From Daily Tech

"They're promiscuous little bastards" -- Professor John Paul on bacteria's use of gene-transfer agents

Chemical, geological, and genetic evidence points to life originating on Earth 3.5 to 3.8 billion years ago (BYA).  

At the time the Earth was less than a billion years old and was quite a hostile place to live.  One key effort to understanding how nature created life is to explain how life survived such a hostile environment.  Recent studies suggest that RNA-based lifeforms may have preceded DNA-based lifeforms.

From Ars Technica

Physics Nobel honors the creative use of adhesive tape

"When I got the telephone call, I thought, 'oh shit!'" That call came from Sweden and it was intended to inform its recipient, Andre Geim, that he and his former grad student, Konstantin Novoselov, had won this year's Nobel Prize in Physics. The pair were honored for helping develop a simple technique that allowed the isolation of graphene, a sheet of carbon a single atom thick. Graphene has some unusual properties: it's nearly transparent; by volume, it's stronger than steel; and it conducts heat and electricity better than copper. These properties have gotten the materials science community very excited, and set off a race to produce it in bulk.

From Daily Tech

Nation now has 5 GW of installed wind capacity, enough to provide 4 percent of its power needs

In the United Kingdom today, excitement was afoot as the world's largest wind power installation went online.  The 300 MW farm was constructed by Swedish alternative energy firm Vattenfall AB.  It is located on the North Sea, on the east face of the island, approximately 2 hours east of the capital city of London.

A sign that reads 'THIS RIDE MAY KILL YOU' looms in the background as the Madagascar Institute demonstrates its 'Jet Ponies' ride at World Maker Faire.


QUEENS, N.Y.--Under the shadow of the Cold War-era Titan II and Atlas rockets set up outside the New York Hall of Science, this weekend's World Maker Faire extravaganza was, more than anything, a tribute to the more colorful fringes of hands-on innovation, science, and engineering. And the "makers" who populated its tents and booths wanted nothing more than to get the thousands of children in attendance interested in physics, engineering, biology, and even metalwork.

From ARS Technica

There are a lot of ideas on how to limit emissions of CO2 in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and ocean acidification. But most of those focus on future infrastructure and equipment; in the meantime, we have a large portfolio of power plants and vehicles that will continue to emit for as long as we use them, and we're unlikely to stop doing so. Just how significant are the carbon emissions that we've committed to? A study that will be released by Science today indicates that we're not in terrible shape yet, as we haven't built the hardware that could cause the most significant shifts in the climate.