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"Nothing much is going to happen in the next 10 years. Of course, that’s not counting the diesel-excreting bacteria, the sequencing of your entire genome for $1,000, massive banks of frozen human eggs, space tourism, the identification of dark matter, widespread sterilisation of young adults, telepathy, supercomputer models of our brains, the discovery of life’s origins, maybe the disappearance of Bangladesh and certainly the loss of 247m acres of tropical forest. As I said, just another decade really. These days, “just another decade” always means 10 years of future shock. Science, technology and the contemporary mania for change combine to stun the imagination. It is the way we live now, in a condition of permanent technological revolution." - Christopher A Carr from Bookmarklet

"It’s known as the golden hour. After a bullet wound or other massive trauma, soldiers in the field have about one hour to get intense medical attention. After that time, the chances of survival drop drastically. The research arm of US armed forces, DARPA, has long been interested in extending that golden window of opportunity to five or six hours, enough time to medevac someone from a remote location to a hospital. Earlier in December, DARPA announced that the Texas A&M Institute for Preclinical Studies (TIPS) would be receiving $9.9 million in funding to determine if previously successful suspended animation programs for rodents could work with pigs. According to Wired, the 15 person team lead by Dr. Matthew Miller hopes to have positive results in just 18 months. That sort of quick paced research could soon pave the way to preserve trauma victims the world over as they make their way to help." - Alexander Kruel from Bookmarklet

"A newly-discovered planet orbiting a small, nearby star appears to be a "water world," with a surface that might be covered with liquid water. "This is certainly the first planet around another star which we think is mostly made of water," says David Charbonneau of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., who led the research team that found the new planet, named GJ 1214b." - Alexander Kruel from Bookmarklet

This is terrific. I want to see the same guy summarise "evidence for anthropogenic climate change". - Neil Saunders

"A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light - an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time. According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, it would require an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second. However, Dr Gunter Nimtz and Dr Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Koblenz, say they may have breached a key tenet of that theory. The pair say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons - energetic packets of light - travelled "instantaneously" between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft apart. Being able to travel faster than the speed of light would lead to a wide variety of bizarre consequences. For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving. The scientists were investigating a phenomenon called quantum tunnelling, which allows sub-atomic particles to break apparently unbreakable... more... - Spaceweaver from Bookmarklet

daah???? Anybody has more information on that? - Spaceweaver

http://www.sciencedaily.com/release... - Alexander Kruel

"Or so says Australian psychologist, Joe Forgas, who seems to think a case of the “grumps” can, in fact, make us think more clearly. The University of New South Wales researcher says grumpy people, rather than happy types, are better at coping with demanding situations because of the way the brain “promotes information processing strategies.” ... Professor Forgas said: ‘Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, co-operation and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world.’" - james reilly from Bookmarklet

"..Man was made for joy and woe; And when this we rightly know Through the world we safely go. Joy and woe are woven fine, A clothing for the soul divine. Under every grief and pine Runs a joy with silken twine..." Auguries of Innocence by William Blake - alapinto

"Routine commercial travel to outer space may be the norm as soon as 2012, as the next generation of spacecraft — designed by private sector firms like Virgin Galactic, Orbital Sciences Corp., Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and others — transport adventure-seeking civilians into low-Earth orbit." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

lol. Who is Steven"Hawkings"? - Colby

Thanks for that link, Eivind. - Christopher A Carr

Awesome! - Rene Wirtz

I take it many people can relate to my experience! :-) - manielse (Mark Nielsen)

"This explains homeopathy beautifully..." - Alexander Kruel from Bookmarklet

It's water! - Eivind

"Coffee contains caffeine, and as everyone knows, caffeine is a stimulant. We all know how a good cup of coffee wakes you up, makes you more alert, and helps you concentrate - thanks to caffeine. Or does it? Are the benefits of coffee really due to the caffeine, or are there placebo effects at work? Numerous experiments have tried to answer this question, but a paper published today goes into more detail than most.." - james reilly

mendeley_com: Nice! BBC article featuring Mendeley, @f1000 and Google Wave: http://bit.ly/2Rhdkr - Richard Akerman

