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During the 2008 presidential election, the Internet became a giant rumor mill. For example, there were the viral e-mails claiming that Barack Obama’s birth certificate was a fake

Ice loss from the massive ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica is accelerating, according to a new study. If the trend continues, ice sheets could become the dominant contributor to sea level rise sooner than scientists had predicted, concludes the research, which will be published this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters

Nanotechnology developments continue apace: Brigham Young University has pushed the envelope of carbon nanotube tech and shown how to "grow" complex structures from the stuff. Meanwhile the Navy is interested in using nanotech robots to "grow" new nanotech robots. Carbon nanotube logos A team of physicists at Brigham Young University has developed an innovative new way to grow carbon nanotubes into complex structures that are much more precise than has previously been possible

A new microscope invented by scientists at Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus will let researchers use an exquisitely thin sheet of light -- similar to that used in supermarket bar-code scanners -- to peer inside single living cells, revealing the three-dimensional shapes of cellular landmarks in unprecedented detail. The microscopy technique images at high speed, so researchers can create dazzling movies that make biological processes, such as cell division, come alive.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Leland Stanford Junior Universotu v. Roche, a case that will clarify a 1980 law that governs the ownership of patents held by universities that rely on federal research funds. The case refers back to 1988, when Mark Holodniy, then a Stanford-employed researcher, developed technology that would ultimately lead to one of the first AIDS tests