Science News

With today’s levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide so high, the ocean’s help comes at a cost to marine life and the millions of people who depend on healthy oceans. http://www.livescience.com/38219-oceans-acidifying-with-rising-co2.html

A new method for producing electricity from carbon dioxide could be the start of a classic trash-to-treasure story for the troublesome greenhouse gas, scientists are reporting. Described in an article in ACS' newly launched journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters, the method uses CO2 from electric power plant and other smokestacks as the raw material for making electricity. … They describe technology that would react the CO2 with water or other liquids and, with further processing, produce a flow of electrons that make up electric current. Note: Adapted from a news release issued by American Chemical Society.

InVivo Therapeutics Research apparently has made remarkable improvements toward healing spinal cord injuries. Mr. Reynolds suffered a paralyzing injury to his spine in December 1992. http://www.invivotherapeutics.com http://m.youtube.com/results?q=neuroscience&oq=neuros&gs_l=youtube-reduced.1.2.0l4.2271.8052.0.12588.6.5.0.1.1.0.209.929.0j3j2.5.0....0...1ac.1.23.youtube-reduced..0.6.941.cFMCxw1CkVQ

A simple, low-cost and eco-friendly method of creating nitrogen-doped graphene nanoplatelets (NGnPs), which could be used in dye-sensitized solar cells and fuel cells, is published in Scientific Reports today. The work, carried out at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea, could be a step towards replacing conventional platinum (Pt)-based catalysts for energy conversion. The search for economically viable alternatives to fossil fuels has attracted attention among energy communities because of increasing energy prices and climate change. Solar cells and fuel cells are to be promising alternatives, but Pt-based electrodes are expensive a…

See: http://scitechdaily.com/scientists-achieve-solar-hydrogen-production-breakthrough/ This report sounds too good to be true.

Once the patents expire, this technology may help many poor people.

See: http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2013/07/desktop-printing-at-the-nano-level.html This process seems to promise nanofabrication in graduate labs, businesses and perhaps homes (e.g., "you can begin to build devices ... right at the point of use"). Although, if it can make drugs, it will not become a personal product in the near future. But, combined with 3D and 4D printing it might change the meaning of on demand production and the way some mass marketed products are produced and distributed, especially things made from organic compounds (e.g., "gene chips" and "protein arrays"). Although, the article does mention making "electronic circuits", it did …

Check out this interesting video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1crc5ww7iug

Pretty interesting, oligodendrocytes (a type of glial cell) sending vesicles containing various proteins that are absorbed by neighboring neurons. Glial cells are generally understudied, but they are extremely interesting. http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001604#s4

This result was expected, I suppose.

Very brief radio bursts have been detected from 11 billion light years. Could these be the axial jets of black holes or collapsars? The burst may be because Earth is very briefly transiting the beam. Other possibilities? http://phys.org/news/2013-07-cosmic-radio-cataclysmic.html

Work at Northwestern University with partners at Harvard Medical School have reported work that could lead to new antibiotics. It also appears to be a step towards abiogenesis.

The team did not report a quantum increase in computing power from the 128 qbit chip, but they seem to be satisfied with it.

Maybe a mind-walker exoskeleton can be augmented by electrical stimulation of muscles to help people who are paralyzed to walk again.

Trial of process to reset the immune system of MS patients resulted in a reduction in their immune system attacking and destroying their myelin.

The first in US bioengineered blood vessel implant on 5 June 2013. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130606110026.htm

Yet another science miracle will improve our knowledge of evolution.

It seems that wherever we look, life is present. From: http://www.nature.com/news/high-flying-bacteria-spark-interest-in-possible-climate-effects-1.12310 Will we find life on asteroids and comets?

From: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130620142954.htm It's worth saying again. Science is better than Sci-Fi or,

Has anybody looked at the news release by The Wall Street Journal and quoted papers? http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130610-903915.html Technical comments without trash would be appreciated. Eureka321

Viewpoint: New Particle Hints at Four-Quark Matter http://physics.aps.org/articles/v6/69 Eric Swanson, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA Published June 17, 2013 | Physics 6, 69 (2013) | DOI: 10.1103/Physics.6.69 interesting.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/13/travel/airbus-fly-your-ideas-future-of-flight/index.html?hpt=hp_c2 Hmm... Some sort of chip.. I wanna make one REVEAL THE WAY OF MAKING IT CNN!

http://rt.com/usa/growing-oregon-wheat-monsanto-968/ The issues with it are mentioned in the article - apparently 2/3 of Oregon's wheat crop is exported to countries that do not accept GMO imports. Now what? News report: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/unapproved-genetically-modified-wheat-from-monsanto-found-in-oregon-field/2013/05/30/93fe7abe-c95e-11e2-8da7-d274bc611a47_story.html Background anecdotal: http://www.globalresearch.ca/monsanto-whistleblower-says-genetically-engineered-crops-may-cause-disease/3912

Some clever development shown here : ---->

I'm not sure if this counts as science news, but I live in Norman, OK (it's just 7 miles south of Moore), and my best friend, Dustin, lives right behind the Warren theater where the tornado hit. I went to see the new Star Trek movie at that very same theater last night. *Edit* I just found out that my friend, Amanda, was seeing the movie, Mud, at the Warren theater today. The tornado hit right before the end of the movie. If it hit 10 minutes later, she might not be alive tonight! The following image was taken by her. According to KOMO News, there are at least 51 people confirmed dead. Today's tornado was comparable to the May 3, 1999 tornado that al…