Surprising Science

“Electric cars with decent range are just around the corner.” Paul Markillie at Intelligent Life Magazine takes a G.M. car for a spin that runs primarily on an electric engine.

An eighteen year-old Maryland girl has retained the body and mind of a toddler; she apparently is not aging. Scientists hope to uncover the child’s secret.

Recently, I’ve been getting calls from the media, asking me about the 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie which shows a person talking into what appears to be a cell phone. How […]

“A planet census suggests that there are 50bn with the same mass as Earth and that around a fifth of these have liquid water.”

“(The U. S.) government is ignoring what is likely to become the single greatest threat to the health of Americans: Alzheimer’s disease, an illness that is 100 percent incurable.”

“Why aren’t there more women math professors? Or engineering professors, or physics professors, or professors of computer science or economics?” Is motherhood be to blame?

“Is the new crop of hyperrealistic military video games driving home the reality of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, or simply exploiting them?”

“The big discovery has been that depressed patients who have proven most resistant to traditional treatments…seem to have particularly high rates of inflammation.”

“A physicist needs to decide what features of the problem are relevant and which features can be ignored, how to represent the problem in different ways…”

“Leaked photos purporting to show a Sony Ericsson handset combined with a PlayStation Portable games console have appeared online.” The Telegraph reports.

“My team at the U.K. Medical Research Council’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge has come up with the ultimate test of intelligence,” says Adrian Owen.

“A new advance in recording and interpreting brain activity will open the door to machines that could record and play back your dreams,” say U.C.L.A. neurology researchers.

The physicist scoffed at the idea of quantum entanglement, calling it “spooky action at a distance. And while it has in fact been proven to exist, this entanglement can’t be used to transmit any usable information.

“Researchers find they can alleviate depression in mice by boosting a protein in one part of the brain.” Technology Review on how gene therapy could be used in humans.

“Mentally disturbed people are not merely paying a personal price for our social sanity, but are sometimes gifted too in their own peculiar way.”

Is our universe simply a hologram? Particle astrophysicist Craig Hogan is building the most precise clock of all time to directly measure whether our reality is an illusion.

“There is a tension between stories and statistics, and one under-appreciated contrast between them is simply the mindset with which we approach them.”

A new Japanese internal combustion engine gets its high fuel economy of 70 m.p.g. from an improved gas engine and a lightweight design rather than hybrid technology.

Gerontologist Thomas Kirkwood thinks women tend to live longer than men because their reproductive capacity is more essential to the survival of the species.

As America becomes more aware of the costs its healthcare system imposes on the national economy, online sources are helping consumers find out about healthcare prices.

New documenting technology can recognize and delete corporate logos caught in the field of view of your smartphone camera or video recorder. Other artistic uses are proliferating.

A study by the Electromagnetic Compatibility Society finds that: “There is no definitive instance of an air accident known to have been caused by a passenger’s use of an electronic device.”

Inspired by the state’s earthquakes, California researchers have predicted where future crimes will occur by using seismological methods intended to measure aftershocks.

“The moon is pockmarked with cold, wet oases that could contain enough water ice to be useful to manned missions.” A recent NASA mission found evidence of life’s cornerstone.

“Because the coldhearted equations of classical economics neglect emotion, their description of our decisions remained woefully incomplete.” The Frontal Cortex on the irrational consumer.

Heuristics are cognitive rules of thumb we all use in routine decision-making and yet the concept is little known outside the labs and offices of academia.

“I’m as concerned about startups using Rapleaf’s API as I am about how the company continues to mine data from huge data-rich social services such as LinkedIn.”

“A marathoner’s worst nightmare — hitting ‘the wall’ — may be completely avoidable if athletes adhere to personalized pace limits proposed by a biomedical engineer and runner.

“Today, artificial light is a constant companion. Darkness implies a situation to be remedied.” A new book tells the story of how artificial light has revolutionized our way of life.

“Televisions which pump out the smells of cookery on screen could become reality after developments by scientists at Keio University in Tokyo.”