Memories Selectively, Safely Erased In Mice – “Targeted memory erasure is no longer limited to the realm of science fiction. A new study describes a method through which a selected set of memories can be rapidly and specifically erased from the mouse brain in a controlled and inducible manner. New and old memories have been selectively and safely removed from mice by scientists…”

The Stink in Farts Controls Blood Pressure – “A smelly rotten-egg gas in farts controls blood pressure in mice, a new study finds…”

New engine cuts fuel consumption by 30% – “The company claims that their new open-rotor engine design could cut airline fuel bills by $3 million and CO2 emissions by 10,000 tons per year per aircraft if implemented on 100-200 seater aircrafts. To address the noise issue, more blades were added to the rotors and their shape was changed to be squatter and thinner. The company claims that this allows the rotors to spin at a slower speed, reducing the noise, while maintaining high efficiency…”

Dubai is nuts

Gallery: Take an X-Ray With Your Office Sticky Tape – “Believe it or not, that roll of sticky tape on your desk emits X-rays. Don’t worry, you’re not getting irradiated when you use it, unless you work in a vacuum…”

Computer circuit built from brain cells – “Now human engineers working with neurons in the lab have achieved the same trick: building reliable digital logic gates that perform like those inside electronics…”

Everything You Know About CSS Is Wrong – “When released, Internet Explorer 8 will support many new values for the CSS display property, including the table-related values: table, table-row, and table-cell—and it’s the last major browser to come on board with this support. This event will mark the end of complex CSS layout techniques, and will be the final nail in the coffin of using HTML tables for layout. Finally, producing table-like grid layouts using CSS will be quick and easy…”

Worm grunters – “When biologist Ken Catania heard about the peculiar practice of worm grunting practiced in the Apalachicola National Forest in the Florida Panhandle one of his first thoughts was an observation made by Charles Darwin. Worm grunting involves going into the forest, driving a wooden stake into the ground and then rubbing the top of the stake with a long piece of steel called a rooping iron. This makes a peculiar grunting sound that drives nearby earthworms to the surface where they can be easily collected for fish bait. Despite a lot of speculation, worm grunters don’t really know why the technique works. But Catania, an associate professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt who studies moles, thought that the explanation might lie in Darwin’s remark: “It is often said that if the ground is beaten or otherwise made to tremble worms will believe that they are pursued by a mole and leave their burrows.”"

Secret to a longer life – being conscientious – “Being conscientious not only leads to a more successful life but also a longer one, a new study claims…”

Mars pioneers should stay there permanently, says Buzz Aldrin – “The first astronauts sent to Mars should be prepared to spend the rest of their lives there, in the same way that European pioneers headed to America knowing they would not return home, says moonwalker Buzz Aldrin…”

Top Five Alternative Energy Sources of the Future – “Can nuclear power be replaced? Some smart folks have came to creative ways to product alternative energy that can satisfy our power needs for the future as we run out of nuclear energy…”

COMsciences reveals first sub-netbook – “Are you one of those people who find a netbook is just way too big to handle? Maybe you need a sub-netbook, my tiny-handed friend…”

And now the Manchurian microchip – “The geniuses at Homeland Security who brought you hare-brained procedures at airports (which inconvenience travelers without snagging terrorists) have decreed that October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. This means The Investigator — at the risk of compromising national insecurities — would be remiss not to make you aware of the hottest topic in U.S. counterintelligence circles: rogue microchips. This threat emanates from China (PRC) — and it is hugely significant…”

IT’s biggest project failures — and what we can learn from them – “Think your project’s off track and over budget? Learn a lesson or two from the tech sector’s most infamous project flameouts…”

[See previous IR]