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By James Mitchell Crow of Nature magazineNano-sized flakes of graphene oxide can be spun into graphene fibres several metres long, researchers in China have shown. The strong, flexible fibres, which can be tied in knots or woven into conductive mats, could be the key to deploying graphene in real-world devices such as flexible batteries and solar cells.When it comes to physical properties, graphene is remarkably well-rounded. This two-dimensional mesh of carbon atoms has the highest mechanical strength ever recorded, and also breaks records for its thermal and electrical conductivity....

Jellyfish never stop. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, they move through the water in search of food such as shrimp and fish larvae, on journeys that can cover several kilometers a day. They are more efficient than any other swimmer, using less energy for their size than do graceful dolphins or cruising sharks. “Their cost of transport—the oxygen they use to move—is 48 percent lower than any other swimming animal,” says Bradford J....

Every month, Scientific American—the longest-running magazine in the U.S. and an authoritative voice in science, technology and innovation—provides insight into scientific topics that affect our daily lives and capture our imagination, establishing the vital bridge between science and public policy. Key information from this month’s issue: • ENERGY Nuclear power contributes approximately 20 percent of the U.S. power supply. After a 30-year hiatus, there is a greater push for more nuclear power plants, with 22 new reactors under review....

Since last October, molecular biologist Katsuhiko Hayashi has received around a dozen e-mails from couples, most of them middle-aged, who are desperate for one thing: a baby. One menopausal woman from England offered to come to his laboratory at Kyoto University in Japan in the hope that he could help her to conceive a child. “That is my only wish,” she wrote. The requests started trickling in after Hayashi published the results of an experiment that he had assumed would be of interest mostly to developmental biologists....

A team at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, is set to launch a $40 million clinical trial to explore stem cells from umbilical cord blood as a treatment for autism. But experts caution that the trial is premature. A $15 million grant from the Marcus Foundation, a philanthropic funding organization based in Atlanta, will bankroll the first two years of the five-year trial, which also plans to test stem cell therapy for stroke and cerebral palsy....

Think you would stick to a diet if someone paid you for it? Would you be more likely to exercise if you were fined each time you bailed on your scheduled workout? Research in recent years suggests—and a handful of new businesses are betting—that you might. The Web-based company StickK.com lets users sign commitment contracts to lose weight, exercise or quit smoking—and pay up if they default. Members of the Boston-based start-up Gym-Pact are charged for every day they pledge to work out but do not....

Every night, while we lie asleep, blind, dumb and almost paralyzed, our brains are hard at work. Neurons in the sleeping brain fire nearly as often as they do in a waking state, and they consume almost as much energy. What is the point of this unceasing activity at a time when we are supposedly resting? Why does the conscious mind disconnect so completely from the external environment while the brain keeps nattering on?...

From Quanta (Find original story here). Stefan Thurner is a physicist, not a biologist. But not long ago, the Austrian national health insurance clearinghouse asked Thurner and his colleagues at the Medical University of Vienna to examine some data for them. The data, it turned out, were the anonymized medical claims records—every diagnosis made, every treatment given—of most of the nation, which numbers some 8 million people. The question was whether the same standard of care could continue if, as had recently happened in Greece, a third of the funding evaporated....

Kids today don’t spend enough time playing video games—at least, not the kinds that get them off the sofa. Several recent studies have found that playing active video games such as Dance Dance Revolution keeps the pounds off and improves fitness levels. As researchers continue to quantify the physical benefits, manufacturers plan to capitalize on the results, not only by releasing new titles and systems, but also by installing them in schools and pitching them to pediatricians in hopes that they will urge patients to use them....

Researchers in Europe are developing a camera that will literally have a mind of its own, with brainlike algorithms that process images and light sensors that mimic the human retina. Its makers hope it will prove that artificial intelligence—which today requires large, sophisticated computers—can soon be packed into small consumer electronics. But as much as an AI camera would make a nifty smartphone feature, the technology’s biggest impact may actually be speeding up the way self-driving cars and autonomous flying drones sense and react to their surroundings....

Antiscience has emerged as a dominant and highly lethal force, and one that threatens global security, as much as do terrorism and nuclear proliferation. We must mount a counteroffensive and build new infrastructure to combat antiscience, just as we have for these other more widely recognized and established threats. Antiscience is the rejection of mainstream scientific views and methods or their replacement with unproven or deliberately misleading theories, often for nefarious and political gains....

