbonic anhydrase, has on the chemical form of carbon dioxide released from the soil and reduces uncertainties in estimates of CO2 taken up and released in terrestrial ecosystems.

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Diet Demystified: Why We Overeat

From Live Science:

As Americans begin the process of breaking their New Year's resolutions — sure, one king-sized Kit Kat won’t hurt anyone — they can forgive themselves with a consolation: Hormones may be to blame.

In a new study, which was published online Dec 24 in the journal in the future] published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry, researchers have found that the hormone ghrelin causes mice to search out food — even when they weren’t hungry.

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Dubai Set To Open World's Tallest Building

From CBS News:

Security Tight at Unveiling of Tower More Than 160 Stories Tall.

(AP) Dubai is set to open the world's tallest building amid tight security on Monday, celebrating the tower as a bold feat on the world stage despite the city state's shaky financial footing.

But the final height of the Burj Dubai - Arabic for Dubai Tower - remained a closely guarded secret on the eve of its opening. At more than 2,625 feet, it long ago vanquished its nearest rival, the Taipei 101 in Taiwan.

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Sex And Shopping – It's A Guy Thing

It's not what you give, it's what your gift says about you that counts
(Image: George Eastmant House/Hulton/Getty)

From New Scientist:

PEOPLE have radically diverse responses to the very idea of conspicuous consumption. Some folks consider it blindingly obvious that most economic behaviour is driven by status seeking, social signalling and sexual solicitation. These include most Marxists, marketers, working-class fundamentalists and divorced women. Other folks consider this an outrageously cynical view, and argue that most consumption is for individual pleasure ("utility") and family prosperity ("security"). Those folks include most capitalists, economists, upper-class fundamentalists, and soon-to-be-divorced men.

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2009’s Sleepy Sun Finally Woke Up In December

From Wired Science:

2009 will go down as the sun’s third quietest year on record, under-shone only by 1913 and 2008.

Two hundred-sixty of the year’s 365 days (71 percent) were sunspotless. Last year saw 266 sunspotless days, while the sun had no spots on 311 of the days in 1913. It was only a very active December that kept 2009 from falling below last year’s mark.

Sunspot activity waxes and wanes in a roughly 11-year cycle, so hitting solar minima isn’t surprising. But what the numbers underscore is that we spent much of the year still in the midst of the deepest, longest solar minimum in a long time.

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Slim, Large Screen E-Reader Skiff To Debut On Sprint

From Gadget Lab:

E-readers are likely to get hotter with the next generation of devices sporting color screens and large displays expected to launch through the year.

One of the first products to announce its arrival is the Skiff e-reader, a lightweight device with a 11.5-inch full flexible touchscreen that makes it the largest e-reader on the market, beating the 9.7-inch display Kindle DX.

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Children Reaching Age 3 Without Being Able To Say A Word, Survey Finds

From Times Online:

Children are reaching the age of 3 without being able to say a word, according to a survey that also found boys are almost twice as likely to struggle to learn to speak as girls.

The average age for a baby to speak their first word is 10 to 11 months. However, a significant minority (4 per cent) of parents reported that their child said nothing until they were 3.

Toddlers between the ages of 2 and 3 should be able to use up to 300 words, including adjectives, and be able to link words together, according to I CAN, the children’s communication charity. Late speech development can lead to problems, such as low achievement at school or mental health problems.

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Deadly Animal Diseases Poised To Infect Humans

Health workers culling poultry at Shoilpur village near the Indian city of Kolkata. The H5N1 bird flu pandemic spread across the world in 2003 causing widespread panic and has so far killed 260 people. Reuters

From The Independent:

Environmental disruption set to trigger new pandemics, scientists warn.

The world is facing a growing threat from new diseases that are jumping the human-animal species barrier as a result of environmental disruption, global warming and the progressive urbanisation of the planet, scientists have warned.

At least 45 diseases that have passed from animals to humans have been reported to UN agencies in the last two decades, with the number expected to escalate in the coming years.

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New Images Show Evidence Of Lakes On Mars, Say Scientists

A Nasa image of depressions interpreted as ancient lake basins. Photograph: NASA/PA

From The Guardian:

Nasa pictures suggest existence of 12 mile-wide lakes of melted ice on Martian equator 3bn years ago.

Lakes of liquid water existed on Mars at a time when the planet was previously thought to be a frozen desert, new satellite images have shown.

A team of British-led scientists now believes 12 mile-wide lakes of melted ice were dotted around parts of the Martian equator 3bn years ago.

