14 strange and scary military technologies – “Modern technology means ‘increased lethality’ and scarier weapons – but it can also keep soldiers out of harm’s way, patch them up when they’re hurt and one day, even erase traumatic memories…”

Lenovo Adds ‘Remote Kill’ Feature to ThinkPads – “Lenovo and Phoenix Technologies will begin adding a feature to Lenovo notebooks that allows them to be disabled, or “remotely killed,” via a text message sent from a cell phone…”

Silicon Could Give Lithium Ion Batteries 10X More Capacity – “Researchers are reporting they have developed a new material made from three-dimensional, highly porous nano-silicon that could give future lithium ion batteries a ten times higher capacity than they currently have…”

Solar Paneled Race Car With 1800 Mile Range – “Called the Eclipse VI, this car can travel a staggering 1864 miles at nearly 75 miles per hour, but before you ask about when these will be ending up a used car lot near you, understand that the solar panels alone cost about $700,000…”

Facebook wins record $873m fine against smut spammer – “Facebook has won a $873m judgment against a Canadian sued for spamming users of the social networking site with “sexually explicit” messages after hacking into the profiles of its members…”

‘Little Bang’ created our Solar System – “ew evidence backs up the idea that a shockwave from the explosion of massive star triggered the collapse of a dense, dusty gas cloud to form our Sun and its retinue of planets…”

It Takes 10,000 Hours of Practice to Become a Genius – “A new study carried out by the British scientists revealed that it takes a person 10,000 hours of practice to become ace in a certain discipline. They say that top musicians, sportsmen and chess players were all able to become masters in their field by achieving the level where their time of practice reached 10,000 hours…”

New Longevity Drugs Poised to Tackle Diseases of Aging – “Cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, heart disease: All have stubbornly resisted billions of dollars of research conducted by the world’s finest minds. But they all may finally be defied by a single new class of drugs, a virtual cure for the diseases of aging…”

Alien-like Squid With “Elbows” Filmed at Drilling Site – ” A mile and a half (two and a half kilometers) underwater, a remote control submersible’s camera has captured an eerie surprise: an alien-like, long-armed, and—strangest of all—”elbowed” Magnapinna squid. (See photos of Magnapinna.) “

Open Source Wi-Fi Service Claims Ten Million Hotspots In Network – “Connecting to free Wi-Fi can be extremely frustrating. But WeFi, a three-year old start up, says it has solved the problem…”

Can the can – “The idea that graffiti-spraying and other forms of low-level delinquency promote further bad behaviour has now been tested experimentally…”

NASA Testing Ejection Seat – “NASA is currently ground testing what amounts to an ejection seat for its next generation rockets. The ARES 1 is slated to replace the space shuttle (as part of NASA’s Constellation program) when it retires in 2010. Along with many other improvements, one of the biggest changes that they plan to implement is the ability for the passenger capsule (Orion) to separate itself from the ARES rocket in case of an emergency…”

Acidic oceans: worse than we thought – “Climate change isn’t just about temperature. The main driver is the return to the atmosphere of millions of years worth of sequestered carbon in the form of carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels, but that CO2 doesn’t just increase the heat retention of the atmosphere; it also dissolves into the oceans. Unfortunately, a paper published in PNAS this week examines this effect and finds that it’s happening faster than previously predicted…”

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