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A widespread notion is that computers, the Internet, nanotechnology, bioengineering, and so forth represent a fundamental change in human affairs. These recent inventions are sometimes hailed as a “third Industrial Revolution.” The first Industrial Revolution–roughly spanning the 1770s to 1860s–saw the development of the steam engine, steamboat, locomotive, telegraph, cotton gin and steel plow. The second Industrial Revolution–from the 1870s to the 1910s–witnessed the invention of the telephone, internal-combustion engine and electric lightbulb as well as the germ theory of disease, movies and radio....

Jan Dubuisson heads up the least-tern sanctuary for an Audubon Society chapter in Gulfport, Miss. She’s been working with the migratory birds for the past 30 years—her chapter formed to help imperiled springtime breeding colonies there in 1976. The smallish birds have an unsavory habit: they dive-bomb intruders and defecate on them as a defense. So Dubuisson is used to coming home filthy from the field. But when she returned home from her monitoring efforts about a week after the oil spill began, she saw stains on her clothes she’d never seen before....

From Ensia (find the original story here); reprinted with permission. At a recent solar energy conference in Minneapolis, attendees unwound at happy hour tasting free pints of a local honey-based India Pale Ale called “Solarama Crush.” Minnesota-based 56 Brewing makes the smooth IPA using honey from hives located on solar farms outside the Twin Cities. Honey producers Travis and Chiara Bolton keep bees at three solar farms where developers seeded native plants underneath and around panels....

Kazutaka Itako, an electrical engineer at the Kanagawa Institute of Technology in Japan, has played the guitar since he was six years old. Satoshi Itako, who has a master’s degree in electrical engineering, works as a guitar fabricator. Together the brothers have been investigating the optimal shape for guitars. Experts have settled many questions relating to the best shape for violins, but far less research has been done on guitars. The Itakos’ preliminary work, presented in May at the Acoustics 2012 conference in Hong Kong, looks at one variable: guitar depth....

For the avid coffee drinker bound to a monotonous desk job, there is a moment – perhaps two thirds of the way through a cup – when the unbearably tedious task at hand starts to look doable. Interesting, even. Suddenly, data entry is not something that merely pays the rent, it’s something you’re into. A caffeine-triggered surge of adrenaline and dopamine works to enhance your motivation, and the meaninglessness of it all fades as you are absorbed into your computer screen....

Many more than 10 events took place during 2012 that reveal how science and technology play integral roles in our lives. As a broad topic, climate change took center stage, offering many possible choices, including efforts to combat it head-on with a rogue geoengineering experiment meant to suck carbon dioxide out of the air as well as efforts to develop clean energy, such as the creation of microbes that convert seaweed into ethanol....

What to make of a Las Vegas building full of unidentified alloys? The New York Times published a stunning story Saturday (Dec. 16) revealing that the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) had, between 2007 and 2012, funded a $22 million program for investigating UFOs. The story included three revelations that were tailored to blow readers’ minds: Many high-ranking people in the federal government believe aliens have visited planet Earth. Military pilots have recorded videos of UFOs with capabilities that seem to outstrip all known human aircraft, changing direction and accelerating in ways no fighter jet or helicopter could ever accomplish....

A miniature airborne drone has helped archaeologists capture images for creating a 3-D model of an ancient burial mound in Russia, scientists say. Archaeological sites are often in remote and rugged areas. As such, it can be hard to reach and map them with the limited budgets archaeologists typically have. Scientists are now using drones to extend their view into these hard-to-reach spots. “There are a lot possibilities with this method,” said researcher Marijn Hendrickx, a geographer at the University of Ghent in Belgium....

By Quirin Schiermeier & Alexandra WitzeOn the morning of 29 September, Mase Akapo knew exactly what to do. At 6:48 a.m., on the island of Tutuila in American Samoa, he had felt the ground shake harder than he ever had before. Ten minutes later Akapo, a meteorologist, was in his office, issuing an alert for the tsunami he knew was probably on its way.Tsunami warnings are a way of life for coastal communities, but five years ago they took on a new layer of meaning....

Beginning next month, consumers will be able to check an online list of stores that sold or stocked recalled meat. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) secretary Ed Shafer said the move is designed to prevent stores from continuing to sell tainted food and, also, alert consumers who might be at risk if they shopped at certain markets. The USDA currently only discloses the manufacturer of tainted fare and the states in which it was sold....

