You may have heard the fairy tale of The Three Little Pigs.  In the original story (1), they leave home to find their fortune but the first one builds his new place out of straw and the Big Bad Wolf blows it down and eats him.

By the time he got to the third little pig, who built his house of brick, the wolf got his comeuppance, but it still wasn't a great result for the progessive, environmentally-conscious first one.

Researchers at the University of Bath say straw in housing has gotten a bad rap and to prove it they are making a "BaleHaus" of prefabricated straw and hemp 'cladding' panels.

Have we learned nothing?  

You're all either old enough or young enough to remember "Where's Waldo?"   It involved a lovable scamp with glasses who would get himself trapped in awfully complex situations and only keen eyes could rescue him.

We have our own lovable scamp, sans glasses, and his name is Garth Sundem.   If you haven't seen Garth be lovable, watch this clip from his show on the Science Channel.  I'll wait.  

A surprising impact on Jupiter is big news this past week.   The eyes of the entire space world have been riveted on the discovery of amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley of Canberra, Australia.   Now Hubble is in on the act and has provided the clearest picture yet.

Less stable materials may not sound like a great thing for your car but they may be the solution to producing a clean-running hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. More on that in just a minute. First, let's talk about where things are in clean energy.

If you've read this site for more than five minutes you know I believe it's better to spend money researching legitimate clean energy rather than porkbarrelling environmental activism darlings like ethanol, wind energy, solar panels and CFL bulbs. Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles can not only be an important part of the solution to America's energy crisis, they can eliminate it ... but challenges remain.

Tangential Science: it's not necessarily science, but it's still funny.

1. Drought is a serious problem in many parts of the world, going well beyond our California 'limit the days you water your lawn' irritation and well into 'We are going to die without rain' territory.

It's boom or bust in parts of India, where they actually look forward to monsoons - and sometimes they can't happen soon enough.  But what if the water gods are fickle?  Some crafty leaders in male-dominated Bihar think the solution is to have young girls walk around naked.