Biotechnology

What is the smallest set of things that we need in a modern consumer society? ON SOCIAL media site Instagram, thousands of people in the US post photos with the hashtag #edc, meaning "everyday carry". These show the tools, weapons and accoutrements that they haul around day in, day out. Men also show off the contents of their pockets through #pocketdump (currently 17,900 photos), whereas women tend to favour #whatsinmybag (25,450 photos). The core stuff is remarkably similar for both groups. Those possessions we keep closest on a daily basis have a special practicality, concreteness, intimacy and symbolic importance. As the tool-making species, we are what we carry. And what we carry might offer a guide to what we really need, stripped of the clutter of overconsumption. For an evolutionary psychologist like me it is natural to wonder if we can link our everyday stuff to that of our distant ... To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscie...

10:26 05 March 2014 There is science in this beauty. All the entries in this annual photography competition were taken by engineers from the University of Cambridge as they worked. The winning photo, which looks like a disco sun, captures laser light diffraction. A selection of entries will be on display from 10 March as part of the Cambridge Science Festival. Sandrine Ceurstemont Image 1 of 7 Winner: Diffraction sun First prize went to this image of a laser shining on a liquid crystal spatial light modulator. The diffraction of the light creates this psychedelic pattern. PhD student Ananta Palani uses a similar set-up in his research designing a microscope that can magnify tiny, fast-moving objects. This could allow us to see a virus infecting a cell, which is difficult to observe using existing technology. (Image: Ananta Palani/Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge)

Why mine for metals when we can cultivate them? (Image: Pierluigi Longo) Plants that absorb metals from the soil could clean up old mines and allow farmers to harvest valuable resources without ruining the environment still more ALAN BAKER squatted to get a closer look at the delicate white flowers that shouldn't have been there. He knew that the soil in that part of England's Peak District was laced with metals toxic to most plants. Yet here, in the desolate surroundings of an old lead mine, he had found spring sandwort flourishing. That was 45 years ago and the flowers that Baker spotted on his hike have guided his career as a plant scientist. Over the years, he and his colleagues have shown how some plants can take up certain metals in such large quantities that it is possible to "grow" a crop of metals. The idea ... To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

Merely going unseen won't silence your footsteps or neutralise your body heat. Now researchers are working on true stealth The most cunning paint job may be no use as camouflage. It won't do much to hide you from the prying eye of a thermal camera, or silence an inadvertent sneeze. Even something as subtle as a shadow can give your presence away. To win in the ultimate game of hide-and-seek, what you need is an invisibility cloak that goes way beyond simply not being visible. That might seem a tall order, yet researchers are racing to perfect the technology. So could their devices make you disappear completely? This is where the future of concealment begins to look hazy. An invisible man needs to be more than just unseen (Image: Paul Reed/Associated Newspapers/Rex) First, consider what it would take to make you vanish. If you could wear something that ... To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive...

MORE than 100 million people around the world are exposed to dangerous levels of arsenic, which is found naturally in groundwater but has no obvious taste or odour. Its effects build up over time, slowly poisoning the body and leading to serious problems like heart disease, cancer and reproductive issues. Now a project aims to filter it out of drinking water â€" and lock it up in the concrete of new buildings. A team at the University of California, Berkeley, is planning a trial to filter 10,000 litres of water every day in rural sites across India. Susan Amrose and her team have designed a container that can hold 600 litres of water pumped in directly from a nearby well. Inside, it is fitted with a series of steel plates. A small voltage runs through the plates, making them rust more quickly. Arsenic binds to the rust as it forms and falls to the bottom of tank, where it is collected as rusty sludge. The treated water is then pumped out. The ...

FORMULA 1 motor racing is hardly a hotbed of green activism. But if anyone knows a thing or two about squeezing the maximum amount of kinetic energy out of a litre of fuel, it is a Formula 1 engineer. Now the sport's governing body has decided to put this expertise to good use. As of this weekend, Formula 1 cars will be limited to Ford Focus-sized engines, concentrating brilliant minds on fuel efficiency issues likely to be relevant to the real world of family cars (see "7 tricks to keep F1 cars fast and fuel-efficient"). The motives are not entirely altruistic: mainstream engine-makers have drifted away from Formula 1, claiming that its challenges are "irrelevant" to their core business. Formula 1 needs them back. But that is no reason to sneer. To meet the grand challenges of the 21st century, environmental concerns need to break out of their ghetto. If Formula 1 gets petrolheads fired up about fuel efficiency, so much the...

Hear that? Acoustic sensors that detect soil movement in slopes prior to landslides may, in future, provide early warnings. This could help to avoid tragedies like the Washington mudslide on 22 March. Heavy rainfall almost certainly triggered the slide, which was the largest in the US for a decade and buried the town of Oso in Washington state. By Tuesday, 14 people were confirmed dead, with 176 unaccounted for. Smothering an area of around 2.5 square kilometres, the 1.3-kilometre-wide slide occurred at 10.45 am local time on Saturday 22 March, leaving much of the town covered in a layer of mud and debris up to 12 metres thick. The material descended from a steep, tree-covered slope overlooking the town. Landslide experts viewing photos and footage of the disaster speculate that month-long heavy rains, which ceased a few days before the slide, were probably to blame. Dave Petley, a geologist and authority on landslides a...