No one had expected to find evidence of a warm, wet climate capable of sustaining surface water on Mars during this period of the planet's history, known as the Hesperian epoch.

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G-Day Is Tomorrow: Google To unveil 'iPhone Killer' Nexus One... With An Online Price Tag Of £300

Calling the future: How Google's new Nexus One phone will look, according to an internet preview

From The Daily Mail:

Google will finally reveal its first mobile phone tomorrow after months of frenzied speculation about its arrival.

The Nexus One handset, which uses software designed by the internet giant, has been developed to take on the dominant iPhone, which is used by 25million people worldwide.

Full details of the Google-branded touchscreen device - manufactured by Taiwanese company HTC - have mostly been kept under wraps despite occasional leaks.

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Hitachi Reportedly Develops Brain-Powered Remote Control

From Market Watch:

TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- Hitachi Ltd. has developed a prototype remote control that allows users to operate electronic devices telepathically -- simply willing the television channel to change or the air-conditioning to turn on -- according to a report Monday.

Hitachi's (TSE:JP:6501) (NYSE:HIT) "brain-machine interface system" features a headset that measures slight changes in blood flow in the brain, specifically by scanning it with near-infrared rays, business daily Nikkei reported in its Monday evening edition.

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Using Modern Sequencing Techniques To Study Ancient Humans

New research shows how it is possible to directly analyze DNA from a member of our own species who lived around 30,000 years ago. (Credit: iStockphoto/Andrey Prokhorov)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2010) — DNA that is left in the remains of long-dead plants, animals, or humans allows a direct look into the history of evolution. So far, studies of this kind on ancestral members of our own species have been hampered by scientists' inability to distinguish the ancient DNA from modern-day human DNA contamination.

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Future Robots Will Run Like Cockroaches

Researchers at Oregon State University are using studies of guinea hens and other animals such as cockroaches to learn more about the mechanics of their running ability, with the goal of developing robots that can run easily over rough terrain. Credit: Oregon State University

From Live Science:

Most people find cockroaches repulsive, but not John Schmitt. A mechanical engineer at Oregon State University, Schmitt is using the leggy pests as a model for futuristic robots that can run effortlessly over rough terrain.

Current robots require too much computing power to get around, Schmitt explained. "We are trying to create robots that are more stable and take less energy," he said.

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Mankind's Greatest Explorations And Adventures

Corbis

From Time Magazine:

From the Moon to Mount Everest, our list of the greatest leaps and highest climbs in human history.

The crew of Apollo 11 faced risks that were literally out of this world. Engine failure could have left them stranded on the lunar surface or forever lost in space. Solar radiation and re-entry heat could have cooked them alive. A space-suit failure could have suffocated them in the most gruesome way. By today's standards, Apollo 11's technology was primitive — the onboard navigation computer contained only 74 kilobytes of memory, not enough to store a single MP3 music file. But as soon as Neil Armstrong took his first tentative step on the lunar surface, the risks were forgotten. For an all-too-brief moment, everyone on the planet was caught up in the thrill of human achievement, of a millennia-old fantasy come to life. Other lunar explorers would follow, but Apollo 11 was the first to take the giant leap for mankind.

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Fin Whales, Once Rare, Crowd Calif. Coast

Watch CBS News Videos Online

From CBS News:

(CBS) Tracking a mystery, Alisa Schulman-Janiger and other marine biologists follow an ocean footprint looking for the second largest mammal in the world, the fin whale.

Sightings of the fin whale - part of the family that includes the humpback and big blue whales - used to be a rarity in the Santa Monica Bay but not anymore. They're everywhere, reports CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes.

Read more ....

Gene Rice On Its Way In China

GM crops have been cleared for commercial cultivation (Image: Jeff Hutchens/Getty)

From New Scientist:

Genetically modified rice cleared for commercial sale could be growing on Chinese farms as early as next year, making China the first country to allow commercial cultivation of GM strains. The field trials required for any new variety are now under way, following official safety clearance November.

Two varieties, called Huahui 1 and Bt Shanyou 63, received clearance and should be launched within the next two years. Both contain "Bt" proteins from the Bacillus thuringiensis bacterium to protect them against the rice stem borer, the most serious rice pest in China.

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10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

Behold the Laser Avenger, a cannon that could be used to take down incoming aircraft. Boeing was able to shoot a drone out of the sky with the hummer-mounted laser, even though it’s not particularly high-powered. It cooked the remote-controlled aircraft using a somewhat feeble 1-kilowatt beam. More recently, the company shot down another UAV using a low-power laser paired with its Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments, or Matrix, system during a test in White Sands, New Mexico.

