If you’re one of those weird and sometimes gloomy people (like me) who get the urge to close the curtains on even the nicest of days, a new solar development will give us a new excuse to do it: It might help the environment and save us a few bucks. Sheila Kennedy, a faculty member of MIT’s School of Design, has developed new solar textiles and used them to create the first sustainable,... 

You will probably find this weird, but most people have never seen a real cave in their whole lives; still, those who do remain permanently fascinated by this amazing display of natural force. Caves are definitely a wonder of nature themselves, but every once in a while you hear about one that’s so amazing you wouldn’t even believe it’s real. So is the case with the following caves, which I... 

If you’re thinking McLeod, you couldn’t be further from the truth. What you have to do is think small; not microscopic, just big enough to see with your naked eye. Turritopsis nutricula is a hydrozoan, and it’s considered by scientists to be the only animal that cheated death. Solitary organisms are (according to current belief) doomed to die, after they completed their life cycle. Hydrozoa... 

American spacecraft had to dodge space debris four times in 2008, NASA revealed Tuesday, a fact that highlights both the extent of the space junk problem and the primary mitigation option open to NASA. By tracking pieces of debris larger than around four inches, space engineers can identify some dangerous space junk and meteoroids. If a satellite or spacecraft is in danger of getting hit, they simply... 

An ancient script that’s defied generations of archaeologists has yielded some of its secrets to artificially intelligent computers. Computational analysis of symbols used 4,000 years ago by a long-lost Indus Valley civilization suggests they represent a spoken language. Some frustrated linguists thought the symbols were merely pretty pictures. “The underlying grammatical structure seems similar... 

The strangest monument in America looms over a barren knoll in northeastern Georgia. Five massive slabs of polished granite rise out of the earth in a star pattern. The rocks are each 16 feet tall, with four of them weighing more than 20 tons apiece. Together they support a 25,000-pound capstone. Approaching the edifice, it’s hard not to think immediately of England’s Stonehenge or possibly... 

Nearly 15 years after the first managerial team of Biosphere 2 was ordered out by federal marshals, scientists yearn for a way to fulfill the true promise of Earth-in-a-bubble experiments. “We need to do this again, and better,” said Daniel Botkin a University of California, Santa Barbara naturalist who sat on Biosphere 2′s original advisory committee. “We don’t understand... 

Once upon a time, researchers knew that DNA contained four nucleotides: A, T, C and G. Then they found a fifth. And now they’ve found a sixth. Called 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, it’s a form of the fifth nucleotide, technically known as 5-methylcytosine. Like its forerunner, it helps turn genes on and off, but in ways that researchers didn’t expect. “I think this finding will electrify... 

This just in: Red pandas like candy! That’s the latest from a group of researchers at Philadelphia’s Monell Chemical Senses Center. The team gave zoo animals a choice between plain water and water sweetened with either natural or artificial sugars as part of a study on the genetics of taste. Ferrets, genets, meerkats, mongooses and lions shunned the artificial sugars. That was unsurprising... 

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this spectacular space fireworks display when a blob of matter within a 5,000-light-year-long plasma beam emanating from a giant black hole flared up. The glowing clump of gas, first discovered in 1999 and named HST-1, is located in one of the most massive black holes ever discovered, in the giant elliptical galaxy M87 54 million light years away from Earth. It... 

A seafaring band of scientists, engineers and yachtsmen with an obsession for Jules Verne and clean energy are building what they call the largest solar boat in the world, a $13 million catamaran they hope will take them around the world next year. Construction is well underway on the 98-foot-long vessel, which will feature 5,059 square feet of photovoltaic cells. The project is being funded by Rivendell... 

How much do you think rich people are paying for staying in the most expensive hotel in NYC? $34,000 per night for 4300 square foot top luxury apartment in the 52nd floor of Four Seasons hotel. Apartment has a stunning view including all New York bridges, Status of Liberty and Central Park. Don’t forget that you get a personal chauffeur and either Rolls Royce Phantom or a Mercedes Maybach car included... 

A truck is a vehicle for carrying goods and materials. The word “truck” possibly derives from the Greek “trochos”, meaning “wheel.” In North America, the big wheels of wagons were called trucks. When the gasoline-engine driven trucks came into fashion, these were called “motor trucks.” Lorry is a term from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland,... 

After a banner 2008, clean tech funding took a nasty dive in the first three months of 2009, dropping to under $1 billion, according to two research firms. Though comparable numbers are not yet available for other venture capital sectors like software and biotechnology, both The Cleantech Group and GTM Research calculated drops in green tech funding to $1 billion and $836 million, respectively. The... 

North America’s cradle of civilization can be traced 3,800 years back to the lower Illinois River valley. It’s there that archaeologists have found evidence of the continent’s first so-called agricultural complex — a set of different crops, rather than a single domesticated plant species. A rough biological analogue of an agricultural complex is a multicellular animal: It represents... 

The brains of patients who’ve received double hand transplants can recreate lost neurological control systems, according to new brain data from a French surgical team. The doctors extensively analyzed two patients, of the six total who had the surgery, for evidence of how they learn to reuse their hands. It’s well-known that after a limb has been amputated, a body’s nervous system... 

1869: Neurosurgery pioneer Harvey Cushing is born. His achievements in medicine and the telling of its history will become legendary. After undergraduate work at Yale, Cushing entered Harvard Medical School, following his great-grandfather, grandfather, father and elder brother into the profession. His stern father warned him on this occasion not to indulge in “smoking, drinking, boating, baseball... 

The Department of Energy’s $3.5 billion laser, designed to simulate the energy of a nuclear explosion, is ready to fire up all of its 192 beams, AP reported Tuesday. After more than a decade, that included several delays and cost overruns (it was initially supposed to cost $700 million), the world’s most powerful laser has been certified by the DOE and is ready to begin experiments, some...