News: Mars may have been too salty for life

A biologist involved with the Mars rover program proposed that life might not have formed on Mars because the water was too salty. His theory is based on the high mineral content of the soils they have examined, and that the rovers have not yet found any evidence of life.

Tech: Self-cleaning fabric

Australian researchers have developed a form of self-cleaning fabric by coating wool fabric with anatase titanium oxide which is known to destroy dirt and microorganisms when exposed to sunlight. In this photo, red wine was poured one the fabric (first column), but after 20 hours the stain had almost completely disappeared (bottom row is the treated wool fabric). They are now working to commercialize the process.