From The Danger Room:

Sure, the gear may look like it came straight out of Avatar or Battlestar Galactica. But all of the laser weapons, robots, sonic blasters and puke rays pictured here are real. Some of these weapons have already found their way onto the battlefield. If the rest of this sci-fi arsenal follows, war may soon be unrecognizable.

Read on for a look at some of these futuristic weapons being tested today.

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The Year In Robotics

Photo: Talking to me?: This robot, called Robovie, uses gaze cues to manage a conversation. Credit: Bilge Mutlu

From Technology Review:

During the past 12 months, robots got better at grasping, smiling, and avoiding angry humans.

In the past year, researchers have developed new robots to tackle a variety of tasks: helping with medical rehabilitation, aiding military maneuvers, mimicking social skills, and grasping the unknown. Here are the highlights.

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Bacteria 'Could Tackle Cocaine Addiction'

The discovery has been hailed as possible method of helping addicts get off Cocaine and could prevent deaths from overdose. Photo: PA

From The Telegraph:

A bacteria could be used to reduce the addictiveness of cocaine, scientists have found.

The naturally-occurring bacterial enzyme Cocaine esterase, CocE, breaks down cocaine which reduced its addictive properties.

The discovery has been hailed as possible method of helping addicts get off the drug and could prevent deaths from overdose.

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A History Of Walking On Water

From New Scientist:

On the afternoon of 22 January 1907, a wailing chorus of steamboat whistles sent the residents of Memphis, Tennessee, running to the banks of the Mississippi river. "A great crowd assembled on the riverside, thinking some great disaster was taking place on the water," reported the Memphis News-Scimitar. Instead, the swelling crowd was greeted by the sight of a man calmly walking on water. This was no miracle. Gliding along on a pontoon-like pair of "water shoes" was "Professor" Charles W. Oldrieve, the world's pre-eminent "aquatic pedestrian".

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Great Balls Of Fire! Embers 10,000 Times Hotter Than Our Sun Left Behind By Supernova

Suzaku detected X-rays from fully ionized silicon and sulfur - which
indicates temperatures of 17million celsius

From The Daily Mail:

The glowing embers left behind by one of the most powerful type of explosions in the Universe have been revealed for the first time.

Remnants from giant fireballs unleashed by a supernova are still glowing at temperatures 10,000 times hotter than the Sun thousands of years after the event.

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Looking Back in Time 12 Billion Years With New Instruments On Herschel Space Observatory

This is the Herschel Space Observatory. (Credit: European Space Agency)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Jan. 1, 2010) — An instrument package developed in part by the University of Colorado at Boulder for the $2.2 billion orbiting Herschel Space Observatory launched in May by the European Space Agency has provided one of the most detailed views yet of space up to 12 billion years back in time.

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Popular Treatment For Low-Back Pain Doesn't Work

From Live Science:

Mild electric shocks supplied by a portable device, a process called TENS, have been used for years to treat chronic low-back pain.

Problem is, it doesn't work, a new study concludes.

Anyone currently getting transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) treatments should consult with their doctor about the new findings, researchers said.

"The strongest evidence showed that there is no benefit for people using TENS for chronic low-back pain," said Dr. Richard M. Dubinsky of the Kansas University Medical Center.

Read more ....

Africa-wide "Great Green Wall" To Halt Sahara's Spread?

Acacia trees line an African landscape in an undated picture. Picture by Tim Laman, NGS

From National Geographic:

China built its famous Great Wall to keep out marauders. Now, millennia later, a "Great Green Wall" may rise in Africa to deter another, equally relentless invader: sand.

The proposed wall of trees would stretch from Senegal to Djibouti as part of a plan to thwart the southward spread of the Sahara, Senegalese officials said earlier this month at the UN's Copenhagen climate conference.

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As Britain Told To Expect Snow For 'Next 10 Days', How Is The Rest Of The World Is Coping With This Arctic Weather?

Paramilitary policemen stand guard in front of the late
Chairman Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square, Beijing

From The Daily Mail:

When Britain woke up on the first day of the New Year it was met with freezing cold temperatures, feet of snow in places and the promise of travel chaos.

And now, three days into 2010, forecasters have warned to expect continued snowfall for the next 10 days - bringing with it added stress for commuters heading back to work after a festive break and children returning to school tomorrow.

