Science & Technology

When Staff Sgt. Jeremy Cooney, a Marine deployed in Afghanistan, returned home, he was greeted with a great surprise. Doctors originally said that his son, Michael, who is afflicted with cerebral palsy, “would never walk or do much of anything,” explains Jeremy's wife. “While daddy was away, he learned to…

Kurzweil reports that “Mouse lifespan was extended up to 24 percent with a single gene treatment in research at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), using gene therapy, a strategy never before employed to combat aging.” Mice treated at the age of one lived longer by 24% on average,…

Claire Lomas, a woman paralyzed from the chest down because of a horse riding accident, recently finished a marathon thanks to a bionic suit “designed by Israeli firm Argo Medical Technologies,” reports Time NewsFeed. Claire finished the marathon while being cheered on by her family—her husband, 13-month old daughter, and…

In a recent post, a reader commented: Even without a national healthcare plan the old person is taking a finite amount of time away from the possibility of the doctor working on a younger patient. Therefore rationing is inevitable in any system. Rationing has to take place. It is only…

Living in Colorado, out in the country, my route to civilization takes me up and over the shoulder of Dawson Butte. The road climbs steadily for about a mile and then descends on the other side into town. Because the road is beautifully scenic, bicyclists often ride the road, too. As I…

A few items from the benevolent news front: Helen Collins, an “80-year-old woman with no flying experience,” safely landed a plane as it was running out of gas after the pilot died. An airport official said, "She was remarkable on the radio... She kept her composure and sounded like she…

A few items from the benevolent news front: Afghani aviation enthusiast Sabir Shah—“a high school graduate with no pilot training nor aeronautical engineering background,” who couldn’t afford college—has built a one man “microlight” aircraft in his home. Sabir says, “I believe that if you want something, you can get it.” After…

Texas chemical maker Celanese has developed a technology to make ethanol from natural gas and coal, both plentiful in America, and is building plants in Texas and China to manufacture it. “If it works,” notes Forbes columnist Christopher Helman, it “will revolutionize the fuel industry.” Great news? Yes—but maybe only for…

Al Armendariz, a regional administrator of the EPA, described his “philosophy of enforcement” as follows: It was kind of like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw, and they would…

Where has all the innovation gone? Although Facebook now has nearly a billion users, and most of us now have pocket computers with instant access to a world of information, in the last few decades innovation has, in significant ways, slowed to a crawl. In a recent talk, “On Getting…