NMDHS Marauders

At age 14, in poverty and famine, a Malawian boy built a windmill to power his family's home. Now at 22, William Kamkwamba, who speaks at TED, here, for the second time, shares in his own words the moving tale of invention that changed his life.

"It was first suggested in 1995 that the intense pressure waves, which can briefly exceed the speed of sound, could come from trombones."

"Seagrasses around the world are disappearing, with some species now threatened with extinction. The first global survey of individual seagrass species has found that 14% are at risk of going extinct."

"Heaven is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark, the eminent British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking said in an interview published on Monday."

"First results from a major astronomical survey using a cutting-edge technique appear to have confirmed the existence of mysterious dark energy."

"Bad" white fat became "good" brown fat, Cell Metabolism journal reports.

"In particular, rapid swings in the density of plants and fleas indicated the food web was unstable and about to change. The idea that such early warning signals ought to exist is not new - but the researchers say this is the first time it has been demonstrated experimentally. "For a long time, ecologists thought these changes couldn't be predicted," said research leader Stephen Carpenter from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, US. "But we've now shown that they can be foreseen. The early warning is clear; it is a strong signal.""

In this documentary, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to uncover one of the great mysteries of science - how does a universe that starts off as dust end up with intelligent life? How does order emerge from disorder? It's a mind bending, counter intuitive and for many people a deeply troubling idea. But Professor Al-Khalili reveals the science behind much of beauty and structure in the natural world and discovers that far from it being magic or an act of God, it is in fact an intrinsic part of the laws of physics. Amazingly, it turns out that the mathematics of chaos can explain how and why the universe creates exquisite order and pattern.

Murray and Becky Monk yearned for the best of both worlds: life in the breathtaking wilds of northwestern Ontario and the conveniences of modern life. They turned their wish into reality by moving to the solitude of a remote lake and setting up their own eco-friendly power system.

"A study reported at the American Chemical Society meeting in the US suggests feathers could lead to more environment-friendly, lighter plastics."

"While studying graphene's electronic properties, professor Chris Regan and graduate student Matthew Mecklenburg found that a particle can acquire spin by living in a space with two types of positions -- dark tiles and light tiles. The particle seems to spin if the tiles are so close together that their separation cannot be detected. "An electron's spin might arise because space at very small distances is not smooth, but rather segmented, like a chessboard," Regan said."

"The microscope imaged objects down to just 50 billionths of a metre to yield a never-before-seen, direct glimpse into the "nanoscopic" world. "

"The 26-mile (42km) race involved 423 laps of an indoor track at an average speed of 0.77 km/h."

"Scientists from Oxford University have made a significant step towards an ultrafast quantum computer by successfully generating 10 billion bits of quantum entanglement in silicon for the first time -- entanglement is the key ingredient that promises to make quantum computers far more powerful than conventional computing devices."

"The researchers found a link between IQ and diet, even after taking into account other factors such as the mother's level of education, social class and duration of breast feeding. A diet high in processed food at the age of three was linked to a slightly lower IQ at the age of eight and a half, suggesting early eating habits have a long term impact."

Two students have recorded video of the Earth from high in the atmosphere using homemade equipment, at a cost of just £350.

"Where do athletic and artistic abilities come from? With phrases like "gifted musician", "natural athlete" and "innate intelligence", we have long assumed that talent is a genetic thing some of us have and others don't. But new science suggests the source of abilities is much more interesting and improvisational"

Boiling and freezing water through changes in pressure