Science

BBC News: 'Magnetic electricity' discovered. Researchers have discovered a magnetic equivalent to electricity: single magnetic charges that can behave and interact like electrical ones. The work is the first to make use of the magnetic monopoles that exist in special crystals known as spin ice. Writing in Nature

Wired: Power your car with pee A scientist at Ohio University has developed a catalyst capable of extracting hydrogen from urine. That’s right. Urine. Now you can fill one tank while draining another. Gerardine Botte claims the device uses significantly less energy than is needed to extract hydrogen from

There have been four flu pandemics so far, named for their country of origin: * 1889 Russian flu, estimated one million deaths, possible H3 strain * 1918 Spanish flu, estimated 20 to 100 million deaths, H1N1 strain * 1957 Asian flu, estimated one million deaths, H2N2 strain * 1968 Hong Kong flu, estimated one

BBC News: Big brood of rotund rare parrots.  The New Zealand kakapo are breeding! One of the world's rarest birds, New Zealand's kakapo, is now not quite so rare thanks to the arrival of 34 kakapo chicks.  Those chicks, born over the past few months, take

BBC News: Giant laser experiment powers up. The US has finished constructing a huge physics experiment aimed at recreating conditions at the heart of our Sun.  The US National Ignition Facility is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear fusion, a process that could offer abundant clean energy.  The lab

BBC News: How to build a star on Earth. Nuclear fusion is nature's power source. From the Sun to the most distant stars, the energy that lights up the Universe is released by sticking hydrogen nuclei together to make helium. Since hydrogen is the most abundant element in