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Skeletal chains could help algae deliver drugs

Diatoms have been modified while still alive to incorporate sulphur-bearing molecules that can harness chemical cargo


Saving time: Physics killed it. Do we need it back?

Past, present, future: modern science tells us they are only an illusion. Now some maverick physicists want to restart the river of time, says Michael Slezak


Earth's first life may have sprung up in ice

Did early life use RNA, not DNA? The idea has been boosted by the creation of an RNA enzyme that copies strands larger than itself – and works best in the cold


Sewer sensors sniff out signs of bombs and drugs

Bomb makers and chemists cooking up crystal meth better watch out. A sewer system full of chemical sensors could soon be sniffing out their homemade labs


Feedback: Ship of fools

Superyachts can apparently be friends of the earth, happiness is a well-grounded sheet, an entirely new kind of reviewed journal, and more


ButtonMasher: First AR games for Google Glass emerge

From stick men to changing what happened at the battle of Waterloo, developers are already coming up with augmented reality ideas for Google's headset


Geoengineers are free to legally hack the climate

Apart from those that involve dumping stuff into the ocean, field tests of technologies to cool the climate seem to be permitted under international law


Brain stimulation boosts social skills in autism

Magnetic pulses to a part of the brain involved in empathy have improved the social skills of people with autism in the first clinical trial of its kind


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