As common as lightning is, it still sparks considerable confusion among scientists. Many of the basics are understood, but researchers admit they don"t really understand how lightning gets from there to here. And they"re totally baffled by lightning"s link to X-rays, a discovery made back in 2001. "Nobody understands how lightning makes X-rays," says Martin Uman, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Florida. "Despite reaching temperatures five times hotter than...

In an attempt to understand the extent of cow flatulence on global warming, scientists in Argentina are strapping plastic bags to the backs of cows to capture their emissions. Argentina has more than 55 million cows, making it a leading producer of beef. In the study, the scientists were surprised to discover that a standard 550-kg cow produces between 800 to 1,000 liters of emissions, including methane, each day. Further, methane - which is also released from landfills, coal mines and leaking g...

Here"s a trivia question: What state has installed more solar panels than any other except California? If you said New Jersey, your solar-energy IQ is brilliant. And if you know why several thousand huge mirrors are splayed across the Mojave Desert in California, consider yourself a solar energy genius, CBS News correspondent Tony Guida reports. "Every single day when the Sun comes up, we are bathed with enough energy in one day to supply all the power we need for five years across the globe," S...

Tiny slivers of diamond forged on an infant Earth may contain the earliest traces of life, a study has shown. Analysis of the crystals showed they contain a form of carbon often associated with plants and bacteria. The rare gems were found inside zircon crystals, formed a few hundred million years after the Earth came into being. Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers caution that their results are not definitive proof of early life but do "not exclude" the possibility. "We"re all a litt...

Coiled up in a tornado is as much energy as an entire power plant. So a Canadian engineer has a plan to spin up his own twister and extract energy from its tethered tail. It all depends on heating the air near the surface so that it is much warmer than the air above. "You can generate energy whenever you have a temperature gradient," said Louis Michaud. "The source of the energy here is the natural movement of warm and cold air currents." These so-called convective air currents are only useful i...

Charlie Sorrel: Julius von bismarck"s "Image Fulgurator" projects stealth images into the photographs of strangers, while keeping those images invisible to human eyes. Depending on whom you ask, it"s either a clever hack or an obnoxious intrusion. Naturally, we had to find out more. Yesterday, von Bismarck"s device made its premature debut on the internet. Today we met him in his hometown, Berlin, to talk about the device, the thinking behind it and the inevitable deluge of e-mails from viral ma...

Submitted by Alienated Being: A new technology inspired by the self-healing powers of plants and animals may allow damaged planes to fix themselves on the fly and point out even minuscule holes to mechanics upon landing. If the technique pans out, then aircraft, wind turbines and perhaps even spaceships of the future may boast embedded circulatory systems with an epoxy resin that can bleed into holes or cracks and then fluoresce under ultraviolet light to mark the damage like a bruise during fol...

In a cramped, humid laboratory in London, mosquitoes swarming in stacked, net-covered cages are being scrutinized for keys to controlling malaria. Scientists have genetically modified hundreds of them, hoping to stop them from spreading the killer disease. Faced with a losing battle against malaria, scientists are increasingly exploring new avenues that might have seemed far-fetched just a few years ago. "We don"t have things we can rely on," said Andrea Crisanti, the malaria expert in charge of...

Submitted by Waspie Dwarf: Undersea volcanic activity has been blamed for a mass extinction in the seas 93 million years ago. In the so-called "anoxic event" of the late Cretaceous Period, the ocean depths became starved of oxygen, wiping out swathes of marine organisms. Researchers from the University of Alberta, Canada, found a tell-tale signature of underwater volcanism in rocks dating to the period. Their findings have been published in the journal Nature. At the time of the anoxic event, th...

A new mathematical model indicates that dust devils, water spouts, tornadoes, hurricanes and cyclones are all born of the same mechanism and will intensify as climate change warms the Earth"s surface. The new equation, developed by University of Michigan atmospheric and planetary scientist Nilton Renno, could allow scientists to more accurately calculate the maximum expected intensity of a spiraling storm based on the depth of the troposphere and the temperature and humidity of the air in the st...

Submitted by Marvy: The Force, it appears, may be with us sooner than expected. A study in the journal Nature this spring all but confirmed the latest evolution in the hard-charging, heady field of cybernetics: Monkeys can control machines with their brains. In the experiment, conducted by neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, a pair of macaque monkeys with electrodes implanted in their brains were able to quickly learn how to operate a robot arm as thou...

Trakr, a dog that sniffed out survivors from under the rubble of the World Trade Centre after the September 11 terror attacks, may be cloned. The German shepherd, who lives with his owner, James Symington, in Los Angeles, was picked by BioArts International, a Californian cloning firm, as the most "clone-worthy" canine in a competition offering an owner a free chance to replicate their pet. Mr Symington said he and Trakr were among the first search and rescue teams to arrive at the New York si...

A licence to create human-pig embryos to study heart disease has been issued by the fertility watchdog.This marks the third animal-human hybrid embryo licence to be issued by Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the first since the Commons voted in favour of this controversial research last month. An HFEA spokesman said it had approved an application from the Clinical Sciences Research Institute, University of Warwick, for the creation of hybrid embryos. The centre has been offered a...

Submitted by Anthony: Boeing, the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer, has admitted it is working on experimental anti-gravity projects that could overturn a century of conventional aerospace propulsion technology if the science underpinning them can be engineered into hardware. As part of the effort, which is being run out of Boeing’s Phantom Works advanced research and development facility in Seattle, the company is trying to solicit the services of a Russian scientist who claims he has deve...

With jagged mountain ranges, plunging valleys and majestic lakes, Antarctica has scenery to rival any beauty spot in the world – except that no-one has ever seen the continent"s hidden landscape. For more than 25 million years, the fifth biggest continent on the planet has remained locked under a massive ice sheet that has concealed its secrets through out the whole of human history. Entire mountain ranges, volcanoes, rivers, waterfalls and even new forms of life are waiting to be discovered ben...

One of the country"s leading professors of complementary medicine is offering a cash prize to anyone who can prove homeopathy works. Professor Edzard Ernst says he will award £10,000 to the first person who can show the controversial treatment is better than a placebo in a scientifically controlled trial. Calling on homeopaths to "put up or shut up", Professor Ernst said there was still no strong evidence that the method - whose fans include Prince Charles and Hollywood celebrities - was effecti...