Blogs / Discoblog

·New billboards have the perfect way to get kids interested in science: Celibacy.

·How much gas could hybrids save? Half of what we use now, MIT scientists say.

·Hey, spies! Brush up on your neuroscience; our national security is at stake.

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·Are electric cars so quiet they can sneak up on pedestrians?

·Show us the money: Music label threatens to stop licensing songs to Rock Band and Guitar Hero unless they get more cash.

·Global warming comes to your living room—you can buy a stranded polar bear on a rug.

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The higher you go, the windier it gets—wind at high altitudes is more abundant and consistent than the airflow at ground level. That’s a gold mine for those seeking to harness wind energy. But our standard turbines, behemoth windmills with heavy spinning blades, can only be built so high. So how do you get “up where the air is clear” and the wind rarely stops? You fly a kite.

In a recent experiment, Dutch researchers say they flew a 10-square-meter kite and created enough energy to power 10 houses. The kite is attached to a generator by a string; it generates power by pulling the string and turning the generator as the wind lifts it higher in the sky. Study leader Wubbo Ockels (who’s a former astronaut) says he then turns the kite so that it loses lift and descends, allowing the process to repeat. If the researchers had to use a lot of extra energy to pull the kite back down, the technique wouldn’t be nearly as promising.

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·The original Google, encased in Legos, gets a home at the Stanford University Museum.

·Whiskey goes green: Maker’s Mark uses its leftover water, grain, and yeast for energy.

·Scrabulous, everyone’s favorite Facebook time waster, folds under pressure from Scrabble makers Hasbro, but then reappears in a new form as “Wordscraper.”

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·Who wants an electric scooter? Two weeks ago the answer was Paris taxi drivers; this week it’s Providence, R.I., police officers.

·For a cool $10,000, you too could have a glorious piece of geek decor: the Periodic Coffee Table.

·“Einstein was wrong, and I can prove it!”—rating the minds of fringe scientists.

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It’s hard not to be impressed with the grandeur of Times Square—unless you’re especially conscious of saving energy, in which case all those illuminated signs might force upon you the mental image of polluting power plants working overtime to keep the light show going. If that’s the case, it might make you feel better to know that a greener electronic billboard is coming to New York.

By the time the ball drops this New Year’s Eve, Times Square may have its first solar and wind-powered billboard. Ricoh, a Japan-based electronics company, plans to install a 47-by-126-foot sign featuring their logo at the intersection of 42nd Street and 7th Avenue in December.

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Can you power an entire dance club with dancing? The British are about to try.

The Boston Globe unveils the science of the perfect nap. Even thinking about taking an afternoon siesta seems to improve your mood.

Dear Presidential candidates: Why no love for economists?

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