01/08/2011

Taiwan's Foxconn to use one million robots by 2014

Taiwan IT giant Foxconn -- hit by a spate of suicides at its Chinese plants -- plans to replace 500,000 workers with robots in the next three years, state media reported Monday.

Study shows best places to protect marine mammals

(AP) -- From sea otters to blue whales, marine mammals are under stress from climate change, ocean acidification, hunting and other threats. Researchers have identified 20 important sites around the world where they say ...

Microbial study reveals sophisticated sensory response

All known biological sensory systems, including the familiar examples of the five human senses – vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch – have one thing in common: when exposed to a sustained change in sensory ...

Aerosols affect climate more than satellite estimates predict

Aerosol particles, including soot and sulfur dioxide from burning fossil fuels, essentially mask the effects of greenhouse gases and are at the heart of the biggest uncertainty in climate change prediction. New research from ...

Social challenges of synthetic biology examined

In the wake of last year's creation of the first self-replicating cell with a synthetic genome – which was quickly followed by a request from President Barack Obama for a report by the Presidential Commission for the ...

A simple slice of energy storage

Turning graphite oxide (GO) into full-fledged supercapacitors turns out to be simple. But until a laboratory at Rice University figured out how, it was anything but obvious.

Greenhouse gas impact of hydroelectric reservoirs downgraded

An international team of scientists has amassed the largest data set to date on greenhouse gas emissions from hydroelectric reservoirs. Their analysis, published today in the online version of Nature Geoscience, posits that ...

Oxygen molecules found in deep space

ESA's Herschel space observatory has found molecules of oxygen in a nearby star-forming cloud. This is the first undisputed detection of oxygen molecules in space. It concludes a long search but also leaves questions unanswered.

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