Sandrine Ceurstemont, NewSci
FORGET fuel-powered jet engines. We're on the verge of having aircraft that can fly from the ground up to the edge of space using air and electricity alone.Traditional jet engines create thrust by mixing compressed air with fuel and igniting it. The burning mixture expands rapidly and is blasted out of the back of the engine, pushing it forwards.
Amanda Reilly, Science News
The Interior Department is facing a lawsuit from a Christian geologist who claims he was not allowed to collect rocks from Grand Canyon National Park because of his creationist beliefs.In the suit filed earlier this month, the Australian geologist, Andrew Snelling, says that religious discrimination was behind the National Park Service's (NRS's) decision to deny him a permit to gather samples from four locations in the park.
Matthew Brown, The Independent
Commercial development of the globe's huge reserves of a frozen fossil fuel known as combustible ice has moved closer to reality after Japan and China successfully extracted the material from the seafloor off their coastlines.
Hilary Brueck, Forbes
It happened in the wee hours of the morning Friday on Twitter: A group of scientists started introducing themselves to science superstar Bill Nye with a brand new hashtag: #BillMeetScienceTwitter.Dani Rabaiotti who studies the effects of climate change on wild dogs in Africa at University College London, was the first to say hello to Nye:
Jamie Condliffe, MIT Technology Review
The prospect of hitting the open road and never having to refuel is a compelling one. And as several new field trials have demonstrated, it's also increasingly realistic.The technology, known as inductive charging, is straightforward in theory. A system sets up an alternating electromagnetic field, and then an induction coil in a smaller device harvests power from it.
Edwin Cartlidge, P-World
Four years ago, theoretical physicists proposed a new quantum-communication scheme with a striking feature: it did not require the transmission of any physical particles. The research raised eyebrows, but now a team of physicists in China claims it has demonstrated that the "counterfactual" scheme works.
Damian Carrington, Guardian
It was designed as an impregnable deep-freeze to protect the world's most precious seeds from any global disaster and ensure humanity's food supply forever. But the Global Seed Vault, buried in a mountain deep inside the Arctic circle, has been breached after global warming produced extraordinary temperatures over the winter, sending meltwater gushing into the entrance tunnel.
Dave Berndtson, PBS
Studying volcanic eruptions in person can be dangerous, and scientists have died trying. Volcanic lightning yes, volcanoes make lightning! by contrast offers a safer opportunity to examine what happens inside a volcano. But these bright bolts still occur in vicious environments, plus the thick, dense plumes of ash can obscure lightning strikes.
Usha Lee McFarling, Stat
LA JOLLA, Calif. As her father lay dying of sepsis, Janelle Ayres spent nine agonizing days at his bedside. When he didn't beat the virulent bloodstream infection, she grieved. And then she got frustrated. She knew there had to be a better way to help patients like her dad.
Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic
The modern world gives us such ready access to nachos and ice cream that it's easy to forget: Humans bodies require a ridiculous andfor most of Earth's historyimprobable amount of energy to stay alive.Consider a human dropped into primordial soup 3.8 billions years ago, when life first began. They would have nothing to eat.
