Nova Spivack – Minding the Planet

Researchers continue to make progress in fusing living neurons with computer chips: The line between living organisms and machines has just become a whole lot blurrier. European researchers have developed "neuro-chips" in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together. The achievement could one day enable the creation of sophisticated neural prostheses to [...]

An innovative new 3D display technology uses lasers to create plasma dots in mid-air. Can you say, "Help me, Obi-Wan," anybody? Check the link to see the kewl pics!

The head of the Russian space corporation, Energia, has been quoted as stating that Russia is planning on setting up a permanent mining base on the moon to mine Helium-3. Helium-3 is a non-radioactive isotope of helium that is rare on earth but plentiful on the moon. It is an ideal fuel for nuclear fusion. [...]

Where’s George, an internet game in which people track the spread of dollar bills as they move around, has yielded an unexpected breakthrough in the science of predicting the spread of epidemics.

It was previously thought that some types of bacteria carry around magnetic crystals in order to orient themselves. But a recent study has found that in fact this does not seem to be the case — so why do they carry magnetic crystals? Nobody knows. It’s an interesting mystery.

In a big step for medicine, scientists have figured out how the flu virus replicates — including the bird flu –  inside cells. This opens up new pathways for developing drugs to fight all strains of the flu.

In an amazing scientific breakthrough, researchers have just discovered that sex before public speaking calms nerves. Phew, I’m glad they settled that burning question!

The theory of quantum evolution is a radical new take on how mutations in DNA occur. Basically the theory postulates that DNA molecules are in fact macroscopic quantum objects that undergo quantum interference. It is spearheaded by Johnjoe McFadden, a professor in the UK and makes for an interesting read. Here is a brief overview [...]

This is a great overview of the current state of the art in quantum computing, and how it could benefit all of us in the future.

The Norwegians are planning to create a deep underground vault near the North Pole to house a backup copy of seeds for all known varieties of crops. The goal is to ensure food supplies and enable humanity to regenerate in the event of nuclear war, global warming or other catastrophes. It’s a good idea. This [...]

A new project applies text-mining to help scientists in the UK discover knowledge in large collections of research articles and data (Found in: KurzweilAI): Julie NightingaleTuesday   January   10, 2006The Guardian   Scientific research is being added to at an alarming rate: the Human Genome Project alone is generating enough documentation to "sink battleships". So it’s not [...]

Check out these microscope images of the insides of meteorites. Beautiful, and strange. Some of them are reminiscent of bacteria and computer circuit boards.

A radical new form of propulsion is being researched that may enable travel from Earth to Mars in 3 hours, and travel to nearby stars in just 80 days. The system is based on a novel quantum theory termed Heim quantum theory (HQT). The hypothetical device, which has been outlined in principle but is based [...]

The Edge has published mini-essays by 119 "big thinkers" on their "most dangerous ideas" — fun reading. The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about [...]

I recently read a report of new neuroscience research in which researchers are able to predict what a person will recall by analyzing their brainstate. You can read a summary here. This reminds me of an idea I had a while back for using biofeedback to guide brainstates, in order to improve memory. Here’s a [...]

This is a cool idea — some researchers are considering whether the cosmic background radiation may contain an encoded "message from God." OK I doubt it. I think it is more likely to be somewhere in our DNA, or in the digits of Pi, or perhaps in the distribution of the prime numbers. But it’s [...]

This site was submitted by a reader. It’s an intriguing and well-illustrated alternative theory of electromagnetism. It certainly seems to be worth investigating more closely. Hopefully the physicists in the audience will take note. I would suggest going through the site sections and animations starting from the Overview. It’s interesting stuff.  (Disclaimer: This guy may [...]

A group of computer scientists have come up with a mathematical technique to detect surprising features in dense information streams. They tested their method by comparing it to what human’s considered surprising, and the results were… surprisingly good! A mathematical model of surprise could be very useful in next-generation information systems, user-interfaces, situation rooms, and [...]

After 11 years of painstaking research and inventor has finally achieved the "holy grail" — colored soap bubbles that don’t stain anything. But that’s just the beginning — his invention is based on a completely new kind of dye chemistry that could open the door to a wide range of new products. Read this excellent [...]

Yuck. I hate sauerkraut. But even I will eat the stuff if it turns out to help fight bird-flu, as this article reports. Anyway, the good news is that kimchee may be equally effective; kimchi is delicious.

Now this is really interesting! New research has found that certain parts of the body emit measurable numbers of photons. This may open up new diagnostic techniques. But that’s just the beginning. Spiritual healers from many different faiths have long said that they experience light coming from their hands, and can feel (and even see) [...]

A new source of inexpensive, renewable energy that depends on a modified form of hydrogen has quantum theorists up in arms: they say it violates the laws of quantum mechanics. The inventors, on the other hand, claim they have extensive proof that it works. It seems too good to be true: a new source of [...]

George Dyson wrote a nice piece on his impressions from a visit to Google, and some speculations about the future of AI on the Net.

This just in… NASA has outlined what it could do, and in what time frame, in case a quarter-mile-wide asteroid named Apophis is on a course to slam into Earth in the year 2036. The timetable was released by the B612 Foundation, a group that is pressing NASA and other government agencies to do more [...]

This organization has some very cool projects studying exotic new energy devices. Check out their Projects page.

This article discusses recent research into encoding short 100 word messages into the DNA of living organisms. The error-correcting characteristics of DNA enable such messages to be passed down without degrading across generations. By embedding short messages into hardy organisms such as particular strains of bacteria, it may be possible to preserve information over longer [...]

From Boing Boing today: Xeni Jardin: A report in this week’s issue of Science says 20 percent of human genes have been patented in the United States: The study (…) is the first time that a detailed map has been created to match patents to specific physical locations on the human genome. Researchers can patent [...]

This is really fascinating: Scientists used to consider the frequency band of 500 hertz and below in the human voice as meaningless noise, because when a voice is filtered, removing all higher frequencies, ne hears nothing but a low-pitched hum. All words are lost. But then it was found that this low hum is an [...]

Water bugs have the ability to somehow climb up the slippery meniscus where water meets an edge of something else. Nobody has been able to figure out just how they do this… until now.

Breakthrough research has found that human immune cells communicate over long distances via microtubulin pathways. This proves that neurons are not the only cells in the body capable of long-distance messaging. It establishes the immune system runs on another, previously unknown, communications network in the body. This is a Big Discovery. Amazing innovations will follow [...]