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San Francisco, 8:10 PM
Fri Jan 1
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Paralyzed By Light
Just one beam of ultra-violet light left this nematode worm completely paralyzed. A second beam of visible-spectrum light allowed it to move again. That's right - scientists have created behavioral "light switches," a way to control animals with light. More »Nobel Prize Wins Proves Need For Government Funding
It's not just President Obama who brought Nobel glory to the United States this week - Americans also won the Nobel Prizes for Medicine, Physics and Chemistry, proving the need for government funding for research, say US scientists. More »50 Millionth Unique Chemical Added to Registry of Known Substances
Nitrous Oxide Is Destroying the Earth
Scientists Create Fuel "More Dense Than The Core of the Sun"
It could be the perfect nuclear fuel. It generates energy via laser-enabled fusion. It has no radioactive byproducts. Has a group of Swedish researchers found the ultimate form of renewable energy for the 21st century? More »A History of Uranium, the Rock That Nuked the World
Most Awesome Chemistry Machine at the Photon Factory
This crazy machine is a new kind of microscope that can identify a chemical based on just a few atoms. Awesomely, it sucks up intense X-ray beams from a synchrotron to do it. More »So You'd Like To Be An Explosion Scientist
Teen with Home Chemistry Lab Arrested for Meth, Bombs
A Canadian college student majoring in chemistry built himself a home lab - and discovered that trying to do science in your own home quickly leads to accusations of drug-making and terrorism.Sugar Molecule Could Point the Way to Alien Life
Princeton Scientists Discover Proteins that Control Evolution
Evolutionary changes are supposed to take place gradually and randomly, under pressure from natural selection. But a team of Princeton scientists investigating a group of proteins that help cells burn energy stumbled across evidence that this is not how evolution works. In fact, their discovery could revolutionize the way we understand evolutionary processes. They have evidence that organisms actually have the ability to control their own evolution. More »Scientists Use Tequila to Make Drunken Diamonds
Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded for Transgenic, Glowing Animals
Today the Nobel Prize committee announced the Nobel in chemistry would go to a group of US and Japanese researchers who discovered the green fluorescent protein (GFP) in jellyfish and transformed it into one of the most powerful research tools in genomics. Although GFP can make glowing kitties (above), glowing bunnies, glowing monkeys and mice (below), it has far more important applications for medical research. The eye-catching protein is used as a visual tag, linked to other genes or cells that scientists are tinkering with. As a result, scientists can literally see the results of their experiments. Now you can too. More »Intelligent Slime and Stripper Estrous Dominate the Ig Nobel Prizes
The Periodic Table of Elements, in Videos
Zero-G Metals Will Put a Flying Car In Every Garage
Nanotech Precisely Measures Spiciness So Your Tongue Doesn't Have To
Ice Eruptions
They may look like space stations floating in vacuum, but these are actually delicate ice bubbles that formed in Ontario's Cranberry Lake. Michael Runtz took this picture of the segmented shapes created when pockets of air slowly bubble up from the bottom of the lake and get trapped in the freezing water as they move. Want to see what happens when giant ice structures are sculpted by wind? More »Looking for Aliens in all the Wrong Places
Provigil is the Cocaine of the Twenty-First Century
Coed Demonstrates Failed Molecular Dance Craze, Circa 1964