Chemical engineers in North Dakota have successfully turned oil from plants--canola (rapeseed), coconuts and soybeans--into jet fuel indistinguishable from the conventional kind, according to U.S. government tests. Working with the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), scientists at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota turned these plant oils into fuel that had a similar density, energy content and even freezing point. [More]

Hundreds of chemicals likely to be identified by the European Union (E.U.) as "substances of very high concern" are produced throughout the U.S., sometimes in large quantities. In fact, chemicals such as varieties of plastic-softening phthalates--linked to developmental and reproductive problems because they mimic hormones--are produced in excess of hundreds of million of pounds per year, according to a new report from Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) that is based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data from 2001. [More]

Companies that specialize in harvesting renewable energy tend to focus in one area, whether it's solar, waves or wind power. Moncada Energy Group, s.r.l., an Italian maker of wind farm technology, is breaking with that model and plans to by the end of next year erect solar panels in the same fields as the company's wind turbines. The company is hoping the move will allow it to draw energy day and night--both when the sun shines and the night wind howls. [More]

TROY, N.Y.--Despite their ubiquity, cell phones are not known for their ability to take picture-perfect photos. But budding "liquid lens" technology promises to change that by providing phone photogs with the autofocus capabilities lacking in today's cellular optics. [More]

Researchers report genetic evidence bolstering the socially contentious idea that polygyny--the mating practice where some males dominate reproduction by fathering children with several women--was the norm for sexual behavior throughout human history and prehistory. Because polygyny means other men father few or no children, the study, published today in PLoS Genetics, also shows that, on average, women bequeath more genes to their offspring than men do.  [More]

Power plant owners and speculators yesterday bid for the right to emit carbon dioxide (CO2) as part of a new multistate government program designed to reduce global warming pollution. Interested parties during an online auction offered at least $1.86 per ton of CO2 emitted; there were 12 million allowances (one per ton) to emit climate change–inducing CO2 from power plants in eastern seaboard states from Maine to Maryland available in a market known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI, pronounced "Reggie.") [More]

Scientists say they have pinpointed a gene in the brain that can calm nerve cells that become too jumpy, potentially paving the way for new therapies to treat autism and other neurological disorders. [More]

You might not know it but fertilizer is the explosive of choice for budget-conscious terrorists. The blasts at the World Trade Center in 1993, Oklahoma City Federal Building in 1995 and on rush-hour London buses and trains in 2005 all contained ammonium nitrate fertilizer (which is manufactured in bulk as an explosive by the U.S. and other countries as well as by companies.) [More]

Google, Inc. and T-Mobile today unveiled their much-anticipated G1 mobile phone, their answer to Apple's iPhone. The new T-Mobile G1 is expected to vigorously compete with Apple's iPhone when it hits store shelves on October 22 for high-end smart phone users who count on their mobiles nearly as much as they do their PCs for Internet access. [More]

Corn--or the cellulose in everything from wood chips to crop stalks--are often touted as the basis of the fuel of the future. But Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates is betting that algae will provide the answer to our future fuel needs. He's so sure, in fact, that last week he joined the Rockefeller family and London-based Wellcome Trust to invest $100 million in a California start-up devoted to churning out biofuel from this tiny primitive plant. [More]

A group of northern California scientists have found a new bend in the Gordian knot of global warming: coastal cooling. [More]

When materials scientist Joseph Michael and his team at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., trained their high-powered electron microscope on anthrax spore samples the FBI had sent them in February 2002, they made two crucial discoveries: The first confirmed previous findings that the Bacillus anthracis spores mailed to U.S. Senate offices and various media outlets (shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks) contained silicon, a substance used to turn anthrax-causing spores into a biological weapon.

But it was Sandia's next discovery that marked a critical turning point in the feds's probe of the mysterious mailings, which killed five people, injured 17 and prompted thousands more who were potentially exposed to the deadly spores to take potent antibiotics--in particular, Ciprofloxacin (known to irritate the gastrointestinal tract and cause joint swelling). Using highly sensitive transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), the researchers came to a startling realization: The silicon had grown organically inside the Bacillus anthracis samples, nothing had been added to weaponize the spores. "The silicon was not on the outside of the spore," says Michael, who headed up Sandia's investigation, "but rather incorporated on the inside."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) knows that most of the 1.9 million tons (1.7 million metric tons) of discarded cell phones, computers and televisions, among other electronic goods, went into landfills, because those are the agency's own figures. [More]

Scientists have stumbled on a chemical in the body that could one day prevent or reverse diseases linked to obesity. [More]

A program that gives commercial fishers both a short- and long-term financial stake in the health of the industry offers the promise of preserving fish populations, according to new research. [More]

In a finding that could help control harmful fungus, researchers have discovered a high-speed mechanism the germs use to project their spores into the air. Scientists from Miami University (M.U.) in Oxford, Ohio, and the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati report in the journal PLoS ONE that fungi may be one of the fastest land species, clocking speeds of up to 55 miles (88 kilometers) per hour and producing accelerations 180,000 times greater than gravity. [More]

New research shows that a controversial chemical in plastic baby and water bottles, cups and food containers may be linked to heart disease and diabetes, prompting new fears about the ingredient.  [More]

Injecting stem cells into the brains of mice that recently suffered a stroke can reduce nerve cell (neuron) damage by up to 60 percent, according to new research. [More]

Escherichia coli (E. coli) can give you a severe case of food poisoning or, with a little genetic engineering, a useful plastic. Scientists at San Diego–based Genomatica, Inc., have announced success in manipulating the bacteria to directly produce butanediol (BDO), a chemical compound used to make everything from spandex to car bumpers, thereby providing a more energy-efficient way of making it without oil or natural gas. [More]

Elephants, gorillas and other large forest mammals may become extinct in central Africa within 50 years if hunting meat to feed starving populations continues at the current pace. Each year, rural peoples consume some 2.2 billion pounds (one million metric tons) of so-called bushmeat from wildlife, the equivalent of four million cattle; the flesh accounts for 80 percent of the protein and fat in their diet. [More]