Hacking The Planet

Geo-engineering is a relatively new topics when it comes to the sciences. It is an attempt to rewire the Earth's atmosphere in order to reverse global climate change and help save our planet. Hacking the Earth's climate is a topic of major debate however, due to the fact that all of the techniques that have been developed so far might have either short term or long term consequences. The thought of the Anthropocene, which is the idea that we have entered a new geological era in which humans influence is a dominant feature, is both frightening and interesting to think about. The research on geo-engineering is growing rapidly, and hopefully much more will be discovered in the near future. It might save all of our lives one day.
http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/12/hack-planet-geoengineering-research-ethics-explored

Valkyrie The Superhero Robot

The robot pictured is a humanoid robot named Valkyrie. It was made by NASA Johnson Space Center's robotics team. They were/are trying to create what their idea is of the best rescue robot for a disaster zone. So far it seems that they have created the most human friendly, lifelike robot of every team, and are well on their way to developing their hardware for the next challenge to all teams. The next challenge will be in two weeks, and it will involve all of the robots maneuvering through an obstacle course. The final challenge next December will be getting their robots to perform a group of tasks, just from downgraded communication systems that are already in them, because it is post-apocalyptic and the communication networks are down. The winning team will receive $2 million and get to begin developing the first robots to help build the first settlement on Mars.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/1211/Meet-Valkyrie-the-superhero-robot

Creating Fuel from Carbon Dioxide

Scientists in Chicago have been studying how to create a faster and more efficient way to create liquid fuels from carbon dioxide. Usually, the carbon dioxide used comes from the burning of hydrocarbons. These scientists have found it more practical to actually create fuel by converting carbon dioxide and water into fuel. They have created a catalyst that produces the carbon monoxide at a rate ten times faster than the current standard, and is much more efficient. One problem they are trying to solve is finding the best way to create energy for these reactions to take place. They need to create an artificial "leaf" that could both collect energy from the sun and undergo the reactions at the same time, staying stable the entire time. If their work pays off, it could mean cleaner, more efficient fuel production, which could even lead to cleaner and more efficient fuel consumption.
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/522246/a-faster-and-more-efficient-way-to-convert-carbon-dioxide-into-fuel/

Europeans Among First to America?

Recently the genome of a 24,000 year-old boy was dug up at Mal'ta near Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia. What makes this boy different from others is that his genes actually matched Western European genes and Native American genes, but not East Asian. What this means is that Europeans had traveled much farther east at that time period than what was previously known, and this mixed culture of people was among the first to either cross the land bridge into Alaska. Another study that backs this research up shows that 1 of the five mitochondrial DNA lineages is found in both Native Americans and Europeans.
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/science/two-surprises-in-dna-of-boy-found-buried-in-siberia.html?_r=0

Quantum Memory Storage

In the typical computer, bits of information are stored as a string of 1s and 0s. In a quantum system, "qubits" of information can be stored in a "superposition state" in which they can be 1s and 0s at the same time. What does this mean? It means that said qubits of information could perform multiple calculations all at once, speeding up everything tremendously. The main problem scientists have run into with quantum memory is that it does not hold its memory for very long at room temperature. Previously, the "world-record" had been about 25 seconds at room temperature and 3 minutes under cryogenic conditions. A new experiment however was able to keep it going for 39 minutes at room temperature, crushing the old record. There are many obstacles still to overcome in reaching the goal of being able to harness quantum memory storage, but this is definitely a great start.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24934786

Domestic Dog Origins in Europe?

Scientists have been vigorously testing the DNA of various species of both dogs and wolves in an attempt to uncover the exact location in which the dog evolved from the wolf. The most recent studies point to Europe, almost 18,000 years ago. This contradicts earlier studies which show that the modern dog branched off in either the Middle East or Asia about 15,000 years ago. The only problem with either of these studies is that paleontologists have found distinctly dog-looking fossils dating back to about 30,000 years ago. It is a difficult task finding the origin due to the fact that there are so many off-breeds of dogs, and many have interbred back with wolves once more. Further research will be done in hopes to uncover the true evolutionary branch of dogs and wolves.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24946944

Astronomers Find Earth-like Planet in the Milky Way

Scientists have recently discovered a planet almost 400 million light years away that is similar to our home planet Earth. It is interesting because this planet is close in size, almost twice the mass, but made up of the same materials Earth is. The only problem with keeping life on Kepler 78b is that the planet only orbits its sun(which is also similar to ours) from less than 1 million miles away. The Earth orbits from a distance of about 93 million miles, a much safer distance for sustainable life. Kepler 78b's revolution or year also only takes about 8 1/2 hours, whereas Earth's lasts 365 days. Astronomers are fascinated by this discovery, some concluding that there may be many other planets similar to ours out there, with a fair chance that some could be in a similar orbit to ours also.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/science/space/astronomers-find-earthlike-planet-but-its-infernally-hot.html