Methane hydrate is a possible answer to our energy problems, if we could only figure out how to get at it.

Using thermoacoustics, physicists at Penn State keep ice cream cold with sound and helium.

Do you have an idea to pitch?

Stronger amber waves of grain and other biomimicry

Nematodes lurk in my raised vegetable beds. Leaf miners chew their way through the lushest crops of swiss chard, and at the peak of their July growth, various wilt diseases strike my tomato plants. They droop, and look to be in the final stages of the deepest grief (as well they should, since all their brethren are dying too), and when others are boasting of great crops, I swear that I will not plant them ever again. Yet somehow these packets of seeds have found their way into my hands, with names like Brandy Boy Hybrid, Cherokee Purple, and Super Sweet 100 Hybrid. I fall for the pictures and promises again, ‘heavy producer’, weighs up to a pound’, ‘up to 5-1/2″ across’. Every year, a squirrel gets to eat the first ripe tomato, or should I say, takes a big bite or two. Would I salvage it if he used a small pocket knife and made a clean cut? Nah. But I would think about it, and maybe next time, not lob as big a rock at him.

Sure, you’d miss Christmas (kind of like Martha, although she seems to have done just fine), but you wouldn’t have had to run out for groceries, or drink those 8 glasses a day, or do much tidying up. If excess poundage had been a problem, those will have melted away, thanks to those cubs that weren’t there before your nap. Link

In Kurzweil’s case, meaning Accelerating Intelligence. The edges between the fields of robotics, biotech, nanotech, and computational intelligence (and many others) overlap and merge. Grab something highly caffeinated, and read about it.

A unique source of inspiration for a more versatile, flexible robot arm - the octopus. From National Geographic News.