Swarms of robots inspired by water-hopping insects could one day be used for surveillance, search-and-rescue missions and environmental monitoring, researchers say. More than 1,200 species of animals have evolved the ability to walk on water. These include tiny creatures such as insects and spiders, and larger beasts such as reptiles, birds and even mammals. Whereas relatively big animals, such as the so-called “Jesus lizard,” must slap water with enough force and speed to keep their heavy bodies from going under, insects called water striders are small enough for their weight to be almost entirely supported by the surface tension of water—the same phenomenon that makes water droplets bead up....

Reading a newspaper, watching CNN or even just looking around can bring on a feeling of impending doom. But in late October I ran into a few individuals who recharged my batteries. Because they do things like figure out better ways to recharge batteries. They were the 10 teams of finalists in the National Inventors Hall of Fame’s 20th Annual Collegiate Inventors Competition in Alexandria, Va. I first covered the competition, which awards prizes to the best undergraduate and graduate student inventing teams, back in 2004 [see “The New College Try,” February 2005]....

California unwittingly prescribed a harmful chemical cocktail for the country in the 1970s, when it adopted rules meant to suppress fires from lit cigarettes. The regulations required foam used in upholstery to withstand a 12-second exposure to a small, open flame, triggering the widespread use of flame retardants. The effects reached well beyond the state, as manufacturers opted to adhere to a single safety standard rather than producing one set of products for California and another for the rest of the U....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Goryeo (Koryo) kingdom ruled ancient Korea from 918 CE to 1392 CE, and it oversaw a flourishing of the arts, literature, and architecture. One of these developments was the production of finely crafted illuminated Buddhist texts. Painted laboriously by Buddhist monks, they spread the sacred texts of Buddhism and their production aided the monk’s meditation and progression towards enlightenment....

Did you like this interview? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. While Oman is perhaps the most mysterious corner of the Arabian peninsula to Westerners, the country retains a strong sense of identity, a pride in its ancient past, and unique surprises in the domain of cultural heritage. In this exclusive interview, James Blake Wiener of Ancient History Encyclopedia (AHE) speaks to Mr....

Dear EarthTalk: December 2010 marked the 26th anniversary of the infamous Bhopal disaster in India when chemical company Union Carbide leaked deadly gases, killing thousands of people. What safeguards are in place today to prevent incidents like this?—Charlene Colchester, via e-mail Bhopal should have been a wake up call, but it is unclear whether chemical plants around the world are any safer a quarter century after the December 1984 disaster—during which some 40 tons of toxic methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide (now part of Dow Chemical), killing 2,259 people immediately and causing lifelong health problems and premature death for tens of thousands more....

Even as astronomers work toward the hotly anticipated milestone discovery of an Earth-like twin orbiting another star, researchers are already asking what it will take to detect the existence of extraterrestrial life on such a planet. The good news is that observatories now being planned could have a shot. Yet it is hardly a lock. The next generation of giant, ground-based telescopes may be able to tease out biomarker signals from the starlight filtering through exoplanetary atmospheres, according to research recently published in the Astrophysical Journal and in Astronomy & Astrophysics....

By David Stanway SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s smog-hit capital Beijing plans to slash coal consumption by a further 30 percent in 2017 as part of its efforts to combat air pollution, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Sunday, citing the city’s mayor. Beijing has promised to implement “extraordinary” measures this year in a bid to tackle choking smog from traffic congestion and the heavy use of coal. “We will try to basically realize zero coal use in six major districts and in Beijing’s southern plain areas this year,” major Cai Qi was quoted as saying, adding that Beijing would also eliminate small coal-fired boilers....

On one ranch at the valley bottom, just a handful of these mounds rise up from the ground, 1-meter-tall piles of tan earth. But on a neighboring property, across a dusty road, the ground is pockmarked with hundreds of termite towers. Termites normally dig elaborate tunnels beneath the ground. But when the soil becomes too compacted, they build above ground instead. “When you see that many termite mounds,” says Pedro Nogueira, a sustainable ranching expert, “that’s a clear sign of degraded pasture....