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2010: The Year Of The Mobile

From Times Online:

The trend to smaller connected devices will continue this year, as the likes of Nokia, Google and Apple deliver their new products.

Desktop computers are so last decade. 2010 is shaping up to be the year when internet users move decisively away from bulky machines to the mobile web.

The trend towards portable, mini-laptops and devices that allow you to surf the web on the go will accelerate in 2010 as companies slug it out in the key battleground of smartphones, analysts predict.

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How To Find Hidden Explosives At Airports

These images were recorded with millimeter wave technology.
Credit: TSA

From Technology Review:

We already have the technology for discovering hidden explosives, but it could lead to long lines.

The bomb that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab reportedly tried to set off as his flight neared Detroit on Christmas could have been detected using existing screening technologies, had they only been used. Not only could the explosives have been spotted using back-scatter X-rays or millimeter wave technology--which can see through clothes--invisible traces of the explosive could have been detected using chemical sensors. But both technologies, if used to screen all passengers, would lead to long lines at airport security checkpoints.

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Cancer Risk Increases With Blood Sugar

From The Telegraph:

Up to one in six Britons with high blood-sugar levels faces a greater danger of developing cancer, according to new research.

Excess blood sugar means someone could be more likely both to develop cancer and also to die from it, according to research in the Public Library of Science journal.

Women were more vulnerable than men and high blood sugar is linked o a range of different cancers for each gender, it found.

Read more ....

Invading Beetles Mummified By Stingless Bees

From New Scientist:

It's not so much eternal life, more a case of instant death. Parasitic beetles that dare to invade the hive of certain stingless bees end up entombed forever in resin. "They're stopped in their tracks and they dehydrate and shrivel up like a mummy," says Mark Greco, an entomologist at the Swiss Bee Research Centre in Bern who discovered the practice in a species of Australian stingless bees, Trigona carbonaria, living in the wild.

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Ten Things That Cause Mass Extinctions

Credit: iStockphoto

From Cosmos:

SYDNEY: It's normal for a species to go extinct, and an average rate of one a year is the natural background rate. But over the past 4.5 billion years, there have been times when extinctions occured at 100 to 1,000 times faster - with the largest event wiping out 95 % of all species. Somewhere between five and 20 such mass extinctions have occured. Here are 10 possible causes for future extinction events.

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2010's Hi-Tech Top 10: Brace Yourselves For Touch-Screen Laptops And 3D TV

Sony Ericsson's Xperia X10

From The Daily Mail:

The march of technology is unstoppable. Even the credit crunch hasn't slowed the pace of innovation, and it's already looking like 2010 will be another vintage year for consumer electronics.

But it's not just gadget fans who should get excited - movie buffs, game lovers and even bibliophiles will be able to immerse themselves in their passions as never before.

Read more ....

New Internet Piracy Law Comes Into Effect In France

From The BBC:

The first effects of France's new law against internet piracy will begin to be felt as the new year begins.

The law was passed after a long struggle in parliament, and in the teeth of bitter opposition from groups opposed to internet restrictions.

Illegal downloaders will be sent a warning e-mail, then a letter if they continue, and finally must appear before a judge if they offend again.

The judge can impose a fine, or suspend their access to the internet.

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Vatican Reveals Secret Archives

In a letter dated 1246 from Grand Khan Guyuk, pictured, to Pope Innocent IV, Genghis Khan's grandson demands that the Pontiff travel to central Asia in person

From The Telegraph:

A 13th-century letter from Genghis Khan’s grandson demanding homage from the pope is among a collection of documents from the Vatican’s Secret Archives that has been published for the first time.

The Holy See’s archives contain scrolls, parchments and leather-bound volumes with correspondence dating back more than 1,000 years.

High-quality reproductions of 105 documents, 19 of which have never been seen before in public, have now been published in a book. The Vatican Secret Archives features a papal letter to Hitler, an entreaty to Rome written on birch bark by a tribe of North American Indians, and a plea from Mary Queen of Scots.

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Domain Name Extension 'Could Boost Cyber-Crime'

From Times Online:

The introduction of internet addresses in non-Roman scripts could offer fresh opportunities to cyber-criminals, experts have warned.

Next year the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) will for the first time accept internet domain names in non-Roman scripts. The domain name is the part of a web address that precedes the “dot”, such as timesonline.

The new internationalised domain names will open up the internet as never before to users whose native language does not use the Roman alphabet. But Roman-reading users face a possible deluge of phishing and e-mail scams.

