• U.S. students need new way of learning science

    The United States used to lead the world in science education, but now U.S. students are ranked a mediocre 23rd in their science knowledge; a group of prominent scientists says that American students need a dramatically new approach to improve how they learn science

  • U.S. Navy experience shows climate alterations

    The U.S. Navy reports that because of its worldwide presence, it sees the effects of climate change directly; and expert tells a scientific audience at Sandia Lab that disparities in current climate science projections “mean that the Navy should plan for a range of contingencies, given our limited ability to predict abrupt change or tipping points for potentially irreversible change”

  • Post-communist depression

    A new study reveals how a radical economic policy devised by Western economists put former Soviet states on a road to bankruptcy and corruption

  • Researchers use electricity to generate alternative fuel

    Scientists show that we can use electricity to power our cars — even if these cars are not electric vehicles; the researchers demonstrated a method for converting carbon dioxide into liquid fuel isobutanol using electricity

  • Water scarcity in California's Bay-Delta necessitates “hard decisions”

    Simultaneously attaining a reliable water supply for California and protecting and rehabilitating its Bay-Delta ecosystem cannot be realized until better planning can identify how trade-offs between these two goals will be managed when water is limited

  • Containing a tunnel flood with an inflatable giant plug

    Researchers have developed a giant plug to contain tunnel floods; the plug inflates (with water or air) to dimensions of roughly 32-feet-long and by 16-feet-wide, and holds 35,000 gallons, about the same capacity as a medium-sized backyard swimming pool

  • Test strip detects TNT and other explosives in water

    Scientists developed a new explosives detector that can sense small amounts of TNT and other common explosives in liquids instantly with a sensitivity that rivals bomb-sniffing dogs, the current gold standard in protecting the public from terrorist bombs

  • Rapid, low-cost, point-of-care flu detection demonstrated

    The novel H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009 underscored weaknesses in methods widely used to diagnose the flu, from frequent false negatives to long wait times for results; scientists demonstrate a prototype rapid, low-cost, accurate, point-of-care device that promises a better standard of care

  • Some flame retardants make fires more lethal

    Almost 10,000 deaths from fires occur in industrialized countries worldwide each year, including about 3,500 in the United States; scientists find that widely used flame retardants added to carpets, furniture upholstery, plastics, crib mattresses, car, and airline seats and other products to suppress the visible flames in fires are actually increasing the danger of invisible toxic gases that are the No. 1 cause of death in fires

  • A swarm of small satellites to deflect menacing asteroids

    New research suggests that the best way to divert an asteroid hurtling toward Earth is using a swarm of relatively small satellites flying in formation and cooperatively firing solar-powered lasers onto an asteroid; this would be a more effective way than the current methods being contemplated, which are focused on large unwieldy spacecraft

  • Developing crop for livestock in dry climates

    Scientists at the University of Liverpool are working with international partners to develop new forage crop for the hot and dry climate of regions such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia

  • Machine can tell when a human being is lying

    In a study of forty cases, a computer correctly identifies liars more than 80 percent of the time, a better rate than humans with the naked eye typically achieve in lie-detection exercises

  • New plastics mimic human skin: they “bleed” when scratched, then heal

    Plastics have become so common, replacing steel, aluminum, glass, paper, and other traditional materials because they combine desirable properties such as strength, light weight, and corrosion resistance; a new genre of plastics that mimic the human skin’s ability to heal scratches and cuts offers the promise of endowing military and first response gear – and consumer goods – with self-repairing surfaces

  • 1930s technology to become 21st century tool against CO2 emissions

    Human activity releases 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year; a new approach to dealing with the problem has a back-to-the-future glint, leveraging technology that the petroleum industry has used since the 1930s to remove carbon dioxide and other impurities from natural gas

  • Earth's crust is slowly being destroyed

    New research shows that the Earth’s crust is now undergoing high rates of destruction; the research shows the sharp decrease in the growth of the continental crust indicates a dramatic change in the way the Earth has generated and preserved this crust in the last 4.5 billion years