Oooh, it has a quote from Cameron as well. Sweet. It seems the general interest in "Science 2.0" is indeed rising. Good news! - Wobbler

as usual, the general public seems ahead of the curve... - Björn Brembs

Zing! "We aren’t trying to invent new protocols or build new messaging systems, rather focusing on building a product that lets users get a handle on the systems we already use." - Paul J. Davis

Sounds like a better friendfeed to me! - Mr. Gunn

I loved this part: "Williamson's hypothesis that caterpillars arose from an accidental mating between butterflies and velvet worms 'is the most stupid thing that has ever been proposed,' Giribet told Nature. 'It's like if I said that humans had sex with fish and then you get whales. It's nonsense. It's a non-scientific hypothesis.'" - Noah Gray from Bookmarklet

"This isn't just another Branson lark, like the ocean crossings via hot air balloon. Virgin Galactic plans to capitalize on the fact that 90 percent of people, in Branson's estimation, would like to go into space "if we can guarantee a return ticket." Plus, the company hopes to become a private launcher of commercial satellites, putting some of the burgeoning number of orbiting machines into space for a fraction of the going rate." - Christopher A Carr from Bookmarklet

From what I can tell, though, it's a very robust system. Should be quite safe. - Christopher A Carr

"By altering a female fruit fly’s pheromones, researchers have created an insect with so much sex appeal that it even attracts males of other species." - Alexander Kruel from Bookmarklet

Was fascinated to examine methylation at dispersed repeats- looks sensible, but wondering about accuracy of mapping of highly repetitive short reads... - Richard Badge from Nambu

"Bi­ol­o­gists say they have giv­en flies mem­o­ries of a bad ex­pe­ri­ence they nev­er had, by ma­ni­pu­lat­ing the ac­ti­vity of in­di­vid­ual brain cells. The find­ings may shed light on how learn­ing and mem­o­ries work in more com­plex or­gan­isms al­so, the sci­en­tists claim." - Alexander Kruel from Bookmarklet

"Us­ing their ap­proach to “write di­rectly to mem­o­ry,” sci­en­tists can now ob­tain a lev­el of ev­i­dence about brain func­tion that was im­pos­si­ble be­fore, Mie­sen­böck said. He notes that neu­ro­sci­ence for a long time de­pended pri­marily on re­cord­ing brain ac­ti­vity and at­tempt­ing to cor­re­late it to per­cep­tions, ac­tions, and cog­ni­tion. But “it’s more pow­er­ful to seize con­trol of the rel­e­vant brain cir­cuits and pro­duce these states di­rectly,” he said." - Alexander Kruel

awesome feature! - Alexey

awesome feature! - Alexey

"Roger Penrose could easily be excused for having a big ego. A theorist whose name will be forever linked with such giants as Hawking and Einstein, Penrose has made fundamental contributions to physics, mathematics, and geometry. He reinterpreted general relativity to prove that black holes can form from dying stars. He invented twistor theory—a novel way to look at the structure of space-time—and so led us to a deeper understanding of the nature of gravity. He discovered a remarkable family of geometric forms that came to be known as Penrose tiles. He even moonlighted as a brain researcher, coming up with a provocative theory that consciousness arises from quantum-mechanical processes. And he wrote a series of incredibly readable, best-selling science books to boot. And yet the 78-year-old Penrose—now an emeritus professor at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford—seems to live the humble life of a researcher just getting started in his career. His small office is cramped... more... - Wildcat from Bookmarklet

And at the end of time if still nobody has found consciousness and free will, it's not that they might simply be bogus desires, it's that we looked in the wrong place. Or it's all much easier than thought because some smart ass redefines consciousness or whatever to mean banana juice. - Alexander Kruel

"The global ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa contains about twice the liquid water of all the Earth’s oceans combined. New research by Richard Greenberg of the University of Arizona suggests that there may be plenty of oxygen available in that ocean to support life, a hundred times more oxygen than previously estimated." - Spaceweaver from Bookmarklet