Earth changes seen threw the lens of a time lapse camera
Over the past decade, the number of people on Earth shot up by more than 13 percent, to nearly 6.8 billion people. To make room for all the hungry, breeding, CO2-emitting bodies on our small planet, we’ve ravaged Earth’s surface with staggering feats of deforestation, [...]

They are always watching
Digital security is clearly an important matter to President Barack Obama and he will today appoint a “cyber czar” to oversee the nation’s computer defenses.

Apple praising Microsoft now thats new
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has reported a favorable impression of Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

Steampunk style art or extraterrestrial art you make the call
Okay fine, maybe this is more of an artistic representation that’s taken a few liberties, but still, the Neuron Chamber on display at Maker Faire 2009 is a pretty cool looking piece of extraterrestrial art.
Creator Alan Rorie says that the concept behind the Neuron Chamber is [...]

Invisibility is on the horizon
While some work toward an invisibility cloak, University of Illinois professor Nicholas Fang is taking steps to create a similar material, only for sound, that could, for example, make ships invisible to SONAR. To successfully do this, of course, requires we break the laws of physics. But, you know, whatever.

Avatars with emotions 
Anyone who’s played through a game like Microsoft’s Fable II (who can forget your virtual dog?), BioWare’s Mass Effect (with its robust roster of non-playable characters) or seen Sony’s upcoming Heavy Rain (whose developer, Quantic Dream, promises a new type of relationship between player and character) may have wondered to themselves whether gaming, [...]

 
Why do people have fingerprints?
Fingerprints do not help primates grip, as previously thought, scientists have discovered. They actually reduce the friction needed to hold onto flat surfaces. Now Dr Roland Ennos and his team at The University of Manchester are trying to find out: why do we have them?
Dr Ennos, at the University’s Faculty of Life [...]

Burmese Python in the Florida Everglades
The population of Burmese pythons in Florida’s Everglades may have grown to as many as 150,000 as the non-native snakes make a home and breed in the fragile wetlands, officials said.

Capital Gate 
Capital Gate, the iconic leaning building in Abu Dhabi, reached halfway point. The building, designed by international architects RMJM, will lean 18 degrees westward, 14 degrees more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

A third of the world’s remaining natural gas and 13 per cent of its oil is trapped beneath the Arctic 
Tensions over the Arctic’s untapped energy reserves are expected to build after a survey has found substantial mineral riches under the ice.
The analysis, by researchers at the U.S. Geologic Survey, found that a third of world’s [...]