The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

Nature makes us feel lonely. It turns out that Gliese 580c isn’t that likely to have life on it after all.

The most Earth-like planet discovered so far is not quite in the right place

…from a solar-powered toothbrush, of course.

The invention, from University of Saskatchewan professor Kunio Komiyama and his colleague Dr. Gerry Uswak, uses electrons to replace… Read the rest “Sunny smiles…”

UN Scientists looking at the weather have found that over the past 500 years, climate change has marched hand in hand with war, New Scientist reports:

The 100-year warming period would have

Arthropods are the creatures that have armor-like skin and jointed legs – the group that includes crawfish, scorpions, spiders and insects. The bugs. The largest arthropod currently… Read the rest “BIG bug.”

Despite being dead for, oh, 65 million years or so, dinosaurs still turn up in the darnedest places. Mainly museums, of course, but even there, the dusty shelves can still be full of surprises,… Read the rest “Unexpected dinosaurs.”

That’s the not-terribly cheerful news from Nature on the vaquita (Phocoena sinus), a porpoise from Mexico’s Pacific coast:

In 1999, researchers estimated there were 567

If Einstein was around today, he’d probably surf, too.

There’s a piece in the Telegraph (based, apparently, on a New Scientist clip) about Dr. A. Garrett Lisi, an “impoverished… Read the rest “Surfer creates Theory of Everything.”

Popular Science has named the nanosolar powersheet the “Best of What’s New 2007,” and for good reason. Instead of using big glass frames to generate electricity at … Read the rest “Roll out the solar!”

People nowadays look at Jules Verne as one of the forefathers of science fiction, anticipating amazing technological developments like swift, giant submarines and capsules landing … Read the rest “Jules Verne: Bleak Futurist”