Iron. It's the material of the industrial revolution, and it's dirty stuff to make.

Researchers at MIT, however, say they have come up with a way to produce the metal without generating carbon dioxide or other pollutants. In the experimental process, an electric current is passed through a vat of liquid iron oxide, which then gets transformed into iron and oxygen.

"What sets molten oxide electrolysis apart from other metal-producing technologies is that it is totally carbon-free and hence generates no carbon dioxide gases -- only oxygen," said Lawrence W. Kavanagh, AISI vice president of manufacturing … Read more

At the IFA conference taking place in Berlin this week, Philips Research is showing off a jacket with a flexible array of LED lights. It's like having a bunch of flashlights on your back. You could use it to be seen in a snowdrift, make a fashion statement, or walk up and down a large urban sidewalk and advertise for a restaurant.

Philips is big on LEDs. An LED light bulb can last 50,000 hours, far longer than conventional sources, and be integrated into a lot of items. Plus, by integrating different colors of LEDs into an object, … Read more

GE has partnered with MTVU--MTV Networks' university-oriented offering--for the "Ecomagination Challenge," a contest in which college students are encouraged to come up with innovative ways to make their campuses more environmentally friendly. The student who comes up with the winning idea will be awarded with a $25,000 grant to set the project in motion, as well as a 2007 Earth Day concert and festival for his or her campus.

Full details of the competition won't be released until September 1st, but after that, students will have until December 1st to devise their most creative … Read more

One small step for man. One big step for single-celled organisms.

NASA will send colonies of three different microbes into space on a space shuttle launch slated for August 27. No, it's not to see if humans could one day live off of chicken salad on Jupiter. The human immune system can be weakened in zero gravity environments while microbes become more virulent, according to some studies. Better information on how microbes survive and their genetic adaptability could lead to better ways to fight diseases in space and on earth.

Researchers will study three organisms--Salmonella typhimurium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and … Read more

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have determined that doctors from ancient Greece and China were right: cool kills pain.

A paper from the university says that a small percentage of nerve cells in the human skin contain a protein, called TRPM8, that is activated by cooling chemicals applied to the skin (such a mint oil) or cool temperatures. The protein then inhibits pain messages from getting to the brain. In ancient China, doctors prescribed mint oil for localized pain. Similarly, Hippocrates advised on using cold water to soothe arthritis.

The university is working on a synthetic compound similar to … Read more

Grigory Perelman, the reclusive Russian mathematician who may have proved the elusive Poincaré Conjecture, was awarded with a 2006 Fields Medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians--and he turned it down, according to Nature.

Three other mathematicians--Princeton University's Andre Okounkov, UCLA's Terence Tao, and Wendelin Werner from France's University of Paris-Sud--were honored with this year's Fields Medal, considered by many to be mathematics' equivalent of the Nobel Prize. All three of them were present at the ceremony in Madrid to accept their awards.

According to the International Mathematical Union, a Fields Medal has never been … Read more

If you're a researcher in need of human embryonic stem cells, book a flight to the island state of Singapore.

ES Cell International has started to commercially produce four lines of human stem cells made in accordance with clinical standards. Four additional lines of stem cells should be available in a few weeks. ES claims that, to its knowledge, no other group has begun to sell stem cells to this standard to the research community yet.

Singapore has set its sights on becoming a world leader in biotechnology and medicine and it The country has put millions into Biopolis, … Read more

Since the recent U.K. terror scare, security at major airports has increased steadily. Problem is, it's hard to tell exactly what security is looking for. The threat of liquid explosives is making it hard for governments to permit passengers to bring fluids onto planes. But does airport security really want my lip gloss, perfume and hairspray?

Enter Guardian Technologies International, in Herndon, Va. According to an article by IDG News Service, the company's PinPoint image analysis software can differentiate explosive liquids from non-explosive ones using algorithms. The Travel Security Agency is considering using the technology, which hooks … Read more

Will people $100,000 to plunk down on an electric sports car? Yes, says Tesla Motors.

Tesla, which has created an all-electric sports car, has already booked deposits for its first 100 cars, according to Martin Eberhard, Tesla's CEO. The $100,000 deposits guarantee that the buyers will get the cars, which will come out next year.

"All 100 are gone," he said.

The company unveiled its Tesla Roadster on July 19 in a glitzy event in Santa Monica. At the time, around 37 people had already plunked down deposits. Many early buyers, such as Google founders … Read more