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Philadelphia’s mass transit system used more than 500,000 megawatt-hours (pdf) of electricity in 2011, equivalent to the annual consumption of around 46,000 average U.S. homes. A lot of the electricity went into the city’s two subway lines, but the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, or SEPTA, is now taking innovative steps to try to conserve some of that energy. It has combined a technology called regenerative braking with electricity storage, and other cities are starting to follow suit....

Given the amount of mobile phone traffic that cell phone towers transmit, it is no wonder law enforcement agencies target these devices as a rich source of data to aid their investigations. Standard procedure involves getting a court order to obtain phone records from a wireless carrier. When authorities cannot or do not want to go that route, they can set up a simulated cell phone tower—often called a stingray—that surreptitiously gathers information from the suspects in question as well as any other mobile device in the area....

By Geoff BrumfielIt’s a natural fact that opposites attract – or so scientists thought. But a new study of fluid droplets shows that opposites can sometimes bounce right off one another. The results may seem esoteric, but they could have big implications for everything from oil refining to microfluidic ’lab-on-a-chip’ technologies.The work, published today in Nature, began as a laboratory accident. William Ristenpart, a chemical engineer at the University of California at Davis, was studying how the shape of a water column in oil changed as it was drawn towards an electrically charged plate....

A population of chinstrap penguins is feeling the heat, with more than one-third of a breeding colony lost in the past 20 years, new research finds. A warming planet, which is causing sea ice in Antarctica (and elsewhere) to melt, may ultimately be to blame for the plummeting penguin population, the researchers said. That’s because the chinstraps’ main food, shrimplike creatures called krill, depend on algae that attaches to that ice....

I was born and raised in the cold, landlocked prairies of Canada, but I still managed to be a pretty avid swimmer for my entire life. You might say that I am truly a fish out of water—unless you count the numerous slews and frozen ponds of Alberta as bodies of water. In any case, I am grateful to my parents for having allowed me to be a bit of a pool rat as a child....

For decades researchers have tried to wrest testable predictions from string theory, the leading candidate for a more fundamental understanding of the universe. Now physicists say they have used one of the most sophisticated pieces of string theory to predict properties of the ultradense matter created in an atom smasher in Long Island, N.Y. If confirmed, however, the prediction would not offer evidence for string theory, which requires the existence of extra dimensions of space full of higher-dimensional stringlike objects and other widgets....

By Ellen Wulfhorst(Reuters) - More than 500 passengers spent the night on board Amtrak trains in northwestern Illinois, stranded due to the harsh winter weather, the U.S. passenger railroad said on Tuesday.Three Chicago-bound trains came to a halt after running into impassable snow and ice on Monday afternoon, said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.The trains were the Southwest Chief from Los Angeles, the Illinois Zephyr from Quincy and the California Zephyr from the San Francisco area, he said....

Medicine has not always shown a lot of respect for the human body. Just think about the ghoulish disregard early surgeons had for our corporeal integrity. They poked holes in the skull and copiously drained blood with leeches or lancets—a practice that remained a medical mainstay through the late 19th century. Even today many of the most popular surgeries involve the wholesale removal of body parts—the appendix, gallbladder, tonsils, uterus (usually after the childbearing years)—with an assurance that patients will do just fine without them....

A study of investment managers and traders at a major international bank suggests that the financial industry’s culture encourages dishonest behavior, but that the individuals themselves are not inherently dishonest. The reputation of the financial sector has taken a bashing in the wake of the 2008 global financial meltdown, and after scandals involving the manipulation of interest rates, fraudulent deals and rogue traders losing billions of dollars. Now, a team of economists at the University of Zurich in Switzerland has found that when bankers think about their jobs, they are more likely to lie — evidence that banking culture encourages dishonest behaviour....

The U.S. patent system is a popular target. Recently we have heard that big portfolios of large companies pose a threat to small inventors, “patent trolls” who exist solely to sue real companies have hijacked the marketplace for new ideas and colossal lawsuits prove that America’s patent system is broken. The patent system is indeed in the midst of a challenge. Software technology gives us the GPS in our mobile devices, CT scans that provide early health diagnostics, and other wonders, but circumscribing such technologies in a patent is difficult....

