Oct 19 Watch In Brazil’s Slums, Economic Inequality Tackled With Technology Rio de Janeiro's gleaming skyline befits a world economic power, but it is not far from violent, impoverished slums. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on one man's efforts to tackle Brazil's wealth inequality by providing poor people access… Continue watching
Oct 18 Watch How Bright Is Solar Power’s Future in a Post-Solyndra America? After the Obama administration-embraced solar-panel company Solyndra collapsed and defaulted on its government-backed loans, the surging U.S. solar industry is suddenly worried that the subsidies it receives -- tax credits and loans guarantees -- could dry up in the face… Continue watching
Oct 18 Scientists Turn Ph.D. Research Into Dance Update: October 21, 4:30 pm ET| The 2011 Dance Your PhD awards have been announced. The grand prize goes to Joel Miller, a biomedical engineer at the University of Western Australia in Perth. Winners can be found here. In… Continue reading
Oct 17 Watch FCC’s Genachowski: New Alerts Aim to Limit ‘Bill Shock’ for Wireless Users Most cell phone users purchase a plan with limits on how long they can talk, text or browse the Web each month, but it can be tough to track usage. Ray Suarez discusses new consumer-friendly rules for wireless companies to… Continue watching
Oct 17 Lost Ladybug Spotted On Long Island Farm After it had gone missing for decades in New York state, the nine-spotted ladybug was found in Long Island. Photo by AP/Cornell University, Ellen Woods. Once so ubiquitous it was named New York's official state insect, the nine-spotted Ladybug… Continue reading
Oct 14 Brain-Powered Technology May Help Locked-In Patients An estimated 50,000 people have a condition called locked-in syndrome, marked by normal brain cognition paired with paralysis so severe that they often can't speak. Such conditions can result from an injury or from Lou Gehrig's disease. Continue reading
Oct 13 Watch Reconstructing Black Death: Why Was Plague Microbe so Deadly? Researchers announced Wednesday that they've managed to reconstruct the genome of the Black Death, the illness that wiped out around half of Europe's population in just a few years in the mid-1300s. Ray Suarez discusses the developments with geneticist Hendrick… Continue watching
Oct 13 Black Death’s DNA Decoded Using Teeth From London’s ‘Plague Pits’ Illustration of the Black Death from the Toggenburg Bible An international consortium of researchers announced this week that they've managed to reconstruct the genome of Black Death -- the "great-grandmother" of modern plagues and the same illness that wiped… Continue reading
Oct 13 Ancient Paint Studio Unearthed The abalone shell before excavation from the 100,000 year old, Middle Stone Age-levels at the Blombos Cave in South Africa. Photo by Science/AAAS. Researchers have unearthed two abalone shells from a South African cave that they believe were used… Continue reading
Oct 12 Why Do Leaves Change Color? By Jenny Marder Photo by Flickr user Tom Olliver. Not long after ad marketing turns from waterparks and beach getaways to maple spice lattes and pumpkin facials, fall colors begin to announce the arrival of autumn -- and some years, more loudly… Continue reading