PodSpec » Nature

Messing with our planet

cs — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 16:21:40 +0000

IN 1975 scientists expert in a new and potentially world-changing technology, genetic engineering, gathered at Asilomar, on the Monterey peninsula in California, to ponder the ethics and safety of the course they were embarking on. The year before, they had imposed on themselves a voluntary moratorium on experiments which involved the transfer of genes from [...]

Coming up empty

cs — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:37:06 +0000

THE renewable-fuel standard released in February by America’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) paints an ambitious picture of biofuels’ future. It wants the amount of the stuff used as transport fuel to climb from 13 billion gallons (49 billion litres) in 2010 to 36 billion gallons in 2022, requiring by far the largest part of that [...]

Single Molecule Transistor

cs — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:59:05 +0000

MANHASSET, NY — Researchers from Yale University and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea have successfully created a transistor made from a single molecule. The researchers showed that a benzene molecule attached to gold contacts could behave just like a silicon transistor.

They were able to manipulate the molecule’s different energy [...]

Rubber from Dandelions

cs — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 03:58:51 +0000

The tyres of the future may be made from dandelions. OTHER than being an ingredient of the more recherché sorts of salad, herbal tea or wine, dandelions are pretty useless plants. Or, at least, they were. But one species, a Russian variety called Taraxacum kok-saghyz (TKS), may yet make the big time. It produces molecules [...]

Elephant Camps

cs — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:50:39 +0000

All elephants living in Indian zoos and circuses will be moved to wildlife parks and game sanctuaries where the animals can graze more freely, officials said Friday. The decision affects around 140 elephants in 26 zoos and 16 circuses in the country, said B.K. Gupta, an officer at India’s Central Zoo Authority.

The order followed complaints [...]

Giant Crack in Africa

cs — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:22:33 +0000

A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will likely become a new ocean eventually, researchers now confirm. The crack, 20 feet wide in spots, opened in 2005 and some geologists believed then that it would spawn a new ocean. But that view was controversial, and the rift had not been well studied.

A new study [...]

Man vs God

cs — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:37:04 +0000

Wall Street Journal | September 12, 2009

Karen Armstrong says we need God to grasp the wonder of our existence. Richard Dawkins argues that evolution leaves God with nothing to do!

Karen Armstrong says we need God to grasp the wonder of our existence

Richard Dawkins has been right all along, of course—at least in one important respect. Evolution [...]

Doomsday Seed Vault

cs — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:06:37 +0000

UN chief Ban Ki-moon visited Wednesday a vault carved into the Arctic permafrost, filled with samples of the world’s most important seeds in case food crops are wiped out by a catastrophe.

“The world faces many daunting challenges today, one of the greatest of which is how to feed a growing population in the context of [...]

Biomimicry

cs — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:03:08 +0000

An adhesive made by worms inspires a new treatment for broken bones.

Torn flesh is easy to put back together with stitches, but when bone breaks, repairs are nowhere near as simple. Fractures that run in a straight line can often be placed back in their proper alignment and set in a cast for a period [...]

Telescope turning 400

cs — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:47:31 +0000

Celebrating 400th anniversary of Galileo’s Telescope.

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14213985

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei

Flying Frogs

cs — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:46:04 +0000

A flying frog, the world’s smallest deer and the first new monkey to be found in over a century are among 350 new species discovered in the eastern Himalayas in the past decade, the WWF said Monday.

But the environmental group said the vital habitats of the mountain range were facing growing pressures from unsustainable development [...]

Diamond in the Sky

cs — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:34:25 +0000

Solar Eclipse July 22, 2009 | New Delhi, India