Two years after transforming human fat cells into what appeared to be nerve cells, a group led by Duke University Medical Center researchers has gone one step further by demonstrating that these new cells also appear to act like nerve cells.

So what’s wrong with doubling–or more–the human life span?

It’s like stretching out a symphony, playing it at half speed so it goes on longer–it wouldn’t have the same beauty or meaning…..

Amidst the good news about VoIP, a significant variable remains undefined: its regulatory status. Federal and state authorities have taken positions that have run the gamut from no-touch to heavy handed.

Couples getting married in Italy’s churches will soon say “I receive you” instead of “I take you” as part of their wedding vows.

A “smart bullet” that can be fired at a target and then wirelessly transmit back useful information has been developed by US researchers.

A television sewn into your shirtsleeve. A dashboard screen to monitor the kids in the backseat. A 3-D computer monitor sharp enough to make a hardcore gamer’s heart stop — or help a surgeon start one.

A 50-year-old Zambian man has hanged himself after his wife found him having sex with a hen, police said Friday.

The frictionless conditions of space are being simulated by air-hockey tables, as a new generation of intelligent robots is trained to build space stations and solar arrays.

Minutemen ICBMs were deployed in the early 1960s, and grew to over 1000 in number. They were allegedly protected from a “rogue launch” by an approach known as PAL (Permissive Action Link). The PAL required that the correct 8-digit launch code be entered by the missiliers before the missile would establish ignition. What if all […]

On May 15, 2004, Josh Findley discovered the 41st known Mersenne Prime, 2 to the 24,036,583th power minus 1. The number is nearly a million digits larger than our last find and is now the largest known prime number!

Differences in estrogen and progestin drugs mean that women should not rule out hormone therapy after menopause despite highly publicized negative reports, a new study suggests.

In a February 2003 Harris poll, 69 percent of those surveyed agreed that “consumers have lost all control over how personal information is collected and used by companies.” That view was summed up with cynical certitude by Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy. “You have zero privacy anyway,” he said a few years ago. “Get over […]

The DaVinci Institute today announced its online donations for three of its cutting edge projects - the Brain Fingerprinting Project, the Ozone Project, and the Museum of Future Inventions.

Taking a major step toward identifying one cause of aging, researchers have shortened the life of mice and created signs of old age by injecting a small genetic defect in the mice’s mitochondria, the tiny power plants within each cell.

The proliferation and permutation of viruses and worms offers a superb case study in wicked innovation and innovative wickedness.

Its the 1930’s, and you have just been elected president of France on a promise to rebuild the French economy. But you learn that Germany is rapidly building its army, and your advisers are urging you to do the same. What will happen if you break your campaign pledge and divert resources and attention to […]

The MrCar is a Palm tool to trace your complete car expenses (by
M-Region). This program allows car owners to organize and manage any car expenses,
business or personal trips, car fueling, parking, maintenance and service stops, penalties, etc.

Nanotechnology could help revolutionize the energy industry, producing advances such as solar power cells made of plastics to environmentally friendly batteries that detoxify themselves

An odd-looking van sprouts 13 digital cameras that its builder wants to use to photograph 50 million buildings in the country while driving, taking pictures every 15 feet.

Antibiotic-induced bacteria death in the gut can affect how the immune system responds to common allergens and may offer an explanation for rapidly increasing rates of asthma.

“The future isn’t what it used to be,” to quote Paul Valéry. And, it seems, neither is the business of predicting the future.

The net is having a profound effect on medicine, as in all fields, not least because researchers in medical labs can share research with colleagues around the world.

With the economy finally perking up, newcomers are running the show: Three of the top five companies in this year’s Wired 40, their annual list of enterprises leading the charge toward a connected global economy, were founded in the past decade. One-third are less than 20 years old.

Next month, a V-shaped airship bigger than a baseball diamond is due to rise from the West Texas desert to an altitude of 100,000 feet (30.5 kilometers), navigate by remote control, linger above the clouds and drift back to earth.

In this report, they examine the possibilities of producing biodiesel on the scale necessary to replace all petroleum transportation fuels in the U.S.