A survey of 28 leading scientists from around the world concluded that using biotechnology to produce simple nutritional and hygienic improvements and cheap vaccines would do more to improve global health than the development of high-tech treatments
One of the world’s most unusual chemical compounds, zirconium, may prove a godsend for dentists, chefs and even Formula One drivers as it defies the normal laws of physics with a rare ability to shrink, not expand, when heated
The controversial do-it-yourself medicine that inspired the heart-rending movie Lorenzo’s Oil has finally been proved to work. The new research ends years of uncertainty about the treatment and demolishes the claims of experts who repeatedly said it was a worthless quack remedy
According to Jerry Bromenshenk at the University of Montana, trained honeybees have shown a remarkable ability to sniff out land mines, suggesting a possible new way to find the estimated 110 million unexploded land mines around the world
ADP Pharmaceuticals from Goulburn in New South Wales has won Federal Government backing for a project which aims to use genes from deer to repair human cartilage
A leading science magazine is offering readers a prize to die for — cryonics treatment which some hope might give them resurrection after death. The lucky winner of the prize, promoting the revamp of New Scientist magazine, will not be able to collect the award until death, when he or she will be cooled to stop the decay of the body and then suspended in liquid nitrogen
Thailand’s answer to Q
, the legendary inventor of gadgets for movie spy James Bond, is busy at work at his warehouse on the edge of the country’s capital. Workmen inside are trying out the latest inventions of retired Major Songphon Eiamboonyarith, who runs defence contracting firm Precipart Co. The range includes umbrellas that shoot rubber bullets, bullet-proof baseball caps and a hand-held device to fire a man-sized net 10m to stop a villain in his tracks — via Slashdot
Electric signals can be transmitted at least four times faster than the speed of light using only basic equipment that would be found in virtually any college science department
Researchers have put together a biological pacemaker in guinea pigs by slipping a gene into their hearts — a first step in what could lead to alternatives to the electronic devices now implanted in hundreds of thousands of people each year
Scientists are developing a smart tattoo that could tell diabetics when their glucose levels are dangerously low. Once perfected, the tattoo will allow glucose levels to be monitored round the clock, and could allow an alarm system that would warn the diabetic if their glucose levels were to fall dangerously
Walt Anderson, the financier behind such non-traditional space ventures as MirCorp and Rotary Rocket, is bankrolling a new company that intends to change the economics of the commercial satellite business
The idea of an invisibility cloak
has made the leap from science fiction books to an international patent application. The ‘three dimensional cloaking process and apparatus’ for concealing objects and people (WO 02/067196) employs photodetectors on the rear surface which are used to record the intensity and colour of a source of illumination behind the object. Light emitters on the front surface then generate light beams that exactly mimic the same measured intensity, colour and trajectory. The result is that an observer looking at the front of the object appears to see straight through it — via Slashdot
Airbags could one day save the planet. At least, that is the view of one mathematician, who is suggesting that they could be used to nudge asteroids or comets that are on a collision course with the Earth gently out of harm’s way
A humble t-shirt dye may be used to revolutionise high-speed telecoms networks. Four researchers at Virginia Institute of Technology are using the washable, light-fast dye, Procion Red, to make polymer films that manage laser light
Hopes that world leaders would agree to boost renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, were dealt a devastating blow when European Union negotiators abandoned attempts to press for it
Tiny little hairs and not any kind of chemical glue help a gecko race up and down vertical surfaces as smooth as glass
Time’s 26 August cover feature on The Green Century
promises to explain How to Save the Earth
. The answer, according to a prominent article inside: blame environmentalists for a lack of environmental progress
A coalition of green groups distributed dubious honours in their version of an Oscars ceremony to companies they say are guilty of greenwash
— using an environmental veneer to disguise continued poor practice
Scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm have found a tiny, mysterious particle in the spinal marrow fluid which may be a new form of life and which could help explain the cause of schizophrenia
In American and Russian laboratories, millions of years of immense pressure and heat are being telescoped into just a few minutes to produce synthetic diamonds that even expert dealers can’t distinguish from the real thing. The only difference is the price… man-made diamonds could sell for less than $100 a gem. And that is disastrous news for De Beers, whose $9 billion a year monopoly on the diamond trade keeps prices sky high
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