To take advantage of the sun’s energy to satisfy our ever-increasing need for electricity, Americans will have to take a fresh look at their roofs. A report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory shows that if all suitable roof areas in the United States were plastered with solar panels, they would generate about 1,118 gigawatts […]
Researchers led by Martin Fussenegger, Professor of Biotechnology and Bioengineering at ETH Zurich’s Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering in Basel, have performed a feat that many specialists had until now held to be impossible: they have extracted stem cells from a 50-year-old test subject’s fatty tissue and applied genetic reprogramming to make them mature […]
Scientists have developed a new type of microbial fuel cell that can transform urine into electricity. This innovative technique has the potential to revolutionize the production of bio-energy, especially in the developing countries. The researchers claim that the proposed design of such microbial fuel cell is not only cheaper, but also more powerful than the […]
It is the first time that Jupiter’s X-ray aurora has been studied when a giant storm from the Sun has arrived at the planet. The dramatic findings complement NASA’s Juno mission this summer which aims to understand the relationship between the two biggest structures in the solar system – the region of space controlled by […]
Until now, humanity has only known two forms of magnetism: ferromagnetism (the kind you see on your fridge) and antiferromagnetism (a sort of negative magnetism found in hard drives). However, MIT researchers just confirmed the existence of a third kind… and it could be the key to making quantum computing a practical reality. The team […]
Scientists from the universities of Oxford and Manchester have used a new molecular fingerprinting technique to identify one Neanderthal bone from around 2,000 tiny bone fragments. All the tiny pieces of bone were recovered from a key archaeological site, Denisova Cave in Russia, with the remaining fragments found to be from animal species like mammoths, […]
An international team of researchers have found evidence of a mysterious new state of matter, first predicted 40 years ago, in a real material. This state, known as a quantum spin liquid, causes electrons – thought to be indivisible building blocks of nature – to break into pieces. The researchers, including physicists from the University […]
This kaleidoscopic image of twinkling stars and cosmic hazes shows the site of a colossal collision of two galaxy clusters, coming together to form a single entity known as MACS J0416.1-2403. Galaxy clusters can be made up of thousands of galaxies, along with hot gas and dark matter, bound together by gravity. Under the right […]
Geoff GaddNeurospora growing on a plate. Geoff Gadd, a professor of biology at the University of Dundee in Scotland, learned that when he puts the mold in a container with urea and manganese, a mineral called manganese carbonate will form around the spindly arms of the fungus. The trick works because mold secretes the enzyme […]
Microsoft’s motion-sensing Kinect peripheral never quite took off as the future of gaming, but it’s proving enduringly popular among scientists as a low-cost imaging device. In the past we’ve seen it used to study glaciers and asteroids, for shopping analytics, in supermarket trolleys and even keeping peace on the Korean border. Now, a team of […]
