The Lumpen Proletarian

Technology Review: Detecting Aircraft Pathogens Before It's Too Late

A new study suggests that single particle detectors should be used to help control pandemics.

Breakthrough Design Uses Electrical Towers to Harvest Wind Power : TreeHugger

The winners of this year's Next Generation design competition have unearthed an idea that's brilliant in its simplicity: adding wind turbines to already existing electrical towers. The project, aptly called Wind-It, would have wind turbines built on pylons and

Color-Shifting "Master of Disguise" Cuttlefish Inspires Hyper-Energy Efficient TV : TreeHugger
Image: Getty & Samsung Biomimicry Strikes Again Scientists at MIT are studying color-changing cuttlefish, and with an understanding of how these fascinating creatures (see the 3 videos below) can change color in less than a second, they're building electronic-ink

Findings - Message in What We Buy, but Nobody’s Listening - NYTimes.com

Does your iPhone reveal all about the type of person you are?

Plastic that grows on trees, part two

Some researchers hope to turn plants into a renewable, nonpolluting replacement for crude oil. To achieve this, scientists have to learn how to convert plant biomass into a building block for plastics and fuels cheaply and efficiently. In new research, chemists have successfully converted cellulose ...

Research finds mangroves being fed to death

(PhysOrg.com) -- New UQ Science research has found the increase in nutrients coming out of our river systems is putting pressure on our mangrove forests and making them far more susceptible to environmental variability and climate change.

Breakthrough in radiotherapy promises targeted cancer treatment

(PhysOrg.com) -- Current radiation therapy treatment damages a patient's healthy tissue as well as eradicating the tumour it is intended to destroy, making the treatment especially invasive and often causing nasty side effects.

Perfect Pitch: Language Wins Out Over Genetics
Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Sinatra and Hendrix -- these and many other of the world's most famous musicians have had 'perfect' or 'absolute' pitch. The ability, defined as recognizing the pitch of a musical note without having to compare it to any reference note, is quite rare in the U.S. and Europe, where ...

Cilia, an Antenna and Motor on Cells - NYTimes.com

Cilia poke out, one to a cell, and process essential signals.

What's Inside WD-40? Superlube's Secret Sauce

Get the latest in science news, including space, physics, planet earth, discoveries, NASA, satellites, and space travel from Wired.com

All (known) Bodies in the Solar System Larger than 200 Miles in Diameter

South Americans hit by dengue fever epidemic - Americas - MiamiHerald.com

While the world continues to be on alert for a potential swine flu pandemic, South Americans have been suffering for months from one of the worst viral epidemics on record.

How To Make Biochar & Bio-Oil, Re:Char Demonstrates (Video) : TreeHugger
Whether for enhancing crop yields or storing massive amounts of carbon in the soil as part of a geoengineering plan, biochar certainly has a bit of a buzz going around it of late. If you'd like to see how

Missing link found? Scientists unveil fossil of 47 million-year-old primate, Darwinius masillae

Feast your eyes on what a group of scientists claim is the Holy Grail of human evolution. A team of researchers Tuesday unveiled an almost perfectly intact fossil of a 47 million-year-old primate they say represents the long-sought missing link between humans and apes.

Our unending war of terror | Salon

Bush's embrace of torture was horrific, but it was hardly the first time Americans have acted like terrorists.

Guest Column: Math and the City - Olivia Judson Blog - NYTimes.com

GPS System Could Start Failing by Next Year

(PhysOrg.com) -- A federal watchdog agency has warned the U.S. Congress that the GPS system could start failing in 2010 and beyond. Due to delays in launching replacement satellites and other circumstances, the GPS systems risk the possibility of blackouts and failures starting next year.

An advance in solving the mysterious machine-workers' disease

Scientists in Ohio are reporting a long-awaited advance toward making the workplace safer for more than one million machinists in the United States who may be exposed to disease-causing bacteria in contaminated metalworking fluids. Those fluids become airborne during machining of metal parts. The study ...

Flu Pandemics May Lurk in Frozen Lakes | Wired Science | Wired.com
The next flu pandemic may be hibernating in an Arctic glacier or frozen Siberian lake, waiting for rising temperatures to set it free. Then birds can

DNA molecules can detect pathogens, deliver drugs

(PhysOrg.com) -- First, Cornell researchers created DNA 'bar codes' -- strands of the genetic material that quickly identify the presence of different molecules by fluorescing. Now, they have created new DNA molecules that can detect pathogens and deliver drugs to cells when they form long chains called ...

Right-to-Repair Law Proposed ... for Cars | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Technology Review: Five-Dimensional Data Storage

A new material could eventually be used to store vast amounts of data on a disc.

The High Cost of Poverty: Why the Poor Pay More - washingtonpost.com

You have to be rich to be poor. That's what some people who have never lived below the poverty line don't understand. Put it another way: The poorer you are, the more things cost. More in money, time, hassle, exhaustion, menace. This is a fact of life that reality television and magazines don't o...