DVDs to ashes, CDs to dust
In the future, you may be able to dump crummy movies and second rate music into the compost heap. The Japanese company Pioneer is developing biodegradable DVDs and CDs. The discs are made of a starch derived from corn. When the new technology goes into mass production, it is expected to be cheaper than the current plastic discs.... posted on Aug 16 2005, 1,275 reads

Warped Perception
For the last 300 years, the whole basis of science has relied on our observational senses; but our senses are the least reliable test of what we call reality. Your senses tell you that the ground you are sitting on is stationary and yet we know it is spinning at a dizzying speed, hurtling through space at thousands of miles an hour. Your senses also tell you that, from where your are standing, the... posted on Aug 12 2005, 1,561 reads

The Year to Live
Whatever your age, your body is many years younger. In fact, even if you're middle aged, most of you may be just 10 years old or less. This heartening truth arises from the fact that most of the body's tissues are under constant renewal. But why do people behave their birth age, not their physical age? Scientists believe it is because most brain cell types endure from birth to death without renewa... posted on Aug 03 2005, 1,543 reads

The Great Communicators
Can cell phones empower women in poverty? Iqbal Quadir, founder of Grameen Phone in Bangladesh, has seen that giving women connectivity leads to dependability, which then leads to specialization and then productivity. Not only have Grameen’s phone ladies provided their villages necessary communication for economic development and services, they have also balanced their villages’ traditional pa... posted on Jul 22 2005, 1,408 reads

The Trust Molecule
What creates trust? Scientist have found that the hormone oxytocin, which acts on regions of the brain that regulate emotions and social behaviors, are key to determining whether we will trust lovers, friends or business contacts.... posted on Jun 11 2005, 1,636 reads

Wikipedia
Launched in 2001, Wikipedia is an open source, free-content, and entirely volunteer-written encyclopedia with more than 1/2 million articles on nearly every topic imaginable. Although its status as a reference work is contestable, it receives some 60 million hits a day. ... posted on Jun 09 2005, 2,741 reads

Rosetta Project
Fifty to ninety percent of the world's languages are predicted to disappear in the next century. As part of the effort to secure this critical legacy of linguistic diversity, The Rosetta Project is creating an archive of 1,000 of the approximately 7,000 languages on the planet. To ensure the archive's longevity, The Rosetta Project will store these languages as analog images on a 3" nickel disk t... posted on Jun 08 2005, 1,406 reads

10,000 Year Clock
The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996* to develop the Clock and "Library" projects, as well as to become the seed of a very long term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide counterpoint to todays "faster/cheaper" mind set and promote "slower/better" thinking. The hope is that by building a 10,000 year clock, it will inspire people would build institutions with si... posted on Jun 07 2005, 1,310 reads

Caterpillar to Butterfly
A growing caterpillar's cells, which later become the butterfly's cells, are distributed at different locations within the body of the caterpillar. Small clusters of tiny cells, called imaginal buds, embody the blueprint of the butterfly. The caterpillar's immune system recognizes these as foreign and tries to destroy them. As the buds arrive faster and begin to link up, the caterpillar's immune ... posted on May 13 2005, 1,500 reads

Universe
The Hubble telescope celebrates its 15th birthday this week, and in that time it has provided scientists breakthrough images on everything from the birth of stars, to the age and expansion rate of the universe, to the presence of dark matter, to comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's impact with Jupiter. Take a virtual journey thru Hubble's top 10 discoveries. ... posted on Apr 29 2005, 2,732 reads