Clouds come in countless shapes, from fluffy cotton candy to wispy lines that streak across the sky, but they are all formed from one simple ingredient—water vapor. In an experiment conducted September 19, scientists created the first artificial, high-atmosphere noctilucent cloud. But rather than water, the cloud formed from dust particles spewed out of a rocket. The project, led by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C., focused on fabricating a noctilucent cloud, or one that floats at an altitude of 80 to 100 kilometers in the mesosphere (a layer of the atmosphere starting at about 50 kilometers above the surface)....

The pharmaceutical firm Merck announced last week that an antiviral pill it’s developing can cut hospitalizations and deaths among people with COVID-19 by half. The results haven’t yet been peer reviewed. But if the drug candidate, molnupiravir, is authorized by regulators, it would be the first oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19. By contrast, the other currently authorized drugs must be delivered intravenously or injected. A pill could make treating patients earlier on in their infection much easier—and more effective....

Humans are responsible for some of the wobble in Earth’s spin. Since 1899, the Earth’s axis of spin has shifted about 34 feet (10.5 meters). Now, research quantifies the reasons why and finds that a third is due to melting ice and rising sea levels, particularly in Greenland—placing the blame on the doorstep of anthropogenic climate change. Another third of the wobble is due to land masses expanding upward as the glaciers retreat and lighten their load....

The Autistic Brain: Thinking across the Spectrum Temple Grandin Richard Panek Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013 ($28)When Grandin, best-selling author and autism activist, began giving lectures on the disorder in the 1980s, it wasn’t difficult to spot the audience members with autism because they were mostly on the severe end of the spectrum. Today, however, her audiences are filled with shy kids and those she calls “Steve Jobs, Jrs.” The shift is indicative of the increasing visibility and broadening definition of autism spectrum disorders, which, by the latest estimate, affect one in 88 children....

The probable cause of Kawasaki disease — a mysterious and sometimes deadly childhood heart disease that has stumped generations of doctors and that predominantly affects people in Japan, Hawaii and Southern California — may have been found. The answer, it seems, is quite literally blowing in the wind — a wind originating in the farmlands of northeastern China carrying a fungus known as Candida, a type of yeast. When inhaled, Candida can trigger a severe immune response in some children, inflaming blood vessels and causing permanent heart damage....

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Two days after announcing his resignation from the chairmanship of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory Jaczko took the podium before an assembly of industry representatives to detail his vision of the future. “I don’t intend this to be my last speech,” he told the crowd of physicists and CEOs, guests at the Nuclear Energy Institute’s annual Nuclear Energy Assembly. However, given his recent change of circumstances, he said, “I do intend it to be more forward-looking than some other speeches I’ve given....

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7 of the Special Report. EAST ST LOUIS, Ill – On a clear spring day, the four-year-olds laughed as they ran out on the playground at the start of morning recess. Within minutes, one boy stopped, a terrified look on his face. Brenda Crisp and her staff immediately realized what was happening: Asthma attack. “He escalated from zero symptoms to a severe attack in no time at all,” said Crisp, director of the Uni-Pres Kindercottage daycare center....

She was having trouble getting a full breath. That was the first thing. The day before, Autumn Carver, seven months pregnant with her third child, had enjoyed a CrossFit class. Now a simple cough was compounded by the breathing issues, which rapidly worsened. It wasn’t long before her husband, Zach Carver, took Autumn to Community Hospital South in the couple’s hometown of Indianapolis and then began a series of heartbreaking Facebook updates....

Why Cellular Towers in Developing Nations Are Making the Move to Solar Power Renewable energy is beginning to replace diesel in cell-phone networks Apple To Run Its Data Centers On 100% Renewable Energy The company has often been charged with not having a strong enough concern for the environment, but it seems to be switching gears when it comes to its energy policy. Secrets of Fracking Fluids Pave Way for Cleaner Recipe...

There may actually have been three Sputnik moments. The Soviet Union’s Oct. 4, 1957, launch of the first-ever artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, created quite a stir, to be sure. It did kick off the space age, after all. But Americans’ concerns about the technological capabilities of their own nation relative to those of the USSR didn’t fully bloom until two months later, after the Soviets had launched a dog to space and the United States’ first attempt to loft a satellite had failed spectacularly, said former NASA Chief Historian Roger Launius....