Turning Water Into Child's Play
The children push the merry-go-round again and again. As they run, a device in the ground beneath them begins to turn. With every rotation of the merry-go-round, water is pumped out of a well, up through a pipe, and into a tank high above the playground. A few feet away from all the fun, students in uniform turn on a tap. Clean, cold drinking water pours out. This is Motshegofadiwa Primary School... posted on Jul 22 2006, 1,876 reads

A Formula for Beauty
Can beauty be measured? 20th century mathematician George David Birkhoff actually made a life quest of exactly that. Though best known for his work on differential equations and dynamics, he also had a keen interest in aesthetics -- the qualities that make a painting, sculpture, song, or poem pleasing to the eye, ear, or mind. Interestingly enough, Birkhoff sought a formula, a mathematical measure... posted on Jul 16 2006, 2,525 reads

The Science of TV Addiction
The term "TV addiction" is imprecise and laden with value judgments, but it captures the essence of a very real phenomenon. On average, individuals in the industrialized world devote three hours a day to the pursuit -- fully half of their leisure time, and more than on any single activity save work and sleep. At this rate, someone who lives to 75 would spend nine years in front of the tube! This S... posted on Jul 14 2006, 2,243 reads

10-Second Film Festival
Too often, thought Chris Pennington, people don't consider what they create to be art because their perceptions of "real art" are limited to what they see in elite museums. So what did he do? Create a film festival, where filmmakers weren't allowed to create their movies with real video cameras. Rather, they used digital cameras and camera-equipped cell phones to create unedited films that last no... posted on Jul 12 2006, 1,926 reads

Volunteer Computing Fights Cancer
Researcher David Baker believes the key to an AIDS vaccine or a cure for cancer may be that old PC sitting in your closet or the one idling on your desk. Baker, 43, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington, realized that he didn't have access to the computing horsepower needed for his research — nor the money to buy time on supercomputers elsewhere. So he turned to the kindnes... posted on Jun 22 2006, 1,702 reads

Real TV
Tired of letting media execs decide what gets aired on TV? Now you can choose, and even create, your own broadcasts. Disenchanted with network and cable news companies, former VP Al Gore launched Current TV, a viewer-generated channel featuring shows on a wide range of topics and diverse views. One popular part of the website is Google Current, a news show based on the day’s top Google keyword s... posted on May 03 2006, 2,159 reads

Why Do Some People Live So Long
"Have you ever eaten a special health diet, yogurt, for instance?" Barzilai inquires. "No." "What about exercise?" "No." "Did you smoke?" "Still do. I started when I was 30 ... Why exactly are you asking me these sorts of questions?" "Because, Mrs. Poley, I'm trying to discover why you've outlived many of the doctors who long ago told you to quit smoking," Barzilai says, smiling. Nir Barzilai i... posted on Apr 21 2006, 2,179 reads

Breakthrough in Diabetes Research
No more insulin injections for diabetics? Bioengineers at the University of Calgary have successfully grown insulin producing cells in a lab, marking a major breakthrough in diabetes research. There are still many steps to be taken, but they eventually hope to transplant lab grown, insulin producing cells directly into the bodies of patients with Type 1 diabetes. In theory, the transplant would el... posted on Apr 17 2006, 1,576 reads

Stand-by Energy Drain
Talk about non-intuitive: a typical microwave oven uses more electricity for its digital clock than it does in heating food! Why? Well, while heating food requires more than 100 times what it takes to power a clock, most microwave ovens stand idle -- in “standby” mode -- more than 99% of the time. Lawrence Berkeley Lab's Alan Meier did research in Florida, California, and Japan, and found that... posted on Apr 11 2006, 1,729 reads

Lunch Box Light
A neat solution: a child in a developing country goes to school with her lunchbox for her meals, recharges the box in the school's charging station, and the family has light at home for less than half its earlier share. More than 2 billion people worldwide lack access to electric lighting. For example, only 2% of western Kenya has access to grid electrification and 97% of the homes use kerosene w... posted on Apr 08 2006, 1,861 reads