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Underneath a relict patch of illinois prairie, complete with a small herd of grazing buffalo, protons and antiprotons whiz along in opposite paths around a four-mile-long tunnel.

Most everything you need to know about a particle collider can be summed up with just two numbers. The first is its energy--higher energies let scientists conjure up more massive particles (measured in gigaelectron volts, or GeV). The second is its luminosity, or the number of collisions per second.

The Tevatron. Credit: Fermilab The storied Tevatron particle collider, the most powerful machine of its kind in the U.S.

TIANJIN ECO-CITY, China -- Three years ago, this coastal area fit perfectly into the dictionary definition for "wasteland." Its soil was too salty to grow crops. It was polluted enough to scare away potential residents. Sometimes the few fishermen who lived here saw investors driving in, but they quickly turned around and left, leaving nothing behind except dust

The biotechnology industry has had its share of woes, but so far 'patent trolls' have not numbered among them. These companies, which profit by legally enforcing patents they own rather than developing products, may benefit from a 31 August ruling at a US federal court of appeal in Washington DC.

SpaceX has been the darling in the past few years of the so-called NewSpace movement--private companies aspiring to do the spacefaring work that was once limited to the space programs of the world’s superpowers. [More]

When was the last time you left the doctor's office without a prescription, test or referral? It's probably been a while. And many argue that this increase in care--more drugs, procedures and tests--is a big reason the U.S.

Did the U.S.

By Jessica Marshall of Nature magazine Nanomedicines, advocates say, will one day be commonplace.

Out of control drivers aren’t the only thing city cyclists have to worry about. New research suggests that cyclists are at increased risk of lung damage because of soot

Chimps use rocks to crack open nuts, dolphins use sponges to scare up hidden fish, New Caledonian crows use sticks to fish for insects, certain octopuses--those Einsteins of the invertebrate world--use coconut shells as armor. [More]

Everyone in an earthquake-prone area wants to know when the next big one might come, but temblors are not well understood, and there is a plethora of methods that forecast quake risk. So which one works best? A test of seven different techniques that one day could reveal when quakes will occur could help narrow the field.

In a world where scientific knowledge might be useful in guiding decisions we make individually and collectively, one reason non-scientists might want to listen to scientists is that scientists are presumed to have the expertise to sort reliable knowledge claims from snake oil. [More]

Most of us omnivores eschew turkey tendons, the elastic strands that get in the way of a forkful of pure dark- or light-meat delight. [More]