Waste paper turned into a super-spongy battery
Treat paper in the right way and it can become a form of porous carbon capable of sucking up charge – making it the perfect battery for storing wind energy
What will hypercomputers let us do? Good question
Machines that go beyond human logic could help us understand how we think – if we can only figure out what to ask them
Higgs boson glimpsed at work for first time
Rare particle scattering detected at CERN may help test how the Higgs boson imparts mass to other particles – and perhaps lead to new physics
Strange dark stuff is making the universe too bright
Sky surveys suggest that dark matter or some other mysterious dark material may be lighting up the universe with too much ultraviolet radiation
Spark of life revisited thanks to electric bacteria
The discovery and culturing of bacteria that eat and excrete electrons means we may soon find out just how little electricity fundamental life requires
Asthma drugs stunt growth – but only by a centimetre
The long-standing worry that steroid-based asthma drugs stunt children's growth is overblown, two reviews of clinical trials conclude
Turing's oracle: The computer that goes beyond logic
For 75 years, computers have worked within limits defined by Alan Turing. Now work has begun to fulfil his prophecy of a machine that can solve the unsolvable
Biological pacemaker keeps a beat without the hardware
Adult pigs have been cured of heart block by turning their own cells into a pacemaker using a gene involved in embryonic heat development
Watchdog must be tougher on climate sceptic 'charity'
Decisive action is needed to curb Nigel Lawson's Global Warming Policy Foundation, which lobbies against climate change mitigation, says policy expert Bob Ward
Arthritis drug shows potential to stall Alzheimer's
Etanercept might be able to reduce the cognitive decline in people with Alzheimer's disease, according to a small pilot safety study
Largest laser gives diamond a record-setting squeeze
A laser used to spark nuclear fusion has compressed diamond at unprecedented pressure, giving the first data on how carbon may behave inside giant planets
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