Chinese Space Walkers Stalk The Space Station – “On September 27th, a Chinese Shenzhou space capsule came within 45 kilometers of the International Space Station, and two of the three crewmen made the first Chinese space walk (going outside the spacecraft in their space suits.) Later, a small, 88 pound microsatellite (the BX-1) was released from the Shenzhou. This was supposed to be a science experiment, but the fact that the Shenzhou came so close to the International Space Station, and then released a smaller, maneuverable (via small gas jets) BX-1, indicated another satellite destruction drill. The BX-1 could easily have been directed at the nearby space station, and destroyed it…”

No place like home: New theory for how salmon, sea turtles find their birthplace – “How marine animals find their way back to their birthplace to reproduce after migrating across thousands of miles of open ocean has mystified scientists for more than a century. But marine biologists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill think they might finally have unraveled the secret…”

The Mad Scientist Bringing Back the Dead…. Really. – “Bubbling cauldrons, toxic substances, insane and dangerous ideas — whatever happened to that kind of science? Take a look at Mark Roth in his lab in Seattle. It’s mad. It’s heroic. It’s science the way it’s supposed to be…”

AMD Processor Roadmap, Launch Dates Revealed – “AMD is placing its hopes of regaining market share lost to Intel on its new line of processors set for launch next year. AMD is planning to launch a lot of processors, 14 of them to be exact according to the latest roadmap uncovered…”

Turn your car into a hybrid electric for $4,550 – “Getting the shoulda/coulda/wouldas over hybrid vehicles? Now you can convert any conveyance with 15-inch wheels or larger into an electric engine-assisted greenmobile. Danish engineer Ulrik Poulsen created these aftermarket attachments he calls the Poulsen Hybrid, and when you bolt one onto each of a car’s two drive wheels, they provide the 10-15 horsepower needed for 70-85% of normal driving. The car’s gasoline engine provides the other 15-30%, needed for stops, starts, and acceleration…”

Why Self-Mending Rubber Will Build Unbreakable Roads by 2009 – “Imagine a flat tire that repairs itself. A basketball that never goes flat…”

Hands-free cell phone conversations add 5 m to drivers’ braking distances – “Research led by Psychology researchers at the University of Warwick reveals that cell phone conversations impair drivers’ visual attention to such a degree that it can add over 5 metres to the braking distance of a car travelling at 60 miles and causes almost twice as many errors as drivers driving without the distraction of a hands free cell phone conversation…”

Supersonic fighters could snuff out hurricanes – “A Russian professor at an Ohio university has applied to patent a method for snuffing out hurricanes by flying jet fighters around the eye of the storm at supersonic speeds…”

Bacteria motels – “Miniature traps may be the answer to hospital-caused bacterial infections…”

The Incredible Convenience of Mathematica Image Processing – “Mathematica 7 adds a suite of image processing functions from trivial to highly sophisticated. To apply them to images, you don’t need to use any form of import command or file name references. Just type the command you want to use, then drag and drop the image from your desktop or browser right into the input line…”

Google Makes Major Interface Change To Search: SearchWiki – “The changes are called SearchWiki, and are a dramatic departure from Google’s streamlined, algorithm-rules approach to search. It takes features from Digg to allow users to vote site results up or down, as well as features from Wikia Search to allow users to add comments, move search results, add search results, etc. The result are customized results that appear every time you do that search in the future (assuming you are logged in)…”

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