Weird Science

Scientists have developed tiny bugs that can turn useless hazardous chemicals in to 24-karat gold.Throughout history the ability to turn valueless materials in to gold was a prize sought relentlessly by alchemists who believed the discovery would make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. Fast forward to 2012 and scientists at Michigan State University may have come up with the next best thing - researchers have found that the bacteria Cupriavidusmetallidurans is able to turn gold chloride, a toxic waste substance, in to 24-karat gold."Microbial alchemy is what we"re doing - transforming gold from something that has no value into a solid, precious metal that"s valuable," said assistant professor Kazem Kashefi.

Unfortunately however the process isn"t particularly cost-effective meaning that it is more expensive to enact the conversion than the actual value of the gold produced. The result of their research is actually an artwork, named "The GreatWork of the Metal Lover". In features a portable lab in which the bacteria produce gold flakes in front of a live audience.  

View: Full article |  Source: Huffington Post  

A $1 billion mission to retrieve the first ever fresh samples of our planet"s mantle has been proposed.The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program is set to delve deeper in to our planet"s interior than ever before as researchers seek to answer long standing questions about the Earth and what lies within it. The mission would begin with the Japanese deep-sea drilling vessel, Chikyu, which would startdrilling at the bottom of the ocean floor where the crust is at its thinnest.Project co-leader Damon Teagle described the project as "the most challenging endeavor in the history of Earth science." If the plan goes ahead then drilling could begin before the end of the decade, however due to the limited lifespan of the drill bits it could take several years to actually reach the mantle.

A team of international researchers want to drilldeeper into the Earth than ever before to answer mysteries about our planet.  

View: Full article |  Source: Business Insider  

Scientists have come up with a radical new way in which to help reduce the effects of global warming.Few topics have been discussed as much or have generated as much controversy as climate change. With global temperatures set to soar within the next 100 years, scientists have been looking for more effective solutions to tackle the global warming crisis. Now researchers in Scotland have come up with a novel new idea for a way to reduce the amount of sunlighthitting the Earth - a giant dust cloud generated by an asteroid in space.The technique would involve installing a device on to a near-Earth asteroid that would hurl material out in to space and create a vast cloud of dust, blotting out the Sun.

Scientists have openly admitted however that the concept would not only prove risky but that there would be no way to properly test the concept before going ahead with it. The researchers calculate that the largest near-Earth asteroid, 1036 Ganymed, could maintain adust cloud large enough to block out 6. 58 percent of the solar radiation that would normally reach Earth, more than enough to combat any current global warming trends.  

View: Full article |  Source: Space.com  

Theoretical scientists have come up with a way to build a four-dimensional space-time crystal clock.The idea behind such a device is that it will literally last indefinitely, outlasting even the heat death of the universe. Scientists have long speculated over the concept of a space-time clock based on a four-dimensional crystal that has periodic structure in both time as well as in space, but the idea of creatingone has been refined for the most part to the realm of science fiction.

Now however an international science team believes they may have come up with a way to actually build one based on an electric-field ion trap."The electric field of the ion trap holds charged particles in place and Coulomb repulsion causes them to spontaneously form a spatial ring crystal," said scientist Xiang Zhang. Imagine a clock that will keep perfect time forever, even after theheat-death of the universe. This is the "wow" factor behind a device known as a "space-time crystal. "  

View: Full article |  Source: Science Daily