Science

We're not sure exactly what this is for, but it seems appropriate amid today's headlines involving oil consumption, global warming and other issues tied to population growth. Royal Sapien has posted "Population: One," an illustration in which every pixel represents a person on Earth.

Addicted to Sudoku? Don't worry--help is on the way. Rather than kill yourself the next time you get stumped, try these instructions, which claim to solve any puzzle by process of elimination.

NASA is packing the boxes, or rather the GeneBox, for a new era of space tourism.

The space agency sent up a so-called GeneBox, a micro-lab, with Bigelow Aerospace's Genesis I last week, piggybaggying a ride on the commercial spaceflight test.

The Genebox is about the size of a shoebox and is attached to the internal structure of Bigelow's 14-foot inflatable spacecraft, which the company launched from Russia as a demonstration of an affordable human space complex it hopes to launch by 2015. NASA's GeneBox contains a miniature laboratory of sensors and optical systems that can detect … Read more

By design or by accident, the idea of asking consumers to create ads and design products has already become an accepted practice. The phenomon's immediate adoption is even more remarkable considering that it has taken place in an ossified industry.

Just yesterday, for example, Yahoo launched a campaign urging the public to submit ads featuring its redesigned home page. Other companies have asked customers to design their own products, some of which are even being tracked on blogs dedicated specifically to the trend.

These initiatives typically tout the importance of companies creating new interactive relationships with their consumers in … Read more

A financial services firm has published a report forecasting far-reaching and "dire" impacts from the prospect of rapid climate change.

Toronto-based Sprott Asset Management recently released a report called "Investment Implications of Abrupt Climate Change," which said that there is potential for disruptions to the global economy if there is a rapid change in climate from global warming.

Increasingly, businesses are adapting to climate change. Insurance firms, for example, are reevaluating their risk from natural disasters. Investors, meanwhile, are pouring money into renewable energy, like solar, and other clean technologies.

The Sprott study compiles scientific data … Read more

What sounds worse to you: fingernails dragged across a chalkboard or the incessant honking of a broken car alarm? It is this kind of distinction that Professor Trevor Cox of Manchester's Salford University is studying with his BadVibes site, which solicits votes from the public in "the hunt for the worst sound in the world."

Let the Midas and Goldfinger jokes abound: CNN is reporting that scientists believe they have found a microorganism capable of contributing to the formation of gold nuggets.

If there's gold already present, the bacterium known as Ralstonia metallidurans can make more, according to the team led by Frank Reith. The scientists came to this hypothesis while investigating gold grains from two mines in Australia, and consider it the strongest evidence yet that gold nuggets may owe their growth in part to microorganisms.

Several researchers are experimenting with naturally occurring, and genetically enhanced, microbes as tools in chip production, hydrogen production, … Read more

The average U.S. suburban house requires about 45 kilowatt hours of electricity per day. But according to this post by Treehugger, a model home on display at the National Building Museum in Washington can run on a miserly 800 watt hours a day. One of the many corner-cutting secrets: A stove with a built-in toaster.

Some of the most fascinating photography, as we have shown in this space, comes from deep beneath the sea. And no one knows this better than the people at a U.K. organization called SERPANT, which describes itself as a scientific and environmental partnership. So they began a competition for underwater photography and video, and it has drawn some amazing entries.