Diamond batteries made from nuclear waste, a 3D-printed dog’s nose that could sniff out bombs and cancer, and video games that can improve eyesight — these are just some of the eye-popping discoveries we read about this week. Oh, did we mention Rasputin?
Extra! Extra! Invoking Maxwell’s demon, scientists at a U.S. government lab say the second law of thermodynamics may not always apply. Neutron stars, bones and pasta apparently have a few things in common, and a Massachusetts biologist is using a “beastcam” to preserve 3D models of all living organisms. We also have some dark matter news. And you thought Halloween was over, mmmwahahaha!
Everything in this week’s column is a little mysterious. Scientists in Colorado have created a new kind of sticky tape that in one important way isn’t sticky at all. Korean engineers have made a Star Wars-like 3D hologram. Finally, a group of Caltech astronomers say something big is lurking in the cosmic void and makes our sun feel a bit off. You should send it flowers.
Spiders’ webs aren’t just deadly insect traps but also sophisticated information networks, Costa Rica has been running on renewable electricity for 76 days straight, and researchers in Belgium and the U.S. have assembled the first genetic tree of beer. Cheers to science, but do read on!
A Space X rocket suffered a setback on the launch pad this week, but the company’s founder, Elon Musk, is making progress on other fronts. News involving a neural lace—a digital layer for the brain that could one day link humans and machines—may be coming “in a few months.” Elsewhere, Stanford engineers developed a cooling fabric that can efficiently lower body temperature and possibly reduce the need for air conditioning, and researchers in San Diego grew a piece of mouse skull from stem cells. Read on a hopefully grow a synapse or two.
This week we learned about German bacteriologists who picked a powerful new antibiotic made by a microbe that lives in people’s noses, a leaf-like solar cell that turns CO2 into usable fuel, and an arctic heatwave that released anthrax spores from decades-old frozen reindeer. There’s more Proceed with caution.
