Daystartech has released a new type of photovoltaic cell which, unlike almost all the cells currently in use, does not silicon. This is based on a thin titanium film. Given the current shortage of solar-grade silicon, and all-time high oil prices, maybe titanium solar panels are here at the right time
Eddie Young created suspicion by collecting items from various department of K-Mart and taking them into the bathroom just before closing time. He was arrested after police said they found him operating a methamphetamine lab in the bathroom — via Warren Ellis
If you are using your limbs to disguise yourself, how do you flee danger without giving yourself away? The answer, when you have eight arms, is to use six arms for disguise and to walk across on the seafloor on the other two. Defying the notion that bipedal motion requires muscles attached to a rigid skeleton, the octopuses used the strong, flexible muscles in their back arms to walk across the seabed when pursued by camera-wielding biologists. The two species have slightly different strategies. Octopus marginatus from Indonesia wraps itself into a ball while walking, perhaps to imitate a coconut rolling with the current. Tiny Octopus aculeatus of Australia holds up six of its arms to disguise itself as a clump of seaweed, while walking at up to 14 centimetres per second — faster than it can manage using more than two arms
A Tyrannosaurus rex thigh bone fossil was reluctantly broken to fit in a transport helicopter, and inside soft tissue was found. It appears to include blood vessels and bone cells. Scientists hope to isolate proteins, and perhaps even DNA
Solar Death Ray is made of 112 mirrors mounted on a platform 4′ wide and 6′ tall. Each mirror is a square roughly 3.5″ on edge. All these mirrors focus the sun to a single spot 5’6″ from the mirror platform. A wooden fork extends from the mirror base to the area near the focus and serves as a mounting point for Solar Death Ray targets. The mirror platform is mounted to the support frame on a pivot that allows the platform to be angled. The whole system is mounted on a set of wheels. And, most importantly, you can melt stuff with it, like; AOL CDs, plastic army men, crayons and plastic ducks, all with full comedic photos and commentary
Bioengineers at the University of Maryland are developing contact lenses that change colour in response to changes in blood sugar. The approach would benefit diabetics who traditionally use skin prick tests to monitor their glucose levels — via BoingBoing
Artefacts found in caves by the Red Sea, along with pottery, could put a name to a mysterious land which provided the ancient Egyptians with gold, ebony and incense
Yet another nail was hammered into the coffin of the GM food industry in Britain yesterday when the final trial of a four-year series of experiments found, once more, that genetically modified crops can be harmful to wildlife
A fireball created in a US particle accelerator has the characteristics of a black hole, Horatiu Nastase has said. The Brown University physicist thinks the particles are disappearing into the fireball’s core and reappearing as thermal radiation, just as matter falls into a black hole and comes out as Hawking
radiation
The newly invented Building in a Bag is made from cement impregnated fabic, that is sealed in an easily transportable plastic bag. You literally just add water, and then inflate. Twelve hours later, you have a ready to use building. Possible uses include shelter for disaster areas, and instant field hospitals
The Bureau of Meteorology has upgraded its Web-based rain radar service, adding enhanced maps and finer grades of rain to a service that already ranks as the most popular and fastest-growing educational and government Web site in Australia
The Holy Grail of researchers in the field of solar photovoltaic electricity is to generate it at a lower cost than that of grid electricity. The goal now seems to be within reach. A Palo Alto start-up, named Nanosolar claims that it has developed a commercial scale technology that can deliver solar electricity at 5 cents per kilowatt-hour. Ussume this is marketing hype until proven otherwise
A team of South Korean scientists say they have found a way to produce the human body’s own cancer-killing cells through gene therapy, offering new hope to cancer sufferers
The legend that rice porridge was used in mortar to make robust ramparts has been verified by archaeological research in the north-western province of Shaanxi. During recent maintenance work on the city wall of the provincial capital Xi’an, workers found that plaster remnants on ancient bricks were quite hard to remove. A chemical test showed that the mortar reacted the same as glutinous rice to a reagent
A rigorous study in Italy has confirmed claims that professional soccer players have a higher than normal risk of developing a type of motor neuron disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The reason remains a mystery. ALS involves the death of motor neurons, the nerve cells responsible for voluntary movement, and eventually leads to paralysis and death
Hydroelectric power is environmentally friendly — everyone knows that. Except they are wrong — it can seriously damage the climate. Hydroelectric dams can produce significant amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, and in some cases produce more of these greenhouse gases than power plants running on fossil fuels. Claiming that hydro projects are net producers of greenhouse gases is not new, but the issue is now climbing up the political agenda
An 800-kilometre-wide sea, surviving as broken plates, appears to lie just beneath the surface in observations from the Mars Express spacecraft. The sea is just 5° north of the Martian equator and would be the first discovery of a large body of water outside the planet’s polar ice caps
Secrecy surrounds the harvest of a hemp crop destined to be turned into two houses on the New South Wales north coast. Around 2.5 million plants will be used to build what is believed to be the first hemp houses in Australia
Hard to scratch, chemically stable, inexpensive, environmentally friendly and readily available, so-called transparent transistors are an entirely new class of materials
Scientists have successfully modified the AIDS-causing HIV in such a way that it can attack metasticised melanoma (cancer cells). The impact of genetic research on cancer research is in and of itself amazing. To mix this with the strategy of using one strong enemy against another is brilliance. Research will continue, obviously, but they are already reporting success on living creatures
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