Sharing a small portion of cinema popcorn between two would mean each person consuming a day’s worth of saturated fat
A medium popcorn and soft drink at an American cinema is the caloric equivalent of three McDonald’s quarter pounder hamburgers topped with a dozen scoops of butter, according to a new study.
 

Women and beauty products – it’s a love affair that’s been going on for centuries. And no wonder. There’s nothing like a new lipstick or favourite perfume to make us look and feel good. Or so we thought…
 

Graphene layers are found in graphite flakes like those from pencil lead.
First, it was the soccer-ball-shaped molecules dubbed buckyballs. Then it was the cylindrically shaped nanotubes. Now, the hottest new material in physics and nanotechnology is graphene: a remarkably flat molecule made of carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal rings much like molecular chicken wire.

This image shows the process by which Photosystem I in thermophilic blue-green algae can be catalyzed by platinum to produce a sustainable source of hydrogen.
In the quest to make hydrogen as a clean alternative fuel source, researchers have been stymied about how to create usable hydrogen that is clean and sustainable without relying on an [...]

Over 5000 worked flints came from one small area, including flint cores used for tool creation, blades, flakes and ‘debitage’

Staff at the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) have been excited by the results from a recently excavated major Prehistoric site at Asfordby, near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. The Mesolithic site may date from as early [...]

Search engine giant Google is sending a representative to China this week to talk with the country’s copyright watchdog.  The move is designed to cool Chinese authors’ heated complaints against the company over copyright violations, a Google senior executive said yesterday.
 

Normal synaptic activity in nerve cells protects the brain from the misfolded proteins associated with Huntington’s disease, researchers have discovered.
Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham), the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics and the University of California, San Diego have found that normal synaptic activity in nerve cells (the [...]

NIST postdoctoral researcher David Hanneke at the laser table used to demonstrate the first universal programmable processor for a potential quantum computer.
Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated the first “universal” programmable quantum information processor able to run any program allowed by quantum mechanics — the rules governing the submicroscopic [...]

 Today’s 60-year-olds are the first modern generation to be less healthy than their immediate predecessors.  A health timebomb is hitting baby boomers: the over-60 year olds are sufferring more illnesses caused by bad diet and lack of exercise.
 

Go Go Gadget High Voltage Robot!

Fiddling with high-voltage power lines is certainly a dangerous job, especially for humans. With that in mind, a Tokyo-based company, HiBot, is working with western Japan’s Kansai Electric Power Co. to test a new robot next year that can inspect several power cables at once, and we’re fairly sure that [...]

“One of the reasons I have long supported the U.S. biotechnology industry is that it is a homegrown success story that has been an engine of job creation in this country.” This written statement by Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina on the health care bill was identical to one by Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer and [...]

Only available to the US Military (and Blackwater employees?), this new shotgun is fully automatic and can shoot a mini-missle.

Rabbitsfoot Mussel
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is out with its annual list of proposed candidate species, or “candidate notice of review.” That is, plants and animals that the agency says may be designated as endangered unless conservation measures are taken to protect them.

Today, the world comes to an end. Well, in theaters, anyway. 2012 has us thinking about the apocalypse ’round these parts (so uplifting, we know), and that led us to wondering about all the crazy technology that’s all around us — technology that at one point or another caused widespread fear that it was all [...]

Crazy Rasberry Ant
Poor Texas. First it was killer bees, then fire ants. Now, it’s the Rasberry ants.
The invasion of this new species of ants has scientists intrigued, businesses concerned and fire ants running for the hills, said Jerry Cook, an entomologist at Sam Houston State University. (Video)
 

Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy of this inconspicuous blue object.
Astrophysicists at the University of Warwick and Kiel University have discovered two earth sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres — however there is a bit of a disappointing snag for anyone looking for a potential home for alien life, or even a future home for ourselves, [...]

Honda Hybrid hits pedestrians
Hybrid vehicles, which creep along almost silently at low speeds on electric power, are more likely to hit pedestrians or bicycles than regular cars, a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finds.
 

Rubbish in the Pacific
Aboard the Alguita, 1,000 miles northeast of Hawaii — In this remote patch of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from any national boundary, the detritus of human life is collecting in a swirling current so large that it defies precise measurement.
 

Air passengers are facing a new tax at India’s New Delhi airport – to pay for dog catchers to trap packs of strays who chase planes.
Air traffic experts estimate that as many as five flights a day are delayed by dogs running after planes on the tarmac as they try to take off.
“In most places [...]

The Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, just cannot catch a break. First, a coolant leak destroyed some of the magnets that guide the energy beam. Then LHC officials postponed the restart of the machine to add additional safety features. Now, a bird dropping a piece of bread on a section of [...]

New evidence from Chandra suggests that the neutron star at the center of the Cas A supernova remnant has an ultra-thin carbon atmosphere.
Evidence for a thin veil of carbon has been found on the neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. This discovery, made with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, resolves a ten-year mystery surrounding [...]

Twilight, a Thoroughbred horse from Cornell University.
An international team of researchers has decoded the genome of the domestic horse Equus caballus, revealing a genome structure with remarkable similarities to humans and more than one million genetic differences across a variety of horse breeds. In addition to shedding light on a key part of the mammalian [...]

This figure represents four cells, four purified CD34+ (the CD34+ cell population comprises true hematopoetic stem cell) from patient P1.
A strategy that combines gene therapy with blood stem cell therapy may be a useful tool for treating a fatal brain disease, French researchers have found.

Japan’s ageing population and low birth rate are fuelling fears of a population slump over the coming years.
 

C. elegans.
If worms are any indication, all the sugar in your diet could spell much more than obesity and type 2 diabetes. Researchers reporting in the November issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, say it might also be taking years off your life.