Rare-Earths China produces the vast majority of the world's rare-earth oxides. Wikimedia Commons 
Photo: Eddie Mulholland
Photo: An artist's illustration of an artificial e-skin covering a hand. The finished product would give incredible touch and sensitivity
(Image: NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham/Emmett Given)
More than half of the American population is overdosing on sugar. Click here for a list of the top five things you didn't know about sugar. Hemera
A beam of laser light (red) should be able to cause a glass bead of approximately 300 nanometers in diameter to levitate, and the floating bead would be exquisitely sensitive to the effects of gravity. Moving a large heavy object (gold) to within a few nanometers of the bead could allow the team to test the effects of gravity at very short distances. (Credit: K. Talbott/NIST)
From CBS News:
Photo: The "skins" match human skin's ability to sense tiny pressure changes quickly.
Image: The reflection of light or "glint" could reveal the existence of Earth-like planets.
This artist's conception shows an extremely volcanic moon orbiting a gas giant planet in another star system. Credit: Wade Henning
This is the first photograph ever taken on the surface of the planet Mars. It was obtained by Viking 1 just minutes after the spacecraft landed successfully on July 20, 1976. Click to enlarge this image. NASA 
Discover Interview: The Math Behind the Physics Behind the Universe -- Discover Magazine
Temperature is not the issue (Image: Daniel Pepper/Getty)
Photo: GETTY IMAGES
The black robot intentionally knocked down the red marker to deceive the red robot into thinking it was hiding down the left corridor. Instead, the black robot is hiding inside the box in the center pathway. (Credit: Georgia Tech Photo: Gary Meek)
An animation showing the fluorescence process when the quantum dot is in the so-called "on" state. Credit: Ovidiu Toader, Vancouver BA, Canada
Spectacular: The Northern Lights bursting into a spectacular display of purple in Norway
This image of a bristlecone pine tree under the Milky Way took the top prize in the second annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, run by the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, England. Hosted with Sky at Night magazine, the contest received more than 400 entries from about 25 countries. The winner, "Blazing Bristlecone," was shot by Tom Lowe in California's White Mountains. (© Tom Lowe)
Show some restraint (Image: Said Khatib/AFP/Getty)
Terry Gou. Photo: Tony Law for Bloomberg Businessweek
From CNET:
Members of the scientific team: Yana Izdebskaya, Anton Desyatnikov, Vladlen Shvedov, Andrei Rode, Yuri Kivshar and Wieslaw Krolikowski. (Credit: Photo by Tim Wetherell)
From Live Science:
An Apple iPad is displayed next to Samsung's new tablet device, the 'Galaxy tab' at Samsung's booth at the 'IFA' in Berlin last week
Nevada’s mountains provide a wall around one of the world’s most secret places.
Wooly Mammoth Did nanodiamonds mean death for this mammoth and all his friends? Depends on which study you believe. Wikimedia Commons This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.
No matter how bad coal might be for the planet, the conventional wisdom is that there is so much of it underground that the world’s leading fuel for electricity will continue to dominate the energy scene unless global action is taken on climate change.
But what if conventional wisdom is wrong?
A new study seeks to shake up the assumption that use of coal, the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel, is bound to continue its inexorable rise. In fact, the authors predict that world coal production may reach its peak as early as next year, and then begin a permanent decline.
Read more ....
The comet was considered a bad omen in 1066 (Image: Mary Evans/Alamy)
Time line of the Universe. (Credit: NASA)
In 2003, a 727 that once flew for American Airlines disappeared from Angola.
Imagine that tomorrow, the whole world will stop building things that burn fossil fuels—cars and planes, power plants, and housing tracts.
How much more global warming would the planet endure?
(See Related, from National Geographic Channel: "Aftermath: Population Zero" )
This might sound like an environmentalist's dream—or a CEO's nightmare—but it's a serious question addressed by a new study published in the September 10 issue of Science.
Read more ....
MARS PHOENIX LANDERA new analysis of carbon dioxide gas sampled in 2008 by NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander, shown in this self-portrait taken by a camera on the lander, suggests that the Red Planet may have been an active place with volcanoes and liquid water during the past 100 million years.JPL/NASA, University of Arizona, Texas A&M University
Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner in his high-altitude suit after a test jump in California. Photograph: Robert Yager
