High school inventors
These 10 brainy students are refining cancer treatments, cleaning up car exhaust systems, and improving communication between humans and robots and they are doing all of this in between pep rallies and history tests.
China’s c-section baby boom
Medical staff deliver a baby by cesarean section at a hospital in China.
Caesarean sections are on the rise globally. But China’s sky-high C-section rate is out of control and they are trying to get a handle on it.
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Massive New Zealand cathedral to be rebuilt with cardboard
The temporary cathedral in New Zealand will use cardboard tubes, as shown in this scale model.
A New Zealand landmark that was destroyed in a natural disaster earlier this year will be resurrected using cardboard.
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Anti-inflammatory drugs double risk of miscarriage
Researchers say health records of 50,000 women link over-the-counter anti-inflammatories and deaths of fetuses.
Use of common anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen and naproxen if taken early in pregnancy may increase the chance of miscarriage, a new study suggests.
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Ammonia could be the answer to emissions-free fuel for cars at just 75 cents a gallon
John Fleming and Tim Maxwell claim they can make ammonia for 75 cents a gallon.
John Fleming of SilverEagles Energy and Tim Maxwell from Texas Tech University, say they have developed a way to make ammonia that is cheap enough so that it could be used as fuel for cars. If their claims turn out to be true, many consumers might consider switching over because ammonia, when burned in an engine, emits nothing but nitrogen and water vapor out the tailpipe. And if that’s not enough incentive, they claim they can make the ammonia for just 20 cents a liter (approximately 75 cents a gallon).
‘Sensing skin’ for concrete would detect tiny cracks
MIT researchers tested the ‘sensing skin’ by attaching it to the underside of a concrete beam, then applying enough force to cause tiny cracks to form in the beam under one patch of the skin.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), in 2009, assigned a grade of “D” to the overall quality of infrastructure in the United States, saying that ongoing evaluation and maintenance of structures was necessary to improve that grade. Since then, federal stimulus funds have made it possible for communities to repair some infrastructure, but high-tech, affordable methods for continual monitoring remain in their infancy. Instead, most evaluation of bridges, dams, schools and other structures is still done by visual inspection, which is slow, expensive, cumbersome and in some cases, dangerous.
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Scientists create see-through mouse brains
On the left is a mouse embryo soaked in saline solution compared with an embryo on the right washed in Scale.
Scientists may soon be able to see exactly what’s on your mind. They have developed a new chemical which turns brain tissue transparent.
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Middle-aged Britons are the unhealthiest in the world
Across 12 countries, Britons between 45 and 54 were found to be in the worst shape.
Middle-aged people are meant to be in the prime of their lives. But the middle-aged people in Britain have been found to be in the world’s worst shape.
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@Walmart Labs – Wal-Mart’s effort to become undisputed leader of social commerce
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDYpF7V0Xe8&hd=1[/youtube]
Wal-Mart is starting to turn heads in the tech world — and that may have important implications for the way we think about the future of the shopping experience. Once known for a soul-less retail store experience and a hyper-efficient supply chain that delivered “everyday low prices,” Wal-Mart has been fusing together innovations from the mobile and social networking worlds to create the foundation for a radically new type of hyper-personalized shopping experience.
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Solar Bottle Bulb – a cheap and sustainable way to light homes
Illac Diaz, of non-profit My Shelter Foundation, brought the simple, cheap and innovative technology to the Philippines.
The slums in Manila are being transformed by a new twist on recycling. Plastic bottles are now being viewed as a cheap and sustainable way to light homes instead of trash.
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Doodling may help students learn science
Google holds a doodling contest for kids every year.
Google has a yearly doodling contest for kids ages k-12. Why shouldn’t teachers encourage kids to doodle while in class? Well, there seems to be a method for this madness and educational researchers from three Australian universities have shared their studies in the August 26, 2011 journal Science.
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European Union is conducting $4.3 million study on nutritional value of eating insects
Love bug salad
Would you like a bowl of scorpion soup? How about a mixed locust salad with bee crème brûlée for dessert?