The drop in carpooling has occurred in cities across the country.
Remember the 1970s? Watergate, disco, oil embargoes and, of course, car-pooling. Many big companies organized group rides for their employees, and roughly one in four Americans who drove to work shared a ride with others.
Here’s some good news for women ever bothered by hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms: Your risk for breast cancer may be reduced as much as 50%, researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle report.
Mussel byssus enables mussel to surfaces even in water.
A new gel that the inventors say you can play with like Silly Putty, can repair torn skin, bond implants, or act as an adhesive for underwater machinery. The invention, under development for several years, is now patent pending, and it’s all thanks to the biomimicry of a mussel’s byssus, the hair-size filaments that form a sticky foam enabling the mussel’s fierce attachment to rocks, substrates, and beds on the sea walls and floors.
A study has investigated how the differing fertility rates between religious and secular individuals might affect the genetic evolution of society overall.
In the past 20 years, the Amish population in the US has doubled, increasing from 123,000 in 1991 to 249,000 in 2010. The huge growth stems almost entirely from the religious culture’s high fertility rate, which is about 6 children per woman, on average. At this rate, the Amish population will reach 7 million by 2100 and 44 million by 2150. On the other hand, the growth may not continue if future generations of Amish choose to defect from the religion and if secular influences reduce the birth rate. In a new study, Robert Rowthorn, emeritus professor of economics at Cambridge University, has looked at the broader picture underlying this particular example: how will the high fertility rates of religious people throughout the world affect the future of human genetic evolution, and therefore the biological makeup of society?
Facebook has rolled out a new ad system where people’s updates get converted into “sponsored story” ads fed to their friends. But this is hardly the first time advertisers have tried to feed us ads stealth-style. (videos)
Within a few years genetically modified plants could be detecting bombs at airports.
Colorado State University has received and $8 million grant from the Department of Defense. They’ll use the money in hopes of growing plants to detect explosives in shopping malls or airports.
Amazon has sold “millions” of third-generation Kindle electronic readers in the most recent quarter.
Amazon.com (AMZN) is now selling more Kindle e-books than paperbacks, the world’s biggest online retailer reported. But Amazon’s fourth-quarter financial results were mixed. Amazon says net income for the quarter climbed 8%, which surpasses Wall Street expectations. But revenue fell short, sending shares down nearly 10% at one point in extended trading.
A man shows off his stick-on lights, a new idea in teeth fashion.
Technology and the height of fashion don’t often go hand-in-hand. Apple devices, smartphones, and PMPs may count as a fashion accessory, but the latest processor, fastest SSD, or a next-gen graphics card don’t. That hasn’t stopped the Japanese trying to think of novel ways to make certain components fashionable, though. While the well-known bits of a PC don’t fit the bill, those little LED lights that appear on most home electronics devices apparently do. (videos)
Encrypted “HTTPS” protocol is an important step to keep your Facebook account safe.
Facebook finally provided a way to keep any random jerk in the café from hijacking your account. But you have to go out of your way to enable this protection, and you might have to wait. Still: Jump on this.
Forget about warp drives and wormholes, the Daedalus class of interstellar spacecraft could make it to a nearby star in our lifetimes, and it’s doable with near-term technology. Also, it’shuge. (Pics and video)