WASHINGTON (Reuters) - By crushing a widely used semiconductor into nanoparticles, researchers said on Thursday they have created a compound that could lead to cleaner, more efficient refrigerators, solar power plants and other devices.

The crushed material makes it possible to conduct electricity without conducting so much heat, solving a problem that has baffled engineers for 50 years.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sexual reproduction may be nearly as old as animal life itself, according to researchers who discovered a new species of organism that lived 540 million years ago.

The tube-like creatures called Funisia dorothea anchored themselves in abundant flocks onto the shallow, sandy seabed of what is now the Australian outback.

As sport utility vehicles (SUVs) become increasingly unpopular in Europe and the United States, the gas-guzzling wagons are capturing the attention of an expanding class of Chinese consumers: the new rich. The rapid increase in SUV sales in China is the result of a strong push by international automakers to capitalize on the huge Chinese market, using captivating ads to stimulate an individualistic SUV culture. This trend, if left unchecked, will likely only compound the already serious air-quality problems in a country beleaguered by mounting urban air pollution.

Power outages are always a scary adventure. I was channel surfing (vegging out after a 10-day visit with mom, the original Energizer bunny) and Ellen was featuring this desk lamp on her show — doling out a lamp to all audience members. It got me thinking how useful this LED product could be if I were to find myself without power and in the dark for an extended period of time.

In the 1970s they were called “new and renewable energies” a grouping that allowed energy planners to lump nuclear energy (relatively new) in with hydro, solar, wind and biomass. A WBCSD Learning by Sharing session at our October meeting in Brussels focused on new and renewable energies in Europe and some of the barriers to realizing the high official hopes for them there.

Heather Klein crisscrosses the campus of Rowan University, from the College of Engineering to the townhouses, the dining hall to the Rec Center, on a blue Huffy 26-inch beach cruiser bicycle.

She’s hoping a clone of the bike, picked up at the K-Mart in Glassboro for about a hundred bucks, may some day make the difference in the lives of people living half a world away.

The ubiquity of tiny particles of minerals--mineral nanoparticles--in oceans and rivers, atmosphere and soils, and in living cells are providing scientists with new ways of understanding Earth's workings. Our planet's physical, chemical, and biological processes are influenced or driven by the properties of these minerals.

So states a team of researchers from seven universities in a paper published in this week's issue of the journal Science: "Nanominerals, Mineral Nanoparticles, and Earth Systems."

Israel informed Lockheed Martin Corp, the U.S. defense
contractor that manufactures the F-16, that formaldehyde
residues were leaking into the cockpit, the military said in a
statement.