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A new " bioreactor " could store electricity as liquid fuel with the help of a genetically engineered microbe and copious carbon dioxide. The idea--dubbed " electrofuels " by a federal agency funding the research--could offer electricity storage that would have the energy density of fuels such as gasoline.

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Kindles, Nooks and other E-readers catch flack for threatening the future of printed books. But reading itself may get a boost from the devices

Air-powered cars have been on the cusp of reality for more than a century. Sure, compressed air is a clean fuel, but it's not efficient enough to power a car engine that will take you very far or very fast. [More]

Tiny robots that swim through our blood vessels attacking viruses and malignant cells have not quite crossed the line that separates science fiction from science--but there might be a way to jump-start their development.

A typical sunflower with a dark center and a mane of large yellow 'petals' (Credit: Wikimedia Commons) The word “sunflower” brings to mind a mane of vibrant yellow petals encircling a dark whorl of seeds.

By Helen Shen of Nature magazine The nerves in a human brain form a three-dimensional grid of criss-crossing fibers, say researchers who have mapped them. The regular pattern creates a scaffold to guide brain development and support more complex and variable brain structures, says Van Wedeen, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Fifty years after The Jetsons promised us a future of robot maids, flying cars, video phones and meals at the push of a button, it seems that reality may actually surpass this futuristic vision. By 2062, the year the animated show was set, advances in artificial intelligence , sensor networks and robotics promise to make the Jetsons's home in Skypad Apartments, and indeed in all of Orbit City, seem quaint by comparison (although flying cars may remain out of reach--especially ones that beat parking problems by folding into a suitcase).

Climate change is bringing more droughts, heat waves and powerful rainstorms, shifts that will require governments to change how they cope with natural disasters to protect human lives and the world economy, a new U.N. report says.

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A fossil discovered in Ethiopia suggests that humans' prehistoric relatives may have lived in the trees for a million years longer than was previously thought.

Mitochondrial network of an endothelial cell is shown in green Research projects evolve in a fortuitous manner, often guided by a convergence of novel observations, intuition, helpful colleagues and unique personal circumstances. It is precisely this constellation that prompted two cardiologists to study the mitochondrial networks in lung cancer cells.

Three of the U.S. military's newest recruits reported for duty this week at the Army Test and Evaluation Command . These troops are different from normal soldiers in several ways--for starters, each has six feet.

Colette Dziadul struggled for years to understand her daughter’s joint problems. Dana, who is now 14 years old, complained from toddlerhood that her knees and ankles hurt. The aches kept her up at night, made her wake her parents to ask for painkillers and forced her to sit out school sports.

By Lucy Hornby and Jim Bai BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Three Gorges Corp. [More]