Now here's some science that everyone can get behind!

Quoted: International Business Machines Corp. is working with candy maker Mars Inc. and the U.S. government to study the genetic code of cocoa trees to safeguard the world's chocolate supply.
...
Closely held Mars, the maker of M&M candies and Snickers bars, and the U.S. Agriculture Department will sequence the entire cocoa genome, deciphering the plant's biological map. IBM will analyze the results using Blue Gene, the world's second- fastest supercomputer, the company said today in a statement.

There is a certain little guy in this house that could use his own laptop so that he stops stealing ours!

Quoted: One more of the world's biggest technology companies is clamoring to enter the growing market for pint-sized computers targeted mainly for pint-sized customers. ...

HP's foray comes in the form of a new computer called a "Mini-Note" that weighs less than 3 pounds with a screen that measures 8.9 inches diagonally. The machines start at under $500 for a Linux-based model. Prices go up for Windows Vista models with faster processors.

ASIMO!!!

Quoted: Honda has unveiled a series of "cutting-edge intelligence technologies" that improve ASIMO - its humanoid robot.
This improvements will enable ASIMO to operate autonomously with people and other ASIMOs, a crucial "co-existing" quality, helping pave ASIMO's way into mainstream society.

Thank god we can move past this shoddy Web 2.0. ;)

Quoted: University of Washington computer scientist and search engine pioneer Oren Etzioni's latest projects are providing a sneak preview of how online applications might look in a more intuitive Web 3.0 of the not-so-distant future.

Fantastic! I hope that this becomes a viable idea.

Quoted: In recent months, PopSci has covered various scientists' plans to curb global warming through carbon sequestration, mainly by feeding it to algae to make biofuel, or burying it underground.

Today, a company called Skyonic announced a novel new system, Skymine, which uses the carbon dioxide emitted from smokestacks to make baking soda. According to Skyonic CEO Joe David Jones, the system will be powered by waste heat from factories, and will produce food-grade baking soda.

Update on a story I faved yesterday ...

Quoted: The South Korean man whose death was initially blamed on an exploding cell phone battery appears to have died from another cause, according to a news report Thursday.

The quarry worker, whose name has not been released, was found dead Wednesday with a melted phone battery in his shirt pocket, according to police. He also had a broken spine and ribs as well as heart and lung injuries.

I agree with LG. It is highly unlikely that the melted battery killed this guy. I would think that he probably had a heart attack from the surprise of the battery explosion. I probably would!

Quoted: An exploding mobile phone battery apparently killed a South Korean man in the first such known case in this gadget-obsessed country, police say.

Cool! The only problem I see is that the road will become "dated" once the pop song goes off the charts. I wonder how much it would cost to update the road ...

Quoted: A team from the Hokkaido Industrial Research Institute has built a number of "melody roads", which use cars as tuning forks to play music as they travel.

The concept works by using grooves, which are cut at very specific intervals in the road surface. Just as travelling over small speed bumps or road markings can emit a rumbling tone throughout a vehicle, the melody road uses the spaces between to create different notes.

Depending on how far apart the grooves are, a car moving over them will produce a series of high or low notes, enabling cunning designers to create a distinct tune.
Patent documents for the design describe it as notches "formed in a road surface so as to play a desired melody without producing simple sound or rhythm and reproduce melody-like tones".

Neat!

Quoted: In the Harry Potter stories, Ron Weasley's family of pureblood wizards has a magic clock with hands assigned to each family member, indicating their location.

Now a prototype device from Microsoft Research Cambridge does a similar thing. The Whereabouts Clock allows family members to see where others are in four broad categories -- "home," "work," "school" and "elsewhere."

Creators hope the general nature of the clock's locations overcomes some of the privacy problems that the researchers think have impeded other location-based services from becoming more prevalent in the marketplace. For example, Sprint's Family Locator shows precise position on a Google Map.