Norwegian scientist Kristian Morten Olesen has patented a process to mix nano-particles of clay with water and bind them to sand particles to condition desert soil - he has been working on Liquid Nanoclay (LNC) since 2005.
The news here that some patent has been filed. If it actually works the guy is an ass for wanting to patent something that is solving world hunger. If it does not, then the guy is still an ass. So the news is that this guy is an ass :)
Why do we sleep? One answer could be: to clear waste products accumulated during the day. To prevent aging and neurodegeneration, the body must maintain homeostasis. What would happen if we experience chronic sleep loss? What would happen if microgravity impairs the cerebrospinal fluid to flush the brain? What would happen if cosmic radiations increase the amount of daily waste products?
A NASA study which is concerned with the question whether we could detect lost industrial civilizations on earth by analyzing the climate fingerprints.
Scientists are preparing to create "miniature brains" that have been genetically engineered to contain Neanderthal DNA, in an unprecedented attempt to understand how humans differ from our closest relatives.
"...measured the way people make certain types of decisions and say that their statistical analysis of the results strongly suggests that the brain must store information in discrete form. Their conclusion has significant implications for neuroscientists and other researchers building devices to connect to the brain."
Very interesting, indeed! I wonder if it even can be beefed up.
The devices produce a sustained voltage of around 0.5 volts across a 7-micrometre-thick film, with a current density of around 17 microamperes per square centimetre
Nice idea, but is it really new: resistance of cyanob. to UV radiation has been known but studies have been inconclusive as to under what resource limitations it works, but according to what we see from evolution: on Earth it works, since they survived pre-ozone atmosphere!
some papers from a quick google search:
1999 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09670269910001736392
2014 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25463663
Loss of connectivity in the multisensory integration cortical areas after short term microgravity experience, which could explain astronauts decrease of performance in sensorimotor tasks and spatial working memory. However, the effect should wear off after a few days in microgravity and after adaptation to incongruent vestibular information. ISS experiment needed...
" The goal of the APT program is to control and direct plant physiology to detect chemical, biological, radiological, and/or nuclear threats, as well as electromagnetic signals. "
Now that is an advanced concept...
and look at this exceptional insight: "plants are easily deployed, self-powering, and ubiquitous in the environment, and the combination of these native abilities with specifically engineered sense-and-report traits will produce sensors occupying new and unique operational spaces" :-)