Psychology does not usually lend itself to live experimentation but the The American Psychological Association intends to change that perception.    They are featuring three public demonstrations of psychological science applications at their annual convention this week.

The goal: to show practical uses of psychological research and how it can be of great service to individuals and society as a whole.

A new non-deformed energy storage phase change material (PCM) can retain and release heat according to specific temperature requirements - a breakthrough that might make a significant difference to the cost of heating and cooling buildings.

If, for example, the required optimum temperature in a room is 22°C, the material can be fixed so that it starts absorbing any excess heat above that temperature.  The heat-regulating material looks like a circular tablet with the circumference of a large coin in the laboratory and can be manufactured so small that it can be sprayed as an unobtrusive microscopic film on surfaces and could be applied anywhere, from walls and roofs to wallpaper.

The future of networking may mean streaming high-definition movies at blazing fast speeds and the routers are the lights in the room.

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI in Berlin, Germany, have developed a new transfer technology for video data and were able to transfer data at a rate of 100 megabits per second (Mbit/s), without any losses, using LEDs in the ceiling that light up more than ten square meters (90 square feet). 

"This means that we transferred four videos in HD quality to four different laptops at the same time," says Dr. Anagnostis Paraskevopoulos from the HHI.

The hormone oxytocin may be the "cuddle chemical" but recent research has found that oxytocin can promote negative emotions too.

Salespeople love oxytocin - they think if they spray it on customers will trust them more.  Mothers bond with babies due to oxytocin.  It's positive effects are well known but studies have also found that oxytocin can increase gloating and envy.

Molecules of oxygen have been found in the nearby Orion star-forming complex, the first undisputed detection of oxygen molecules in space.   Previous missions looking for the molecular variety, two atoms of oxygen bonded together, had been fruitless.

Yet as interesting as the discovery is, it leads to a bigger question; the observed amount of atomic oxygen is far less than expected.  Where is all the oxygen hiding in the cold clouds?

Dark oxygen, anyone?

With an oil issue that is pinching us on two fronts, cost and pollution, alternative energy research is going fuel speed ahead, including on solutions that have tried and failed in the past, like ethanol.

But ethanol was not flawed as a concept, it was just pushed by activists who ignored the science and wanted it rushed to market - using food as inefficient fuel was not a great idea but bio-ethanol made from biomass, like left over cornstalks or weeds instead of fuel, might work to improve pollution issues.