A 16-year-old high school student has invented a new way of producing electricity by harnessing the brawny power of bacteria.
Kartik Madiraju, an 11th-grader from Montreal, was able to generate about half the voltage of a normal AA battery with a fifth of an ounce of naturally occurring magnetic bacteria. And the bacteria kept pumping current for 48 hours nonstop.
Jesse Leimkuehler sends a link to another amazing image from space--this time, near Saturn. Here's an excerpt from the image description:
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 28, 2006, at a distance of approximately 667,000 kilometers (415,000 miles) from Epimetheus and 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Titan.
It's mind-blowing, and you can see it here.
Brian Witte sends a link to a story about a new use for radio collars--tracking dragonfly migration. Here's an excerpt (full story here):
Scientists have discovered that migrating dragonflies and songbirds exhibit many of the same behaviors, suggesting the rules that govern such long-distance travel may be simpler and more ancient than was once thought.
The research, published in the May 11 Biology Letters, is based on data generated by tracking 14 green darner dragonflies with radio transmitters weighing only 300 milligrams -- about a third as much as a paper clip. Green darners are among the 25 to 50 species of dragonflies thought to be migratory among about 5200 species worldwide.
Finally, not quite a science link--more of a badass alert. From MSNBC:
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A New Zealand mountain climber who lost both his legs to frostbite has become the first double amputee to conquer Mount Everest, despite breaking one of his artificial limbs during the ascent.
...The amputee, Mark Inglis, 47, called his wife, Anne, on Monday night to tell her he was standing on the summit of the 29,035-foot peak, the world’s highest mountain, the New Zealand Herald reported.
The picture attached to the article is amazing.