FOXNews.com - Odds of Life on Nearby Planet '100 Percent,' Astronomer Says

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/09/29/odds-life-newfound-earth-size-planet-percent-astronomer-say/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fscitech+%28Internal+-+SciTech+-+Mixed%29

New Drug Could Help Stop the Spread of Disease from Coughs, Researchers Believe

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100922111438.htm

Printed Lithium Ion Batteries

'Planar Energy has developed a roll-to-roll process for making larger
solid lithium-ion batteries. The company, which received $4 million in
funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy program this
spring, says it can print solid batteries that offer three times more
storage than liquid lithium-ion batteries of the same size. This boost
in energy storage is possible primarily because the company's
all-solid batteries don't require many of the support structures and
materials that take up space in conventional batteries, making more
space for energy storage.

Planar Energy expects to reduce capital costs by half compared with
solid-state battery manufacturing using high-vacuum machinery. And the
company says its processes can be used to make cells big enough to
power electric vehicles.'

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/25825/

AutoblogGreen Q&A with Transonic Combustion: Can supercritical fluids give a 30% mpg boost? - Autoblog Green

http://i.green.autoblog.com/2010/08/26/autobloggreen-qanda-with-transonic-combustion-can-supercritical-f/

The comments at the end of the article are interesting.

I should point out that the Mythbusters created a car covered in golf
ball dents, and despite being heavier, got better gas mileage.

Fwd: iPSCs

From: larry.r.trout
Date: September 16, 2010 8:48:38 AM MDT
Subject: iPSCs

'Human embryonic stem cell research is the $10,000 toilet seat of the 21st century. Years ago, science created a cell that appears to be, in the words of an MIT study published last month, "virtually identical" to an embryonic stem cell but is cheaper, promises better compatibility to patients and kills no embryos.

These new induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) "do all the things embryonic stem cells do," explains the father of human embryonic stem cells James Thomson. Harvard's David Scadden agrees that iPSC technology "is absolutely changing the field." IPSCs "perhaps even eliminate the need for human embryos as a source of stem cells," says Keisuke Kaji of the University of Edinburgh. IPSCs even caused the man who cloned Dolly the sheep to abandon cloning three years ago because "changing cells from a patient directly into stem cells has got so much more potential."

"The world has changed," Thomson told The Boston Globe in 2007. "Human embryo stem cell research will be abandoned by more and more labs." …

As CBS News reported on August 2, adult stem cells appear to have the ability to stimulate tissue repair and to suppress the immune system.

"That gives adult stem cells really a very interesting and potent quality that embryonic stem cells don't have," said Rocky Tuan, director of a cellular engineering institute at the University of Pittsburgh. '

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/16/bowman.stem.cell.research/index.html?hpt=C2

Virus Enables New Wave Of Rechargeable Batteries

http://electronicdesign.com/article/components/virus_enables_new_wave_of_rechargeable_batteries.aspx?nl=1

Record-breaking carbon dioxide storage capacity enhances ability to capture CO2

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100715172044.htm