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Global Warming ALERT: British Experts Predicting Coldest Winter In 100 Years

From YID With LID:

Word to the British, you better buy a new winter coat. Experts are predicting that this will be one of the coldest winters in the past 100 years. This kind of weather was predicted by scientist, Mojib Latif who back in September predicted that earth was going to cool off for the next 20-30 years. Latif said the cooling would be the result of changes to ocean currents and temperatures in the North Atlantic, a feature known as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the NAO may be partly the cause of warming during the past 30 years.

Its ironic that in Britain, home of the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, recently made famous by the climategate is facing one of the coldest winters in 100 years, experts predict temperatures hitting minus 16 degrees Celsius (+3 Fahrenheit).

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The Year Ahead: Science

After 10 years of study, the Census for Marine Life will finally publish its report into ocean life. Photograph: Mark Conlin/Alamy

From The Guardian:

Is this finally the year that artificial life will be created?

The year ahead is shaping up to be one long celebration for the world's oldest science academy. The Royal Society formed on a dreary night in London 350 years ago, when the acquisition of scientific knowledge was little more than a hobby for amateurs and polymaths. As part of the celebrations, world-leading researchers have been invited to Britain to thrash out the most pressing questions facing science today: what is consciousness? Where did the universe come from? How are we ever going to feed everybody? Whatever the scientists decide, it will reflect the agenda for the next two decades.

Read more ....

Top 10 Space Stories Of 2009

Could our three dimensions be the ultimate cosmic illusion? A German detector is picking up a hint that we are all mere projections (Image: Wolfgang Filser/Max Planck Society)

From New Scientist:

The most popular space stories of the year include an exploration of the havoc a solar storm could wreak on Earth and a visualisation of what it would look like to fall into a black hole. Click here to see our readers' favourite space stories of 2009.

Read more reviews of the year:

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Why The Powerful Lie, Cheat And Steal

Photo: Tiger Woods may have uncanny concentration when he's on the green, but that same focus doesn't appear to apply off the golf course. Credit: AP Photo

From Discovery News:

Cheating, lying and stealing certainly aren't new social practices, but they were apparently fashionable in 2009.

The year saw a string of scandals involving high-profile personalities from politicians (Gov. Mark Sanford, Sen. John Ensign, Rep. William Jefferson), to corporate executives (Bernie Madoff, Raj Rajaratnam, Allen Stanford) to one golfer pictured here.

Why are powerful people seemingly so powerless to prevent their own transgressions? A new study published in the upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science offers some explanation.

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Champagne Is Good for Your Heart, Study Suggests -- But Only In Moderation

Champagne toast. (Credit: iStockphoto/Carolyn De Anda)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Dec. 31, 2009) — Research from the University of Reading suggests that two glasses of champagne a day may be good for your heart and circulation. The researchers have found that drinking champagne wine daily in moderate amounts causes improvements in the way blood vessels function.

Read more ....

100 Years Ago: The Amazing Technology Of 1910

From Live Science:

The dawn of 2010 promises more amazing developments in the world of technology. Already, tourists can visit space, for a price, nearly everything and everyone is going digital, and medical science continues to test the boundaries of what makes us truly human.

One full century ago, the new technologies that had people talking were considered just as groundbreaking. Electricity led the charge of developments that were changing the way people lived every day, with transportation and chemistry not far behind.

As the clocks of 1909 ticked towards 1910, more exciting inventions were just around the corner.

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Six Wacky Robots From 2009 (photos)

From CNET:

Nurse robot Riba

What could be scarier than waking up in a hospital with a giant teddy bear robot nurse at your bedside? Perhaps a giant Hello Kitty robot nurse. But I digress.

Riba, short for Robot for Interactive Body Assistance, can lift elderly patients from wheelchairs and beds. Developers at Japan's state-run Riken research center are calling it the world's first robot to lift people in its arms.

Read more ....

Have Books Turned Their Last Page?

Watch CBS News Videos Online

From CBS News:

Industry Experts Weigh In on How the Rise of E-Readers and E-Books Will Change the Publishing World.

(CBS) The era of the physical "book" may be ending.

This holiday season, Amazon.com says its E-reader, the Kindle, was its most-gifted item ever. And on Christmas Day, according to Amazon.com, E-books actually outsold physical books on the site.

Craig Berman, vice president of global communications at Amazon.com, said, "The best-selling, most wished for, most gifted product across the millions of products we have on Amazon is Amazon Kindle, our wireless e-reader."

Read more ....

Advancing Through A Decade

Science shed light on mysteries of evolution, dark matter and the deep ocean.

