This is a near-infrared image of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the largest satellite galaxy circling the Milky Way.
Less than two months after they inaugurated the world’s largest telescope, University of Florida astronomers have used one of the world’s most advanced telescopic instruments to gather images of the heavens.

Laboratory mouse.

A University of Utah sleep expert has joined with researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and Stanford University to identify a genetic variation in humans, which the scientists also developed in mouse models, that allows a rare number of people to require less sleep than others.

Detailed image of large-scale crater floor polygons, caused by desiccation process, with smaller polygons caused by thermal contraction inside.
Networks of giant polygonal troughs etched across crater basins on Mars have been identified as desiccation cracks caused by evaporating lakes, providing further evidence of a warmer, wetter martian past.

A test for color blindness showing a “6″.
Researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Florida used gene therapy to cure two squirrel monkeys of color blindness — the most common genetic disorder in people.

 
Vu1’s conceptual design for its R-30 bulb.
While compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) are currently the primary alternative to incandescent light bulbs, a company from Seattle predicts that its own novel light bulbs will eventually replace CFLs and LEDs. Vu1 (”view one”) Corporation has been working on its electron stimulated luminescence (ESL) bulbs, and has recently released [...]

Conceptual rendering of Zonkoís, located in Hogsmeade
A giant hi-tech roller-coaster set inside Hogwarts Castle will be one of the attractions at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park due to open in Florida next spring.  The ‘Forbidden Journey’ ride, named by author JK Rowling, will take customers on a journey through scenes from the [...]

Undergrads at Engines and Energy Conversion Lab (EECL), Colorado State University, tinker with a prototype laser ignition system on an industrial Caterpillar engine.
So you want to explore the deepest caves? Design the cars of the future? Fire rockets? Don’t wait until you graduate. Here are 7 college programs that offer the most fun per credit—and can help [...]

Sharron Kay Thornton talks with her lead surgeon Victor Perez who restored sight to her left eye.
Doctors in Miami announced Wednesday that they had performed a vision-restoring surgery that used the 60-year-old patient’s tooth.The surgery, the first in the USA, was performed Labor Day weekend at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of [...]

Researchers merged meteorological and wind-turbine modeling to map China’s wind-energy potential.  Potential output of 1.5 MW wind turbines is shown as a percentage of maximum output over time.
China has doubled its installed wind power capacity every year for the past five, and is on pace this year to supplant the Unied States as the world’s [...]