Its Visine for space
When you look up on a dark, clear, moonless night, you might just see a faint fuzzy streak cutting across the sky. That’s the Milky Way, called that because it looks like milk has spilled across the sky.
But when you look at it through a telescope, it resolves itself into millions upon [...]

It’s a bird! It’s a, uh, bee! It is, in fact, a helicopter named for a bumble bee – which is what “hummel” means in Rosenheim-born industrial designer Daniel Kocyba’s native German. The small wheels and support of the ‘copter fold up for a flat base, and its rotors swing down against the chassis so [...]

The Dance Of The DNA Solves An Age Old Riddle

For two decades, researchers have been using a growing volume of genetic data to debate whether ancestors of Native Americans emigrated to the New World in one wave or successive waves, or from one ancestral Asian population or a number of different populations.
Now, after painstakingly comparing [...]

Possibly the world’s largest cave passage, Hang Son Doong was discovered in the heart of the Vietnamese jungle by a British caving team.
A British caving team believe they have discovered the world’s largest cave passage in the heart of the Vietnamese jungle. (Pics)

My granddaughter, Dez, and I rarely see eye to eye. But we have a relationship where we are heavily dependant upon each other

I’m a bit like film director Robert Zemeckis who co-wrote the screenplay Back to the Future. I notice those little things that have disappeared, fond memories of my chilldhood, like service stations that [...]

 
The financial industry brought the economy to its knees, but how did they get away with it?

One reason why the British nurse was denied residency - It could cost the New Zealand government NZ$25,000 to treat obesity-related health problems.
A British nurse was refused permission to live in New Zealand because she weighed 294 pounds, official documents disclosed.

 Kenyan women ban sex
Thousands of Kenyan women are to go on a week-long sex strike in a bid to force an end to the country’s ongoing political bickering.

Refining the Swine Problem

Even if global coverage on the potential swine flu pandemic may be an over-reaction and another sign of media manipulation, it’s clear that the outbreak is still a serious issue (which you can now follow via Google Maps). All things considered, the outbreak seems to be the tip of the proverbial iceberg. [...]

A Very Crafty Caterpillar

Caterpillars of the Great Peacock Moth (Saturnia pyri) are generating quite a buzz lately. A recent study has shown that these giant silkmoth caterpillars are advertising acoustically that they are unpallatable and warn of an upcoming defense strategy.
When disturbed by a would be attacker the caterpillars stridulate by rubbing their mouth parts together, [...]

Google Earth image of area of Egypt 
A limestone countertop, a practiced eye and Google Earth all played roles in the discovery of a trove of fossils that may shed light on the origins of African wildlife.

Comet hitting Earth 
Comets have always fascinated people. Now, scientists have added a new twist to that fascination — comets might have provided the elements for the emergence of life on Earth.

Liz Goodman, Museum of London conservator is seen with a Roman Millefiore bowl.
Archaeologists have unearthed a Roman glass bowl, thought to be a unique find in the Western Roman Empire, at an ancient cemetery beyond the walls of the old city of London. (Pics)

 
Twitter followers
If media attention is any indication, Twitter has exploded into an all-out phenomenon. Celebrities, politicians, entrepreneurs, business leaders and everyday users are flocking to the service en masse, generating a frenzy of activity and attention.

 
If you can’t afford to buy your own tropical island paradise, why not build your own? That is exactly what Richie Sowa did back in 1998, from over a quarter-million plastic bottles. His Spiral Island, destroyed years later by a hurricane, sported a two-story house, solar oven, self-composting toilet and multiple beaches. Better yet, he [...]

The outdoor Cumuli cable-suspended lamp has solar panels above and LEDs below. 

OK, I can admit it – I was one of those people that a few years ago ran out and bought those generic-looking solar garden path lamps and strung them all along the walkways up to my front door. Subsequently I was hugely disappointed [...]

Mental Illness Takes on Many Forms

China has at least 100 million people suffering from mental illness, according to one of its most senior health officials. “This is a modest number,” said Huang Yueqin, the director of the National Centre for Mental Health. Her department was set up by the Health ministry in 2002 to draft [...]

There are some strange bands out there with some even weirder names. Here’s a collection of bands and the story of how they came up with their titles. Included are Pink Floyd, Porno For Pyros, Gogol Bordello and 4 others!
Black Sabbath

Ozzy’s band of mischief didn’t start off nearly as dark as it ended up. The [...]

Eco Hummer
Hummers are an easy target these days. They’re a big, hulking symbol of greedy car culture: unnecessarily large gas guzzler driven by selfish people. They destroy the earth with their terrible gas milage and seem like a menace. But what if that horrible Hummer could get 100MPG?

Heart attack prevention
A young medical researcher in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tel Aviv University is giving hope to the millions of people who may otherwise die of sudden heart attacks. Dr. Sharon Zlochiver has developed a mathematical model to predict heart attacks.

Paragon’s Lunar Oasis
Astronauts’ meals have come a long way from the freeze-dried powders and semi-liquid pastes of decades ago: now US scientists want to grow vegetables in mini-greenhouses on the Moon.

 
A spinoff from the Rocky Mountain Institute, Bright Automotive, has developed a 100-miles-per-gallon plug-in hybrid.
Last week, Bright Automotive, a startup based in Anderson, IN, unveiled a plug-in hybrid utility van designed to travel 50 miles on half a gallon of gasoline. The company plans to start producing the Idea vehicle in large volume by the end [...]

 Myrmecophyte plants-otherwise known as ant-plants
Nature is full of mutually beneficial arrangements between organisms-like the relationship between flowering plants and their bee pollinators. But sometimes these blissful relationships have a dark side, as Harvard biologist Megan Frederickson describes in an article for the May issue of The American Naturalist. (Pics)

Memory pill coming soon 
Here’s some good news for students — a memory pill which can help you with revision for exams is being developed by scientists.

About 40M people watch Globo, the leading network in Brazil. 
THE glamorised world portrayed on the nightly telenovelas (soap operas) on Brazilian television is, superficially at least, about as representative of the country as a whole as Marie Antoinette and her shepherdesses were of 1780s’ France. But they are all about aspiration. About 40m people watch [...]