(Natural News) The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is looking to get the most value out of the vast natural gas deposits in North America. It recently provided a big federal grant to Rice researchers, who would come up with an efficient yet inexpensive way to turn methane gas into carbon nanotubes. Being an allotrope, or alternative […]

(Natural News) For the longest time, experts believed that the great Leonardo da Vinci was a southpaw. But recent research by Italian scholars indicated that while the Renaissance master was born left-handed, he eventually became ambidextrous – proficient in the use of either hand with equal skill. The announcement came from the Uffizi Gallery, located in the famous artist’s […]

(Natural News) Even as internet of things devices grow ever smaller, they continue to require more power. But most of these smart devices are too small to fit batteries and power cords might restrict them. This led Japanese researchers to refine an existing tool which could collect electromechanical energy from its surroundings. Their new energy harvester is called a micro-electronic mechanical […]

(Natural News) Bees are not the only pollinating insects in danger of disappearing from the face of the Earth. The population of monarch butterflies in California has dwindled to alarming levels after the destruction of so much of their natural habitat. A recent study by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation warns that the number of […]

(Natural News) In a case of fighting fire with fire, Missouri-based researchers used a type of bacteria to produce the active material for making the membrane of a water filter. When exposed to light, the material released heat that killed harmful bacteria, thereby preventing the biological fouling of the filter. In response to the increasing strain […]

(Natural News) Researchers have known that certain animals adapt to environmental stress by altering their entire body to a form more suitable for the situation. They identified a protein in a species of roundworm that triggers this physiological remodeling. The stress-activated protein has analogues in the human body that are associated with diseases, such as metastatic cancer. […]

(Natural News) Recycling is all well and good. But there should be a logical limit as to which waste products should be reused and how they are going to be recycled. For example, turning biosolids into bricks sounds good on paper, but people may not be so eager about building their homes out of solidified sewage. “Biosolids” is the euphemistic term for the leftover sewage […]

(Natural News) Experts spoke out against the ongoing attempts to raise and farm octopus on a commercial scale. They said that domesticating the delicious but vulnerable cephalophod will not only be cruel to the animals, but will also be even more unsustainable than most aquatic farming. “We are all living during the rapid domestication of aquatic species and research […]

(Natural News) When it comes to milk, you generally have two choices: You can get fresh milk and consume it quickly before it goes bad, or you could get UHT milk that can stay on the shelf unopened for months on end and accept the compromise in flavor and potential digestion problems this option brings. […]

(Natural News) A newly developed antimony-carbon composite could solve the problems that beset potassium-ion battery (PIB) technology. An anode made from this material increased the amount of energy that could be stored inside the PIB unit. At the same time, it would degrade at a slower rate with every use, allowing it to last much […]