Taking a flash-lit snapshot of carbon nanotubes makes them emit a loud pop and burst into flame [New Scientist]

I love nanotubes. this is just too cool.

The biodegradable stitches are tied loosely and then tighten up automatically as the body warms them [New Scientist]

A great use of "memory" materials. My only concers is that when the bits that keep the insertedpiece in it's "open" position dissolve, that they break down completely, eliminating the chance of causing a clot ineither a lung or the brain.

Why? The proof of concept already exists, and it's called your local public library.

Counterpoint by RG: My local library does not bill me on a question by question basis.

You know, librarians are trained to do something called the "reference interview" in order to determine what a patron is truly looking for (not necessarily what they are asking for). We have studies, papers, conference sessions, trade articles, continuing education training, and more, all devoted to this topic. You simply can't beat us at this. When ALA says that "librarians are the ultimate search engine," they're not kidding. It's not a joke.

Why aren't you contacting your local public library instead of Google? That's an honest question - I really want to know.

The Shifted Librarian has some good points about the Google Answers program, and perhaps I didn't explain what led me to the idea of what was termed the "Djini Program" as well as I should have. I expounded on that a good bit in the comment I made on her page, which is pasted below:

You are correct from the perspective of a librarian as a fact checker/expert researcher, I was looking at this in terms of expert help on demand. Example from what spawned the idea: "I need to serve a two to five minute audio message from our CEO to people who are working remotely via a dial up (33.6) connection. They need ot be able to get the message in a high fidelity format that won't tie up either our servers or their phone lines for too long. Voice mail is not an option. What's the best solution?"

Rather than have me sit and wade through the all the options that existed back in 1999 when the issue came up, at my billing rate, a better way would be for me to throw it into such an expert based search, and let them mull it over, for a reasonable fee. (Reasonable to be defined later)
I use Google because it sits on my desktop, is always there, always on, and with some tweaking to my search criteria (combined with some research sites that I have in my reference folder) I can find out just about anything.

No disrespect to Librarians, but it's a lot faster than my calling or going to the library, plus I learn more by having to narrow down the search myself (and therefore doing my own search interview.)

This forces me to think about what it is I really want to know before I start searching.

Google has just introduced a new service, called Google Answers. At the moment it is in beta, but has already attracted a fairly large userbase. It works like this: you submit your question to Google, and pay a 50c listing fee, and then you put a value on how much you think it is worth (between $4 and $50). Dedicated researchers can then try to answer the question and earn the cash (though Google takes a 25% cut). The user interface needs a bit of work, but that hasn't stopped me from being addicted to reading through the questions and answers. [kuro5hin.org]

This is amazing. I had suggested a similar system back in 2000 when I was working for Aquent Partners as a means of generating additional revenue for the experts that they had working for them at the time, as well as a means of getting good press for their talent, to show that they had skilled folks. It was shot down as a non starter. Reason given: Revenue model was to hard to set up, combined with people reneging on agreed upon terms.

I sincerely hope Google makes this work, just as a proof of concept.

Researchers reveal details, saying the eyes work well after transplantation and even when the fry become frogs [New Scientist]

Eye doctor: Does this look better, or this?
Frog: Ribbit.
Doctor: Good!

Serioously though, while this is exciting news on the surface, their work has not been peer reviewed yet, or even published for that matter. Time will tell.

A Soyuz rocket carrying three people, including space tourist Mark Shuttleworth, lifted off early Thursday... [spacetoday.net]

A single portion could contain many times the WHO's recommended daily limit for acrylamide [New Scientist]

If this were true I would have died long, long ago. More research please.

[Macro error: ]

Ongoing violence in the Middle East prompted the postponement of a week's worth of public festivities, but Bibliotheca Alexandrina opens its doors to history anyway. By Mark K. Anderson. [Wired News]

Great idea, I hope this one lasts, and more interesting to me anyway is the Internet Archive, and their AMICI CURIAE brief they filed with the Supreme Court about copyright issues. More specifically, the points they make against jack Valenti's arguements about copyright issues.

The push is on to make plastics that, when thrown away, gently become part of the Earth. Part of that push is to make sure the stuff doesn't cost any more than what's out there now. Stewart Taggart reports from Sydney, Australia. [Wired News]

I look forward to the advent of RF tags as a means of stopping thieves (It's not Loss prevention, it's theft) as it will allow for smaller packaging and help stop shoplifters.

New inkjet printers offer the ability to make glossy, poster-size pictures at home. Is it time to rush out and buy a high-resolution digital camera? By David Pogue. [New York Times: Technology]

Also see this article in Byte about photo printers for some additional color printer reviews.

propitious [Dictionary.com Word of the Day]

Whoa. This Newsday article indicates that the "impossible" may be happening: old, depleted oil fields are refilling with more oil. [kuro5hin.org]

"No one has been more astonished by the potential implications of our work than myself,” said analytic chemist Jean Whelan, at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in Massachusetts. "There already appears to be a large body of evidence consistent with ... oil and gas generation and migration on very short time scales in many areas globally,” she wrote in the journal Sea Technology.

Interesting if this is a useable form of petroleum. More interesting is this:

"The clams were the first thing I noticed,” he added. "They were pretty big, like the size of your hand, and it was obvious they had red blood inside, which is unusual. And these long tubes -- 3, 4 and 5 feet long -- we didn't know what they were, but they started bleeding red fluid, too. We didn't know what to make of it.”

The biologists they consulted did know what to make of it. "The experts immediately recognized them as chemo-synthetic communities,” creatures that get their energy from hydrocarbons -- oil and gas -- rather than from ordinary foods. So these animals are very much like, but still different from, recently discovered creatures living near very hot seafloor vent sites in the Pacific, Atlantic and other oceans.

The difference, Kennicutt said, is that the animals living around cold seeps live on methane and oil, while the creatures growing near hot water vents exploit sulfur compounds in the hot water.

Riffage: That's either some serious adaptation going on there, or else there are whole ecosystems living in and near these fields that we've never seen. If there are creatures that burn hydrocarbons for their metabolism, what is their waste product? Could we use them to clean up oil spills? Can we embed them in the soil surrounding gas stations in the hopes that they'll eat up any leaked gasoline? What about using them to clean up superfund sites, if we can get them into the area?