We’ve heard all kinds of biofuel suggestions, but this one is the most bizarre.
Stepping into unexplored territory in efforts to use corn stalks, grass and other non-food plants to make biofuels, scientists have discovered a potential treasure-trove of potential biofuel enzymes in the fungi thriving in the feces and intestinal tracts of horses. These enzymes are the key to economical production of biofuels from non-food plant material.
read more
The answer to whether or not we are alone in the universe could be hidden inside every cell in our body.
Astrophysicists Vladimir I. Cherbak and Maxim A. Makukov are looking for an intelligent signal embedded in our genetic code that cannot be explained by Darwinian evolution. They call it "biological SETI."
On the Discovery website, Ray Villard quotes the researchers as saying, "Once fixed, the code might stay unchanged over cosmological timescales."
read more
Three more Earth-like planets have been discovered by the Kepler Telescope, and it is becoming clear to scientists that there are Earth-like planets "everywhere," according to Kepler scientist Tom Barclay. Two of the planets are 1,200 light years away, and the other is 2,700 light years distant.
Kepler 62f and Kepler 62e are the closest to Earth-like. They both orbit a somewhat dimmer star than our own in the constellation Lyra, 1,200 light years away. Traveling at 99% of the speed of light, a starship would pass one day for every year that would pass on Earth. Such a ship could reach the newly discovered solar system in about 6 ship years, but more than a millennium would pass on Earth.
read more
Other than skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men. The American Cancer Society’s estimates for prostate cancer in the United States are that almost 240,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed this year, and almost 30,000 of these men will die. About 1 man in 6 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime–would you like to know your genetic risk for getting it ahead of time?
read more