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Ever scraped ice from your car windows until your hands were stiff, cold and raw red? Or missed an appointment because it took so long for your window defroster to thaw through your ice-entombed windshield? Or had your lights, cable TV or telephone black out—and stay out for days—because an ice storm downed power lines? Good news: a group of researchers has developed technology designed to electronically zap ice off surfaces within in seconds....

Environmentalists scored a victory in the New Hampshire governor’s race last night but lost one of the biggest state energy fights of the year over a renewable ballot proposal in Michigan. Meanwhile, the governor’s race in Washington – which could determine the status of proposed Northwestern coal ports and renewable policies – remained too close to call as of press time. In New Hampshire’s gubernatorial contest, Democrat Maggie Hassan defeated Republican Ovide Lamatogne with more than 54 percent of the vote....

WHAT IS ART? Probably as many definitions exist as do artists and art critics. Art is clearly an expression of our aesthetic response to beauty. But the word has so many connotations that it is best—from a scientific point of view—to confine ourselves to the neurology of aesthetics. Aesthetic response varies from culture to culture. The sharp bouquet of Marmite is avidly sought after by the English but repulsive to most Americans....

For decades anatomy textbooks taught that the two most complicated systems in the body—the brain and the immune system— existed in almost complete isolation from each other. By all accounts, the brain focused on the business of operating the body, and the immune system focused on defending it. In healthy individuals, the twain never met. Only in certain cases of disease or trauma did cells from the immune system enter the brain, and when they did so, it was to attack....

From Quanta Magazine (find original story here). As the annual flu season approaches, medical professionals are again encouraging people to get flu shots. Perhaps you are among those who rationalize skipping the shot on the grounds that “I never get the flu” or “if I get sick, I get sick” or “I’m healthy, so I’ll get over it.” What you might not realize is that these vaccination campaigns for flu and other diseases are about much more than your health....

Researchers announced this week that they are perfecting a procedure designed to turn pollution into a type of plastic used to make everything from DVDs to eyeglass lenses. The effort is being touted as a way to capture and use climate change–causing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from coal-fired power plants and other sources instead of releasing it into the atmosphere or burying it underground. “One is producing a material from CO2 instead of just discarding it,” chemist Thomas Müller of the Center for Catalysis Research at RWTH Aachen University in Germany said yesterday at a press conference at the semiannual meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans....

Good-bye, Laundry Talk of clothing that keeps itself clean, or that at least does not need conventional washing, has percolated for decades. Manufacturers have expressed interest in the technologies underlying such garments, but so far the only advance available commercially is clothing treated with nanoparticles that change the natural characteristics of the fabric to keep stains from soaking into it. That makes dirt easier to wash away. The technology, created by textile company Nano-Tex in 2001, appears in clothing today by retailers Eddie Bauer, Gap and Hugo Boss, to name a few....

Karen Harpp, assistant professor of geology at Colgate University, provides this explanation: IMAGE: COURTESY ROBERT OTTOA GEYSER IN ACTION. Located in Calistoga, Calif., this geyser also goes by the name Old Faithful. Imagine yourself exploring a desolate, rocky region in Iceland or Yellowstone National Park, minding your own business and admiring the volcanic formations around you. The ground is relatively flat but covered in mounds of yellow and white material with a vague but distinctive smell of rotten eggs....

One in four people will suffer from mental illness at some point in their lifetimes, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Yet often these individuals conceal their difficulties from friends, co-workers, family health professionals and others who could offer help. When the New York City chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI–NYC) decided to investigate this phenomenon, they found that fear of being stigmatized—resulting in part from beliefs that individuals with mental illness are unpredictable or dangerous—was keeping many people silent....

For decades public health officials thought the Zika virus caused only relatively mild illnesses in people. Since the start of an outbreak in Brazil in 2015, however, it has become horribly clear that the virus can pass from pregnant women to their fetuses, with devastating consequences. The virus kills some of the unborn children and leaves others with severe brain damage, including smaller than normal heads (a condition called microcephaly). How the virus reaches the fetus is a mystery because to get there, it must cross the placenta, a pancake-shaped organ that connects the developing infant to the mother and that manages to block transmission of other closely related mosquito-borne viruses, such as dengue and yellow fever, from mother to baby....

