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'Ethical' stem cell crop boosted
US researchers have found a way to dramatically increase the harvest of stem cells from adult tissue. It is a practical step forward in techniques to produce large numbers of stem cells without using embryos.
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Maldives leader in climate change stunt
With fish darting amongst them in a blue lagoon, the Maldivian president and his top team have staged an elaborate stunt to publicise climate change.
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Bad memories written with lasers
Laser-controlled flies may be the latest addition to the neuroscientist's tool kit, thanks to a new technique. Researchers have devised a way to write memories onto the brains of flies, revealing which brain cells are involved in making bad memories.
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Welcome to the world of sci-fi science
Teleportation, time travel, antimatter and wireless electricity. It all sounds far-fetched, more fiction than fact, but it's all true. Everybody is used to science fiction featuring science that seems, well, not very scientific.
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US first lady 'slave roots' found
Research into the family of US First Lady Michelle Obama has revealed that her great-great-great-grandmother was a slave given away at the age of six. According to genealogist Megan Smolenyak, the girl was described in papers only as "negro girl Melvinia".
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Confucian family tree 'triples'
Two million people are now recognised as being descendants of the Chinese philosopher Confucius, more than tripling the number in the last count. The announcement was made as the fifth update to Confucius' family tree was unveiled on the 2,560th anniversary of his birth, say Chinese state media.
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Generation ship
Since such a ship might take centuries to thousands of years to reach even nearby stars, the original occupants of a generation ship would grow old and die, leaving their descendants to continue traveling. Rocket pioneer Robert H.
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Moon landing conspiracy theories
Moon landing conspiracy theories claim that some or all elements of the Apollo program and the associated Moon landings were hoaxes staged by NASA, possibly with the aid of other organizations.
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Planck telescope's first glimpse
The European telescope sent far from Earth to study the oldest light in the Universe has returned its first images. The Planck observatory, launched in May, is surveying radiation that first swept out across space just 380,000 years after the Big Bang.
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Mobile app sees science go global
A mobile phone application will help professional and "citizen" scientists collect and analyse data from "in the field", anywhere in the world.The EpiCollect software collates data from certain mobiles - on topics such as disease spread or the occurrence of rare species - in a web-based database.
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Can you see time?
Imagine if you could see time laid out in front of you, or surrounding your body. And you could physically point to specific dates in space. Important dates might stand out - birthdays, anniversaries. And you could scan a visible timeline - to check if you were available - whenever you made plans.
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Quantum computer slips onto chips
Researchers have devised a penny-sized silicon chip that uses photons to run Shor's algorithm - a well-known quantum approach - to solve a maths problem.
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Gaming takes on augmented reality
Augmented reality - the ability to overlay digital information on the real world - is increasingly finding its way into different aspects of our lives. Mobile phone applications are already in use to find the nearest restaurants, shops and underground stations.
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Lunar clock to be built for 2012
Scientists and artists plan to build a 40m-wide lunar clock by the River Thames by 2012. The aim is to create a new London landmark close to the proposed Olympic stadium as a monument to a more natural way of marking time.
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WORLD FUTURES STUDIES FEDERATION – INDEPENDENT GLOBAL PEAK BODY FOR FUTURES STUDIES SCHOLARSHIP A UNESCO PARTNER – FOUNDED PARIS 1973
WFSF is a UNESCO and UN consultative partner and global NGO with members in over 60 countries. We bring together academics, researchers, practitioners, students and futures-focused institutions.
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Handsets enhance the real world
Imagine seeing interesting information pop up as you stroll around. It is almost like a sixth sense, and it used to be mainly the stuff of science fiction.
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Tiwanaku
Tiwanaku (Spanish: Tiahuanaco or Tiahuanacu) is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia near Lake Titicaca and one of the largest sites in South America.
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Mobile phones get cyborg vision
Zoe Kleinman tries out Acrossair's software that uses a phone's camera to tell you where the nearest London Underground station is. It's a gift that was once the preserve of fictional cyborgs.
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Freak waves spotted from space
The shady phenomenon of freak waves as tall as 10 storey buildings has finally been proved, the European Space Agency (Esa) said on Wednesday. Sailors often whisper of monster waves when ships sink mysteriously but, until now, no one quite believed them.
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Witch doctor
In its original meaning, witch doctors were not witches themselves, but rather people who had remedies to protect others against witchcraft. Witchcraft-induced conditions were their area of expertise, as described in this 1858 news report from England:[2]
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TranslationParty - Find The Equilibrium
Fun is back, find the equilibrium with machine translation. Will it converge?
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Voyage to study plastic 'island'
The second of two research ships bound for a huge "island" of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean leaves San Francisco today. Ocean currents have pushed the refuse together in an area estimated to be larger than the State of Texas.
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Molecular trap makes fresher beer
The approach works by removing riboflavin, or vitamin B2, which causes changes to beer's flavour when exposed to light passing through the bottle. Scientists at the Technical University of Dortmund designed a polymer "trap" with tiny crevices that capture the riboflavin molecules.
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One dead at Slovak music festival
One person has died after a giant tent collapsed on a crowd of concert goers at Slovakia's biggest music festival, reports say. Another 40 were injured - 15 seriously - when a gust of wind lifted and then brought down the tent during a rain storm in the western town of Trencin.
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Thousands of rubber ducks to land on British shores after 15 year journey
They were toys destined only to bob up and down in nothing bigger than a child's bath - but so far they have floated halfway around the world. The armada of 29,000 plastic yellow ducks, blue turtles and green frogs broke free from a cargo ship 15 years ago.
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