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Stanford University has opened up to the public an introductory artificial intelligence class, taught by two luminaries in the field. [More]

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Wall Street's wild swings last week helped skew both retirement portfolios and mathematical models of the financial markets. After all, a standard Gaussian function --a bell curve--would predict that such extreme dips and rises would be exceedingly rare and not prone to following one after the other on succeeding days. Gaussian functions might be able to describe the distribution of grades in a big college class, with most students getting, say, B–/C+, and enable you to predict how many students will get A's or fail.

By Jeff Tollefson of Nature magazine US researchers have used computer modeling to identify an organic molecule with useful electrical properties - proof-of-concept for an approach that could soon yield new compounds to harvest solar energy in photovoltaic cells. Al

The Australia-based Galileo Movement touts a series of "basic facts" on carbon dioxide that attempt to explain why the greenhouse gas can't contribute to climate change. John Smeed, the movement's co-founder, says the case against carbon dioxide as a global warming culprit is simply a matter of "junior school physics." [More]

A new group challenging the general consensus on climate science is getting significant air time in Australia, where uproar over a proposed carbon tax may topple the country's minority government. Launched in February, the Galileo Movement is getting much of its lift from its influential "patron," conservative radio personality Alan Jones, one of the most popular broadcasters in Australia, who has touted the effort on his daily morning show. [More]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Tuesday announced a $510 million initiative to boost the production of next-generation biofuels. Under the plan sponsored by the Navy, Energy and Agriculture departments, companies will be invited to bid on new biofuel projects where the government will match the investment. [More]

By Eugenie Samuel Reich of Nature magazine Microbiologist David Lewis knew he might upset the biosolids industry with his research, which suggested that the spreading of sewage sludge on land could make people sick. [More]

By Marian Turner of Nature magazine Engineered bacteria that can detect and kill human pathogens could provide a new way to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

By Selam Gebrekidan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fuel leaked from Enterprise Products Partners' natural gas liquids pipeline into the Missouri River in Iowa has dissipated or evaporated with little chance of recovery, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Tuesday . [More]

The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) shut down subterranean cellular phone service on August 11, stifling protests that had been set to take place on its train platforms that day. Demonstrators had planned to stop trains from running in response to the fatal shooting of an unarmed passenger by the BART police on July 3

Help University of Arizona researchers track rainfall throughout the state [More]

Many Americans root for their hometowns, whether they do so by supporting a sports team, participating in local government or just bragging about their origins and environs.

On January 25 the streets of Cairo erupted in protest against then president Hosni Mubarak’s repressive Egyptian regime. Over the next 72 hours the government shut down the country’s Internet service and mobile-phone system in an attempt to squelch the rebellion--to no avail: a rich ecosystem of Facebook conversations, Twitter outbursts and chat-room plans had already unified millions of Cairo’s people, who continued the relentless uprising. The government backed down and restored communications to keep the country’s economy on life support, but the masses kept up the pressure until Mubarak resigned 14 days later.

Several projects coordinated by MIT's Senseable City lab have revealed the powerful urban insights that can occur when people are linked via networks of sensors. Video and animations about a selection of such projects can be seen below.