Beer Good for the Bones : Discovery News.

YouTube – Face-Off With a Deadly Predator.

Everybody pees.

Space Shuttle Unleashes Magnificent Plume of Pee | Popular Science.

7 Awesome Acts of Nature (That Science Can’t Explain) | Cracked.com.

Modern science amazes me.

By laying a thin sheet of metal over a special layer of polymer, the team has created nanogears that assemble themselves, opening the possibility of much faster, cheaper, widespread production.

To make the gears, a thin copper sheet is laid over a heat-expanded polymer. When the polymer cools, it shrinks faster than the metal, which causes the metal to bend. When the metal bends, it creates regularly spaced teeth in the polymer, effectively making a microscopic gear. Stiffer metal that’s harder to bend creates a gear with fewer, larger teeth, while a more supple metal creates gears with smaller, more numerous teeth.

via Scientists Design Versatile Self-Assembling Nanogears | Popular Science.

Sometimes it’s good to stay inside and be pasty-white.

International cancer experts have moved tanning beds and other sources of ultraviolet radiation into the top cancer risk category, deeming them as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas.

For years, scientists have described tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation as “probable carcinogens.” A new analysis of about 20 studies concludes the risk of skin cancer jumps by 75 percent when people start using tanning beds before age 30.

via Tanning Beds as Lethal as Mustard Gas, Arsenic: Discovery News.

I could power a small town with my pee.

Urine-powered cars, homes and personal electronic devices could be available in six months with new technology developed by scientists from Ohio University.

Using a nickel-based electrode, the scientists can create large amounts of cheap hydrogen from urine that could be burned or used in fuel cells. “One cow can provide enough energy to supply hot water for 19 houses,” said Gerardine Botte, a professor at Ohio University developing the technology. “Soldiers in the field could carry their own fuel.”

via Urine: A ‘Clean’ Energy Source: Discovery News.

Could it be possible to prevent a hurricane?

Gates has applied for five patents that call for a fleet of specially equipped vessels to be deployed in a hurricane’s path—vessels that are capable of reducing the surface temperature of the ocean by mixing in colder water from greater depths. This would reduce the heat-driven condensation that fuels hurricanes.

via Bill Gates Patent Could Save Us From Another Hurricane Katrina – Bill Gates – Gizmodo.

Sweet picture. Follow the link for higher-res version.

APOD: 2009 July 13 – Erupting Volcano Anak Krakatau.

Looks like we live on the Pale Red Dot, not a blue one.

a team of astronomers from Spain and Florida who observed the Aug. 16, 2008, lunar eclipse from a simulated alien perspective and discovered that several biologically relevant molecules, such as oxygen, water, carbon dioxide and methane, show up stronger than expected in longer, redder wavelengths of light.

via ET’s Earth Appears More as Pale, Red Dot: Discovery News.