Cigarettes are “widely contaminated” with bacteria, including some known to cause disease in people, concludes a new international study conducted by a University of Maryland environmental health researcher and microbial ecologists at the Ecole Centrale de Lyon in France.
A suite of five ancient crocs, including one with teeth like boar tusks and another with a snout like a duck’s bill, have been discovered in the Sahara by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Paul Sereno. The five fossil crocs, three of them newly named species, are remains of a bizarre world of crocs that inhabited the southern land mass known as Gondwana some 100 million years ago.
Much of our planet’s mineral wealth was deposited billions of years ago when Earth’s chemical cycles were different from today’s. Using geochemical clues from rocks nearly 3 billion years old, a group of scientists including Andrey Bekker and Doug Rumble from the Carnegie Institution have made the surprising discovery that the creation of economically important nickel ore deposits was linked to sulfur in the ancient oxygen-poor atmosphere.
\The ocean is a potentially vast source of electric power, yet as engineers test new technologies for capturing it, the devices are plagued by battering storms, limited efficiency, and the need to be tethered to the seafloor.
A four-year, multi-institutional effort co-led by three Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) scientists culminated today in publication of a landmark series of papers in the journal Science revealing in unprecedented detail the DNA sequence of maize (Zea mays). Maize, or corn, as it is commonly called by North American consumers, is one of the world’s most important plants and the most valuable agricultural crop grown in the United States, representing $47 billion in annual value.
Sharing a small portion of cinema popcorn between two would mean each person consuming a day’s worth of saturated fat
A medium popcorn and soft drink at an American cinema is the caloric equivalent of three McDonald’s quarter pounder hamburgers topped with a dozen scoops of butter, according to a new study.
Women and beauty products – it’s a love affair that’s been going on for centuries. And no wonder. There’s nothing like a new lipstick or favourite perfume to make us look and feel good. Or so we thought…
Twenty-seven year old UK entrepreneur, Matt Horan, has started a company based off an ingenious idea. “After getting tired of giving my girlfriend a piggyback home every Saturday night, I had a ‘eureka’ moment,” says Rollasole founder Matt Horan of his clever invention. (Pics)
“SellaBand is based in Amsterdam, the creative capital of Europe. Since its launch in August 2006, SellaBand has coordinated recording sessions for 37 artists or acts who had their albums funded by their fans. Over $3,000,000 has been invested in independent bands via www.sellaband.com. With SellaBand, artists retain complete ownership of the works created and have the flexibility to determine which incentives they will offer their fans who fund them…”
SmartSwipe
The SmartSwipe home credit card terminal plugs into your computer’s USB port so you can happily swipe your life away with the credit card of your choice. Need some more junk for the basement or attic? This’ll help you fill the gap with no messing. It’s not real money, and that chocolate covered toaster looks ever so nice. Shop shop, chop, chop. Swipe and smile. Yours for just $99.95 Canadian. There, you’re saving money already.
Courier Water
Water shortages are a growing problem around the world, especially in developing countries. Desalination, or turning seawater into potable water, is one way of increasing water supplies, but desalination plants require vast amounts of energy and infrastructure. Now a Japanese team has developed Courier Water, a mobile desalination unit that has tremendous potential for helping people in areas affected by water shortages or natural disasters. The unit’s defining feature is its mobility. With its compact design, Courier Water can be installed on a four-ton truck, allowing it to travel far and wide.
Feeling Sleepy Yet?
Having problems sleeping? Tried every solution in the book? Lord knows there’s a good lot of them, from outright superstitious behavior to drowning your room in scents to popping the good ol’ pill. Here’s another one you can try: sleeping with the light on. Huh?!?
Well, not the big, bright light in your room. Instead, you can try finding slumber by turning on the LightSleeper, a small lamp that projects a soft glowing light that’s supposed to soothe your troubled mind to sleep…
In an advance with overtones of Star Trek phasers and other sci-fi ray guns, scientists in Canada are reporting development of an internal on-off “switch” that paralyzes animals when exposed to a beam of ultraviolet light. The animals stay paralyzed even when the light is turned off. When exposed to ordinary light, the animals become unparalyzed and wake up.
Visually impaired people appear to be fearless, navigating busy sidewalks and crosswalks, safely finding their way using nothing more than a cane as a guide. The reason they can do this, researchers suggest, is that in at least some circumstances, blindness can heighten other senses, helping individuals adapt.
The evolutionary history of New Zealand’s many extinct flightless moa has been re-written in the first comprehensive study of more than 260 sub-fossil specimens to combine all known genetic, anatomical, geological and ecological information about the unique bird lineage.
At birth, children with Down syndrome aren’t developmentally delayed. But as they age, these kids fall behind. Memory deficits inherent in Down syndrome hinder learning, making it hard for the brain to collect experiences needed for normal cognitive development.
In everything from computer processor chips to car engines to electric powerplants, the need to get rid of excess heat creates a major source of inefficiency. But new research points the way to a technology that might make it possible to harvest much of that wasted heat and turn it into usable electricity.
A research laboratory at Japan’s Ritsumeikan University has developed a monitoring system for wet diapers that consists of a self-powered sensor/transmitter and a receiver and is supposed to assist staff in hospitals and nursing homes in performing diaper checks with elderly patients. The sensor kit has to be placed inside the diaper and sends signals to the receiver unit, which was co-developed in collaboration with Seiko Epson.
The vaccine is injected and works by creating anti-bodies
Smokers could soon have access to an injectable vaccine to help them break the habit following a deal between GlaxoSmithKline and Nabi Pharmaceuticals, the company that developed the drug. The NicVAX vaccine works by preventing nicotine in tobacco entering the brain, where it creates an addictive sensation of pleasure. Trials have shown it can halve the number of people who return to smoking after trying to give up.
A vending machine that dispenses gold.
While some buy water others invest in precious metals during times of possible apocalyptic turmoil. The TG-Gold-Super-Markt is the first gold, yes gold vending machine. In order to take it for a spin, though, you’ll have to travel to Germany’s Frankfurt Airport. So if you happen to be in Terminal 1 sometime soon, drop in $49 and you’ll have yourself a 1g wafer of gold, or for $400 you can pick up a 10g bar or coins.
Audi Autonomous TTS
Audi is working hard on a car that doesn’t require the driver to anything except sit there and watch the scenery go by. It’s called the “Autonomous Audi TTS,” not the catchiest of names, and it’s “intended to explore the best capabilities of current and future driver assistance technologies.” (Pics and video)
The new TKTS booth in Times Square supports glass benches atop two-inch-thick windows
The largest load-bearing glass structure in the world, the new TKTS booth in Times Square, supports glass benches atop two-inch-thick windows. Sounds delicate, but it regularly holds 500 foot-stomping Jumbotron watchers. For reinforcement, engineers at Dewhurst Macfarlane used a plastic film called SentryGlas Plus. (Pics)
Professor Guillermo Bazan and a team of postgraduate researchers at UC Santa Barbara’s Center for Polymers and Organic Solids (CPOS) have announced a major advance in the synthesis of organic polymers for plastic solar cells.
First, it was the soccer-ball-shaped molecules dubbed buckyballs. Then it was the cylindrically shaped nanotubes. Now, the hottest new material in physics and nanotechnology is graphene: a remarkably flat molecule made of carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal rings much like molecular chicken wire.
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