With its sweet and loving disposition, combined with silky fur and elegantly droopy ears, the Cavalier King Charles spaniel is a popular breed—with families paying hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars per puppy. Unfortunately, though, it is almost certain that their pet will also come with genetic disorders. By age five, for example, half of all Cavaliers will develop mitral valve disease, a serious heart condition that leaves the dogs susceptible to premature death....

One hundred years ago today the South Pole was reached by a party of Norwegian explorers under the command of Roald Amundsen. The existence of the pole had been known, but the inhospitable landscape presented a barrier until Amundsen’s party made the dangerous trek across ice and snow to stand at the geographical South Pole on this day a century ago. One of Amundsen’s competitors, Robert Falcon Scott and his party, achieved a different kind of fame: they arrived on January 17, 1912 to find they were second in the race to fame, and they perished on their way back north....

Several US agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Energy (DOE), will see a significant influx of cash from a massive climate and tax bill that US President Joe Biden signed on 16 August. Scientists around the world welcome the legislation, called the Inflation Reduction Act, which pledges US$369 billion in climate investments over the next decade — while acknowledging that more work is needed to counter global warming....

Physicians typically prescribe a seven- to 10-day antibiotic regimen for pneumonia. A double-blind study, however, shows that a three-day treatment is just as effective. BMJ, June 10 A 300-mile-wide crater under the Antarctic ice may be the evidence that an object 30 miles wide caused the earth’s greatest mass extinction 250 million years ago. The one that polished off the dinosaurs was about one fifth that size. American Geophysical Union Joint Assembly, Baltimore, May 23–26...

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft begins a series of daring dives through Saturn’s rings Nov. 30, the first step in the probe’s “grand finale” investigation of the gas giant planet. From Nov. 30 to April 22, Cassini will dive through the outer edge of Saturn’s rings 20 times, once every seven days. The spacecraft will be entering uncharted territory, getting the closest look ever at Saturn’s outer rings and its moons. NASA described this phase of the mission in a new video....

Officials from 175 countries agreed yesterday to craft a global treaty over the next two years with the aim of ending plastic pollution. The final treaty could be a game-changer for lands and oceans awash in plastic bottles and packaging. Castoff plastics choke and entangle animals, are ingested by people as tiny particles in food, and lead to higher greenhouse gases. The resolution agreed to yesterday came during an annual assembly of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya....

This week, the Senate is holding a vote to open debate on the Freedom to Vote Act, Senator Joe Manchin’s attempt to gain bipartisan support for basic voting protections. The act is designed to remedy the Supreme Court’s failure to address a partisan gerrymandering crisis, limit state legislators’ use of restrictive election laws to insulate them from accountability, and protect the country from another state legislative–based coup attempt in 2024. Can our democratic institutions be protected against future attacks?...

Normally when I walk through the streets of my town, passersby pay little attention. For the sake of my self-esteem I’ll assume this has less to do with me and more to do with the social norms of making full eye-contact with unfamiliar men on the street. But there have been two periods in my life when this was not the case—when strangers would stop and talk to me unprovoked, when I would elicit ear to ear smiles, approving nods, and high fives....

Trying to be “green” quickly becomes tricky. A simple question like “Paper or plastic?” can lead to a complicated analysis of deforestation and water use versus peak oil and persistent pollution. That’s why Daniel Goleman, best-selling author of Emotional Intelligence in 1995, has returned to the subject, but with an environmental angle. In an effort to better understand “ecological intelligence” and its implications, ScientificAmerican.com’s David Biello spoke with Goleman about his new book....

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. A panel of experts met on April 14, 2021, to review evidence on blood clots that have been reported in seven people after they received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. The panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on immunization. It delayed voting on a recommendation to the CDC so that members can further evaluate risk and data....