A Canadian man who was believed to have been in a vegetative state for more than a decade, has been able to tell scientists that he is not in any pain.

A short article about Saul Griffith and his R&D company Otherlab. Pretty much halfway between Mythbusters and the ACT.

Bacterial wires explain enigmatic electric currents in the seabed: Each one of these 'cable bacteria' contains a bundle of insulated wires that conduct an electric current from one end to the other. Cable bacteria explain electric currents in the seabed Electricity and seawater are usually a bad mix.

The Forest Products Laboratory of the US Forest Service has opened a US$1.7 million pilot plant for the production of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) from wood by-products materials such as wood chips and sawdust. Prepared properly, CNCs are stronger and stiffer than Kevlar or carbon fibers, so that putting CNC into composite materials results in high strength, low weight products.

EXACTLY what I wanted to investigate as a rapid constuction tool for shape memory alloy structures!

3-dimensional silicon solar cell produces at least 250% of the power of a basic silicon solar cell.

For those who can't wait to be on Mars... ;-) - Oh and for those who want to see some REALLY cool panorama's: the moon @ http://www.panoramas.dk/moon/apollo-17.html

I suggested earlier today that the US military R&D spending was about 75% of all R&D spending worldwide. Leopold called me on it - and I have to admitt: it was BS. Apparently military R&D in the US is ~75% (82 billion $ in 2011) of the total non-health R&D. Unfortunately I could not find the source where I read the 75% figure initially to check their wording. Nonetheless: I think those 82 billion could be spent better (including giving them to me)...

"Real leadership is about transforming the system, not just succeeding within or despite the system. Today, we know how to run organizations in ways that that lift up the human spirit, both for those doing the work and those for whom the work is done. So why don't we get on with it?"

Corning unveiled a new flexible glass -- called "Willow Glass" -- at the Society for Information Display's Boston Display Week on Monday. It's about as thick and flexible as a piece of paper, while having the strength, durability and other qualities of existing glass.

Ionic fluids in thrusters for microsatellites. Here also a link to a paper on the topic: .pdf