On a cold day in January, Dan Stoicescu, a millionaire living in Switzerland, became the second person in the world to buy the full sequence of his own genetic code.
He is also among a relatively small group of individuals who could afford the $350,000 price tag.

 
The best sexual intercourse lasts between seven and 13 minutes, according to a new survey by US experts.
According to the research, led by Eric Corty, from the Behrend College in Erie, Pennsylvania, three-minute sex is ‘adequate’.

Nature rewards shorter women with extra long lives, according to a new study.
Mutations in genes governing an important cell-signalling pathway influence human longevity, according to researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Mars Express
Using two ESA spacecraft, planetary scientists are watching the atmospheres of Mars and Venus being stripped away into space.

A computer controller levitated by magnets provides a new way to physically experience virtual objects.
The “maglev” system has benefits over more mechanical haptic controllers – computer interfaces that stimulate the user’s sense of touch – and its inventors are now working to commercializing the technology.

 Guinness Brewmaster Fergal Murray explains the process of pouring the perfect pint.
This takes place at the St. James Gate Brewery of Guinness in Dublin, Ireland. This is where the real production happens. This facility brews roughly three million pints per day.

A nanoradio is a carbon nanotube anchored to an electrode, with a second electrode just beyond its free end.
If you own a sleek iPod Nano, you’ve got nothing on Alex Zettl. The physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues have come up with a nanoscale radio, in which the key circuitry consists […]

DARPA has nearly finished work on the Crusher, a six-wheeled robot that rolls through ditches, walls, streams, other vehicles and almost anything else that gets in its way.
“This vehicle can go into places where, if you were following in a Humvee, you’d come out with spinal injuries,” Stephen Welby, director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, […]

 
According to Flight Global, DARPA is close to awarding a contract to build an unmanned aircraft that can stay in the air for up to 5 years at a time. DARPA describes the “Vulture” project as a “persistent pseudo-satellite capability in an aircraft package.” In other words, the aircraft can hover over a single area, […]

We came across this brilliant series of photos titled “Holding the Sun”.  We think you’ll appreciate their brilliance.
 

 
 
Four hundred years after it put Galileo on trial for heresy the Vatican is to complete its rehabilitation of the great scientist by erecting a statue of him inside the Vatican walls.
The planned statue is to stand in the Vatican gardens near the apartment in which Galileo was incarcerated while awaiting trial in 1633 […]

 
Those beautiful snowflakes drifting out of the sky may have a surprise inside — bacteria.
Most snow and rain forms in chilly conditions high in the sky and atmospheric scientists have long known that, under most conditions, the moisture needs something to cling to in order to condense.
Now, a new study shows a surprisingly large share […]

 
Quick, which state in the U.S. has the highest Internet penetration rate?  Hint, it’s not one of the most populated states.