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Can renewable energy make a dent in fossil fuels?

A correction was made to this story. Read below for details.

4.2 billion.

That's how many rooftops you'd have to cover with solar panels to displace a cubic mile of oil (CMO), a measure of energy consumption, according to Ripudaman Malhotra, who oversees research on fossil fuels at SRI International. The electricity captured in those hypothetical solar panels in a year (2.1 kilowatts each) would roughly equal the energy in a CMO. The world consumes a little over 1 CMO of oil a year right now and about 3 CMOs of energy from all sources.

Put … Read more

Robo-doc to perform weightless surgery

Don't book just yet--soon you'll be able to take a space cruise and get a face lift at the same time.

This month, researchers from SRI International and the University of Cincinnati will conduct the first-ever robotic surgery in simulated zero-gravity aboard a NASA C-9 aircraft flying 34,000 feet over the Gulf of Mexico, it was announced yesterday.

The C-9, aka the "Weightless Wonder," will simulate the microgravity of space and variable gravity of military critical care air transports by performing 40 parabolas per flight, each 18 to 25 seconds long.

The experiment will compare … Read more