After a weather event as extreme and record-breaking as the recent rainfall and flooding in northern Colorado, the question often arises: Was climate change to blame? Answering questions like this is part of an effort to place the consequences of climate change in terms that people understand. Two degrees of warming worldwide seems abstract, but bridge-collapsing, home-destroying, killer floods are the sorts of weather events that can bring the impact of climate change home....

Few places on Earth’s continents remain to be explored, and it is unlikely that many new natural wonders await discovery in some forgotten corner. But below the ocean surface is a different story. We know more about the facade of Mars than about the 75 percent of our own planet’s surface that lies underwater. Untold surprises await us there. One such revelation occurred in December 2000. An expedition mapping a submerged mountain known as the Atlantis Massif, midway between Bermuda and the Canary Islands and half a mile under the surface of the North Atlantic, came across a pillar of white rock as tall as a 20-story building rising from the sea­floor....

By Toni Clarke The White House announced on Wednesday measures aimed at advancing President Barack Obama’s precision medicine initiative, including plans to speed the development of tests used to identify genetic mutations and guide medical treatment. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it planned to issue a proposal on Wednesday to create performance standards to guide development of next generation sequencing (NGS) tests. These tests scan a person’s DNA and identify genetic differences that could be responsible for a patient’s symptoms....

In fact, the benefits of mobile technology are not accessible to most of the 700 million illiterate people around the world who, beyond simple use cases such as answering a phone call, cannot access functionalities as simple as contact management or text messaging. Because illiteracy tends to correlate with lack of schooling and thus the inability to speak a common world language, speech technology is not available to those who need it the most....

A malaria vaccine has become the first to provide 100% protection against the disease, confounding critics and far surpassing any other experimental malaria vaccine tested. It will now be tested further in clinical trials in Africa. “The results are important because they demonstrate for the first time the concept that a malaria vaccine can provide a high level of protection,” says Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, adding that the findings are cause for “cautious optimism”....

Stomach ulcers and other gastric wounds afflict one in eight people worldwide, but common conventional therapies have drawbacks. Now scientists aim to treat such problems by exploring a new frontier in 3-D printing: depositing living cells directly inside the human body. Just as 3-D printers set down layers of material to create structures, bioprinters extrude living cells to produce tissues and organs. A long-term dream for this concept is that people on active waiting lists for organ donations—nearly 70,000 individuals in the U....

Star Wars Science Force Trainer ($35): This toy includes a wireless headset, ping-pong ball and a clear plastic tube with a fan beneath. As you concentrate, your brain activity turns up the fan so that it blows a ping-pong ball up a tube. Yoda’s voice guides you: “Reach out with your feelings! Use The Force. Do or do not; there is no try.” Mindflex ($47): Mattel’s game is another ball-in-an-air-column setup....

Most people might think of a city such as Paris or Tokyo as a unique entity, with a character that is distinct from other metropolises. But large cities, towns and even smaller villages also share common purpose: they strive to provide a good place to live. Urban planners are trying to find a way to bring mathematical rigor to analyzing how well a city accomplishes this universal goal. Professor and theoretical physicist Luis Bettencourt teamed up with his colleagues at the Santa Fe Institute and recently published a theory that suggests cities, towns and villages are more similar than different....

Editor’s Note: Astronomers today officially announced the discovery of the exoplanet 51 Eridani b using the new Gemini Planet Imager instrument. 51 Eridani b is a young, methane-rich gas giant that is a milestone in the ongoing search for Jupiter-like worlds beyond our solar system. The team’s findings are published in the journal Science. Scientific American first reported news of the discovery in June, when the researchers disclosed the existence and details of 51 Eridani b during a public talk at a smaller scientific meeting....

Ancient and rare blue crystals from the dawn of the solar system help confirm that the newborn sun was violently active, a new study reports. Astronomers previously found that stars are typically incredibly energetic very early in their evolution. Scientists had suspected the same was true of the sun after it was born about 4.6 billion years ago. “The sun was very active in its early life—it had more eruptions and gave off a more intense stream of charged particles,” study co-author Philipp Heck, a curator at The Field Museum in Chicago, said in a statement....