A layer of artificial mucus has been found to improve the ability of an "electronic nose" to precisely sniff out aromas in foods and perfumes. Coating the accurate sensors with a mixture of polymers allowed the nose to pick out a diverse range of smells.

A good night’s sleep may be as simple as flipping a switch, say scientists. By sending magnetic pulses through the skulls of sleeping volunteers, US researchers were able to stimulate the slow brain waves seen in deep sleep.

Chips could run faster and be more energy efficient thanks to a process from IBM that copies nature’s creation of seashells and snowflakes. The process, called airgap, enables trillions of microscopic vacuum holes to be placed between the copper wire in chips to act as an insulator.

Don Imus, Bernard McGuirk, Trent Lott, Larry Summers, the Duke lacrosse team, Jimmy the Greek, the kid who yelled "water buffalo" at Penn, Howard Cosell, Jon Stewart, Chief Illiniwek, Jackie Mason and "South Park" all have in common only one thing: They have not been Politically Correct. Some were brought down by it, and some [...]

Millions of emails are to be stored at the British Library in a unique project to preserve present day communications for future generations, it was announced today. Microsoft is joining forces with the library to collect a million entries for the "email Britain" archive.

Phone bills are notorious for rankling customers with fees, taxes, tariffs and other mystery assessments. Now, in typical bone-headed telecom fashion, some phone companies are adding a new line item to monthly bills: a charge for not making long-distance calls.

Feel the burn. Muscle burn, that is. We’ve been spending a few months with the 3G Stepper—a fitness bike that takes the stationary stair step trainer to the streets.

An unhappy wife fed her husband dog excrement in a curry, the BBC has reported.

The Houston Museum of Natural Science will pay $0.25 each for the first 1,000 living cockroaches brought in by the public at specific times over the next two weeks.

Someday soon we will use computers that mimic our brains and understand our emotions — and outsmart human stock pickers.  Its a race to the finish…

The latest internet trend sweeping the nation is Lolcats. What’s a lolcat you ask? It’s simply a cat photo with a misspelled caption that, for some weird reason, strikes some as completely hilarious. Photos of dogs, walruses, sloths and hamsters can sometimes be substituted.

As obesity rates continue to increase, so does the business and political push to lose weight. Every time I turn around, there is another fad diet or workout phenomena guaranteed to help you shed the pounds quickly and keep them off. However, some of these fads, especially when they aren’t followed correctly, go too far.

Everyone has some influence, but people with larger networks use more technology to spread theirs, according to "Understanding Influence, and Making It Work For You: A CNet Networks Study."

 
Salt flats of Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
The Rough Guide has put together a list of what they believe to be 25 of the coolest places on earth.  How many have you been to? (Pics)

About 10,000 mothers gathered on Wednesday in nearly 300 state and private hospitals, day-care centres and parks across the Philippines to raise awareness of breastfeeding and try to set a Guinness record for the event.

Unless someone or something stops it soon, the mysterious killer that is wiping out many of the nation’s honeybees could have a devastating effect on America’s dinner plate, perhaps even reducing us to a glorified bread-and-water diet.

Over half of Second Life (SL) users think that it is a good marketing tool, according to a Global Market Insite (GMI) poll.

About 1,550 Palm Beach County high school seniors may not receive a diploma this month after failing their final chance to pass the 10th-grade math or reading FCAT before graduation. Those students – 87 percent of those tested – didn’t pass the reading portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, according to figures released Wednesday.