[New Scientist]
Researchers have discovered the “home” of stem cells in the heart, lending credence to the idea that the heart has the capacity to repair itself. The finding raises the possibility that these cardiac stem cells could one day be manipulated to rebuild tissues damaged by heart disease.

[ZDNet UK]
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the web, has called for clear separation between internet access and internet content: It's better and more efficient for us all if we have a separate market where we get our connectivity, and a separate market where we get our content. Information is what I use to make all my decisions. Not just what to buy, but how to vote. There is an effort by some companies in the US to change this. There's an attempt to get to a situation where if I want to watch a TV station across the Internet, that TV station must have paid to transmit to me.

[Technology Review]
University of Texas researchers have demonstrated that mats of single-walled carbon nanotubes can communicate electrical signals to neurons, suggesting that the tubes could be used as an electrical interface between neural prosthetics—devices used to replace damaged or missing nerves—and the body.

[Yahoo! News]
Windows system hardware requirements (and average computer cost) from 3.0 through Vista (1990-2006).

[New Zealand Herald]
A New Zealand-based company, Aquaflow Bionomic, yesterday announced it had produced its first sample of bio-diesel fuel from algae in sewage ponds. It is believed to be the world's first commercial production of bio-diesel from "wild" algae outside the laboratory.

[Science Blog]
In the past few years, scientists have found ways to make light go both faster and slower than its usual speed limit, but now researchers at the University of Rochester have published a paper today in Science on how they've gone one step further: pushing light into reverse. As if to defy common sense, the backward-moving pulse of light travels faster than light.

[EurekAlert]
For the first time scientists at The University of Manchester have positively identified seawater in volcanic gas samples originating from the Earth's mantle—the region just below the crust and extending all the way down to the core—supporting the theory that seawater is subducted deep into the Earth. Professor Chris Ballentine of the University's School of Earth and Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences said: We can show that up to 10% of the Earth's oceans have been absorbed into the planet since formation. This accounts for about half of the water in the deep earth, the remainder of which was trapped when the Earth first formed. This work, for the first time, quantifies the 'geological water cycle'.

[WESH.com]
Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine said they have found a cure for cancer in mice.

[Popular Science]
John Koza has built an invention machine. Its creations earn patents, outperform humans, and will soon fly to space.

[New Scientist]
A cyclic universe, which bounces through a series of big bangs and "big crunches", could solve the puzzle of our cosmological constant, the measured value of which is a googol (1 followed by 100 zeroes) times smaller than that predicted by current particle physics theories.

[MSNBC]
A new study finds that the supermassive black holes at the hearts of some galaxies are the most fuel-efficient engines in the universe. If you could make a car engine that was as efficient as one of these black holes, you could get about a billion miles out of a gallon of gas.

[Alertnet]
Genetic manipulation of harmless viruses may provide effective vaccines against filoviruses such as Marburg and Ebola.

[SpaceDaily]
Delegates from around the world meet to assess long-term energy solutions to spur global economic growth while reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change. The meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development comes against a backdrop of rising energy prices, mounting concern over energy security fueled by the Iranian nuclear crisis and alarm over climate change. The commission noted that energy use was expected to jump by 50 percent over the next 25 years, with two-thirds of that hike expected in the developing world.