NIST postdoctoral researcher James Chin-wen Chou with the world’s most precise clock, based on the vibrations of a single aluminum ion (electrically charged atom).
Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built an enhanced version of an experimental atomic clock based on a single aluminum atom that is now the world’s most [...]

Artist’s rendering of cell structure.
Monash University biochemists have found a critical piece in the evolutionary puzzle that explains how life on Earth evolved millions of centuries ago.

Debris objects in Earth’s orbit is an increasingly troublesome issue.
An international air traffic control for outer space should be set up to prevent damage to satellites and spacecraft orbiting the Earth, according to proposal to be discussed at the United Nations next week.  Space experts from around the world will discuss ways of tackling the [...]

Migrant workers wait for a bus to return them to the labor camps outside Dubai, but many of the jobs have dried up.
When his overnight flight landed, Abdul Wahib walked out of Kochi’s palm-fringed airport and hugged his family. After 24 years of working in the United Arab Emirates, he was home. He carried a [...]

A couple looking at a shop in Greece as the economy has suffered a major deficit crisis.
Governments in Athens, Madrid and Lisbon struggled on Friday to quell fears of a looming debt crisis in Europe that is pummeling the euro and rippling across global markets, as authorities vowed to impose fiscal austerity and plug their [...]

 
The last speaker of an ancient tribal language has died in the Andaman Islands, breaking a 65,000-year link to one of the world’s oldest cultures.
Boa Sr, who lived through the 2004 tsunami, the Japanese occupation and diseases brought by British settlers, was the last native of the island chain who was fluent in Bo.

India: fast food nation
Live and let live, right? We’ve all heard the phrase a million times, and it connotes that true-blue American sentiment of accomodation and freedom of choice. But what about when our choices are trashing the earth? Then it seems the only remedy is pointing out our own foibles again and again until [...]

A small but significant proportion of morbidly obese people are missing a section of their DNA, according to new research.
A small but significant proportion of morbidly obese people are missing a section of their DNA, according to research published February 3 in Nature. The authors of the study, from Imperial College London and ten other [...]

An Icey New Idea
An abandoned home has been encased in ice in an effort to draw attention to the housing crisis in the US.
Gregory Holm, a photographer, and Matthew Radune, a New York architect, picked a house in Detroit which had been slated for demolition, from the state’s land bank.
In return, they agreed to pay [...]

Forest in Maryland.
Speed is not a word typically associated with trees; they can take centuries to grow. However, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that forests in the Eastern United States are growing faster than they have in the past 225 years. The study offers a [...]

1 in 8 American’s use food banks
One in eight Americans — 37 million — received emergency food help last year, up 46% from 2005, the nation’s largest hunger-relief group reports today.
 

These are three rotting fish heads.
Decaying corpses are usually the domain of forensic scientists, but palaeontologists have discovered that studying rotting fish sheds new light on our earliest ancestry.

Paul Steen and Michael Vogel’s surface tension-based adhesive device with a lego man payload.
Could humans one day walk on walls, like Spider-Man? A palm-sized device invented at Cornell that uses water surface tension as an adhesive bond just might make it possible.

 In PART 1 of this series, we saw the first round of what seems to be turning into a dastardly trend. Now, Brian Krebs continues to scare the pants off of us with his ongoing series on sophisticated ATM skimmers (devices that capture your card number, working with a hidden camera to catch your PIN). [...]

Facebook
Facebook seems to be a handy tool for companies who want to get more information on clientele like their full names, friends, age, gender and interests. It’s a simple hack that was first publicised by blogger Max Klein.

Most experts believe that the Himalayan glaciers will take centuries to melt
The chairman of the leading climate change watchdog was informed that claims about melting Himalayan glaciers were false before the Copenhagen summit.  Rajendra Pachauri was told that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment that the glaciers would disappear by 2035 was wrong, but [...]

Indian students not safe in Australia
Avoid Australia – that’s the clear warning to students planning to study Down Under, issued by the Indian government.  On the ground, the government’s warning apart, the unending attacks and two deaths resulting from it have clearly rattled admission seekers and students already studying there.

Impact of cell phone ban doubted
A national crackdown on distracted driving takes an unexpected turn today. A new study shows that the number of traffic crashes did not drop in three states and the District of Columbia after they banned drivers from using handheld cellphones.The Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), an affiliate of the Insurance [...]

Hawaiian bobtail squid
The genetic interplay between the Hawaiian bobtail squid (pictured) and the symbiotic bacteria that colonize its predator-fooling light organ have been charted to reveal a daily rhythm that sets the stage for a balanced, lifelong relationship.
Most humans are blissfully unaware that we owe our healthful existence to trillions of microbes that make [...]

Rendering of various cluster shapes.
Scientists have long studied how atoms and molecules structure themselves into intricate clusters. Unlocking the design secrets of Nature offers lessons in engineering artificial systems that could self-assemble into any desired form.

Lead, which is sometimes found in paint in older homes, can get on the hands of children and be ingested.
ADHD, or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, is among the costliest of behavioral disorders. Its combination of inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity leads to accidental injuries, school failure, substance abuse, antisocial behavior and more. Yet despite nearly a century of [...]

Bonobo relaxing on a branch.
New research suggests that evolutionary changes in cognitive development underlie the extensive social and behavioral differences that exist between two closely related species of great apes. The study, published online on January 28th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, enhances our understanding of our two closest living relatives, chimpanzees and [...]

Time-integrated photograph of an OMEGA laser shot (43633) to measure high-pressure diamond strength.
Most people know that diamond is one of the hardest solids on Earth, so strong that it can easily cut through glass and steel.

Super-thin material generates electricity when flexed
Power-generating rubber films developed by Princeton University engineers could harness natural body movements such as breathing and walking to power pacemakers, mobile phones and other electronic devices.

Reconstruction of two Sinosauropteryx.
The colour of some feathers on dinosaurs and early birds has been identified for the first time, reports a paper recently published in Nature.