Saturday, 18 May, 2013

Roads are the first insult to pristine natural areas — and a key to agricultural productivity in places where farming makes sense. Here’s a proposal to decide where roads make sense, and where they make mayhem.

As a new conversion of soy protein into a meat-like material reaches the market, we also look into meat grown, cell by cell, in lab dishes. Could in vitro meat be in your future, and would that solve ethical, health and environmental problems?

New Year’s approaches. A “permanent” calendar could finally answer the annual, “Uh, what day is New Year’s eve this year?” question. This calendar would place each date on a specific day every year, and simplify life for schedulers. But would a permanent calendar be accepted?

Compared to regular airplanes, radio-controlled craft are safer, cheaper, and easier to use for observing wildlife and environmental conditions. Where are these robots being used? What are they finding? And as prices continue to fall, what stands in the way of much broader use?

London pioneered video surveillance in public, but it’s catching on fast. Many major cities have systems, and more are coming. What do these cameras learn? How do they interact with other sources of data? In this culture of disclosure should we even worry about privacy?

As Earth warms, should we try huge geoengineering projects to cool the climate? Would adding iron to fertilize ocean plants withdraw enough carbon dioxide to slow warming — or backfire?

Elements rule! Without phosphorus fertilizer, millions starve. Copper = electricity shortage. And U.S. imports more than 95% of “rare-earth” elements needed for LCDs, cell phones, green energy. Risky?

Bush proposes mission to moon and Mars, but how great are the scientific payoffs of this expensive, risky adventure? Would it be smarter – and cheaper – to send robots?

An international team of scientists selected the Homestake goldmine to be the world’s deepest underground lab, but the project may sink.

Monkeypox, AIDS, SARS: Are more diseases jumping from animals to people, or is it just our imagination?

Austrian researchers show quantum entanglement across the Danube River, providing new promise in cryptography and computing. At the smallest scale, you can throw out the usual rules of engagement. What’s up with spooky action at a distance?

What did the losing World Trade designs look like? What is the significance of a city skyline?

New photovoltaic (PV) cells combine polymer and inorganic semiconductors — could be cheaper to manufacture.

Forget Big Brother, your neighbor could be watching you! Newest tricks of the spy game.