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Mar. 26th, 2009
'Spider-Man' rescues autistic Thai boy from third-floor ledge - Telegraph
An autistic child, frightened by his first day at school, manages to get onto a third floor ledge and refused to come in. The boy's mother happened to mention that the boy loved superhero comics within earshot of one of the firefighters; in particular, one who had a spiderman costume back at the station to liven up school fire drills. He returned in costume and was able to talk the boy down.
Neutron tracks revive hopes for cold fusion - physics-math - 23 March 2009 - New Scientist
Just when thought it was safe to go back to the lab... cold fusion is back again. A researcher at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command believes that the have found evidence of nuclear fusion in a palladium salt solution. The researchers discovered a small number of "triple tracks" in a plastic material used as a detector when a charge was applied to a solution of palladium chloride, lithium chloride, and deuterium oxide. Triple tracks typically indicate the presence of high-energy neutrons, such as would be produced by nuclear fusion.
Ice that burns could be a green fossil fuel - environment - 26 March 2009 - New Scientist
Scientists may have come up with a way to make extracting methane from clathrate hydrate, found in arctic permafrost and on the sea floor, carbon neutral. Clathrate hydrates "prefer" carbon dioxide, and experiments have shown that pumping carbon dioxide in clathrates releases the stored methane. The result: carbon dioxide is sequestered and we have methane for use.
SPACE.com -- NASA Might Name Toilet For Comedian Stephen Colbert
There is an as-yet-unconfirmed rumour that should "Colbert" receive the most votes, NASA would name a toilet after him, not a space station module. On March 20, Stephen Colbert amassed 230,000, beating the next favourite "Serenity". Hopefully it's a really nice toilet.