Tech

  1. Tech

    Global Catastrophes and Trends: The Next Fifty Years by Vaclav Smil

    MIT Press, 2008, 307 p., $29.95.

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  2. Chemistry

    Long Live Plastics

    With plastics in museums decomposing, a new effort seeks to halt the demise of materials commonly thought to be unalterable.

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  3. Earth

    The Case for Very Hot Water

    Turning down the thermostat on a home's water heater could foster the growth of toxic bacteria in home plumbing.

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  4. Earth

    Big Water Losses

    America's ailing water-delivery infrastructure is literally throwing clean water away -- and dirtying some of what it moves toward our taps.

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  5. Tech

    Coal Country’s New Foresters

    New techniques may be shaving a century or two off the recovery of mined mountain tops.

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  6. Tech

    Trading Forests for Coal

    Forested mountain peaks have been giving way to grassy planes in Appalachian coal country.

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  7. Space

    Hubble, heal thyself

    NASA scientists are cleared to remotely switch equipment on the Hubble Space Telescope in the hopes of restoring the orbiting observatory’s function by October 16.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Body In Mind

    Long thought the province of the abstract, cognition may actually evolve as physical experiences and actions ignite mental life.

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  9. Materials Science

    Material Scientists: Cast Your Vote

    You can vote early, if not officially.

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  10. Earth

    Pterodactyls may soar once more

    Paleontologists and aeronautical engineers are designing a reconnaissance drone that will mimic the flight of an ancient flying reptile.

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  11. Chemistry

    Trapping Compact Fluorescents’ Toxic Gas

    New nanomaterials may offer a solution to mopping up a toxic pollutant associated with fluorescent lighting.

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  12. Chemistry

    Oops! A Fluorescent Light Breaks

    Toxic mercury will be released whenever a fluorescent lamp breaks.

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