Home

On:

As our culture makes the shift away from carbon-intensive energy sources, alternative sources like solar energy from photovoltaic cells are becoming an attractive option. However, while the cost of producing solar cells has been decreasing steadily in recent years, they still require a great deal of resources to make: the silicon crystals that solar cells use not only require hazardous solvents for their production, they also need to be baked at high temperatures — 1,000ºC (1,832ºF) — to attain the purity required for their use, an energy-intensive process that can increase the final product’s carbon footprint.
read more

On:

Our medical science has become quite adept at extending the human lifespan, leading to the presence of centenarians as commonplace in our culture. However, the race to find ways to keep the population healthy as it grows older – to stave off the actual effects of aging – has been a difficult one. Recently, researchers at Moscow State University have made a successful test of a new medication that slowed the aging process and extended the lifespan of mice, a medication that may very well work to improve the conditions of humans as we grow older.
read more

On:

It mightn’t quite be Doctor McCoy’s medical diagnostic tricorder, but a new breathalyzer-like device has been developed that can detect the faint chemical signatures produced in the body as a response to various diseases — all from a simple breath sample.

"This is a new and promising direction for diagnosis and classification of diseases, which is characterized not only by considerable accuracy but also by low cost, low electricity consumption, miniaturization, comfort and the possibility of repeating the test easily,” explains to the development team’s leader, Professor Hossam Haick.
read more

On:

As a follow-up to a story we reported on last month, the leaked research paper on the controversial EM Drive that NASA was reportedly set to present for peer review has been published, in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) Journal of Propulsion and Power. The submission of this document is an important development: NASA’s Eagleworks Laboratories would not publish data such as this if they were not confident that this propellantless engine actually works.
read more