From The BBC:

The noughties saw the discovery of key characters in the story of our own evolution, the full catalogue of the human genome and an enhanced understanding of mysterious dark matter.

The biggest physics experiment in the world switched on, broke down, and got up and running once again.

Here, some of the leading scientists at the forefront of the past decade's most significant research tell us what it all really means.

Read more ....

Obama Set to Launch Vision For NASA

From USA Today:

WASHINGTON — President Obama will chart a course for NASA within weeks, based on the advice of a handful of key advisers in the administration and Congress.

Obama, who met Dec. 16 with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, hasn't said when or how he'll announce his new policy.

The announcement likely will come by the time the president releases his fiscal 2011 budget in early February, because he must decide how much money the space agency should get.

Read more ....

Concern As China Clamps Down On Rare Earth Exports

A neodymium magnet, commonly used in motors, loudspeakers and other appliances. Neodymium is a rare earth element. ALAMY

From The Independent:

Neodymium is one of 17 metals crucial to green technology. There’s only one snag – China produces 97% of the world’s supply. And they’re not selling.

Britain and other Western countries risk running out of supplies of certain highly sought-after rare metals that are vital to a host of green technologies, amid growing evidence that China, which has a monopoly on global production, is set to choke off exports of valuable compounds.

Read more ...

Cracking The Majorana Code

From New Scientist:

A brilliant but fiercely eccentric Sicilian nuclear physicist writes a string of suicide notes, then disappears. He is never seen again. Yet he was carrying his passport and enough cash to start a new life.

Were the notes a clever decoy?

For decades, João Magueijo, a professor of theoretical physics at Imperial College London, has been obsessed by the story behind Ettore Majorana's disappearance.

"He's been with me throughout my scientific career as a shadow I've never been able to shake off," Magueijo declares in the prologue to A Brilliant Darkness. And so, to lay the ghost to rest, he has conducted his own investigation.

Read more ....

Best Space Probe Photographers Of The Decade -- From Discovery News

Stuck in the Sand, But Enjoying the View -- On the other side of Mars, Opportunity's twin rover Spirit is stuck in a sand trap within Gusev Crater. Before getting stuck, Spirit had lost the use of one of its wheels and it was suffering bouts of memory loss. But it's not all bad news. While stuck, Spirit has been carrying out limited science activities, uncovering evidence for ancient water under its wheels. Image: Sunrise on Mars as witnessed by Mars Rover Spirit (NASA/JPL)

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What And When Is Death?

From The New Atlantis:

All living things die. This is not new and it has nothing to do with technology. What is new in our technological age, however, is an uncertainty about when death has come for some human beings. These human beings, as an unintended consequence of efforts to prevent death, are left suspended at its threshold. Observing them in this state of suspension, we, the living, have a very hard time knowing what to think: Is the living being still among us? Is there still a present for this person or has the long reign of the past tense begun: Is he or was he? The phenomenon is popularly known as “brain death,” but the name is misleading. Death accepts no modifiers. There is only one death. Has it occurred or not? Alive or dead?

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Lithium-Air Batteries Could Displace Gasoline In Future Cars

Argonne researcher Lynn Trahey loads a coin-sized cell on a testing unit used to evaluate electrochemical cycling performance in batteries. (Credit: Photo by Wes Agresta / Courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Dec. 31, 2009) — In excess of seven million barrels of gasoline are consumed by vehicles in the United States every day. As scientists race to find environmentally sound solutions to fuel the world's ever-growing transportation needs, battery researchers are exploring the promise of lithium-air battery technology.

Read more ....

10 New Year's Resolutions To Keep You Alive

From Live Science:

Americans spend billions every year on a dizzying array of health schemes, but much of that money goes toward treatments and pills that do little if any good, or that mask underlying health issues by alleviating symptoms temporarily.

Meanwhile, some of the best approaches to health care are cheap and within your grasp, if only you can find the will to make some lifestyle changes.

If you're searching for a good New Year's resolution, here are 10 to pick from, along with the scientific reasons why you may want to actually keep them.

Read more ....

Britain Facing One Of The Coldest Winters In 100 Years, Experts Predict

Parts of Scotland have had snowcover for nearly three weeks

From The Telegraph:

Britain is bracing itself for one of the coldest winters for a century with temperatures hitting minus 16 degrees Celsius, forecasters have warned.

They predicted no let up in the freezing snap until at least mid-January, with snow, ice and severe frosts dominating.

And the likelihood is that the second half of the month will be even colder.

Read more ....