Can't wait for the next Star Trek movie?    Okay, this doesn't have Zoe Saldana but it's still pretty terrific -  the first movie ever of carbon atoms moving along the edge of a graphene crystal. Given that graphene,  single-layered sheets of carbon atoms arranged like chicken wire, may hold the key to the future of the electronics industry, the audience for this new science movie might also reach blockbuster proportions.

Okay, I am going to do something that will cost me my Republican voter card - I am going to recommend we reopen a government agency, the  Office of Technology Assessment (OTA).

It's not just American cars that are hurting the environment, researchers in California and Colorado have set their sights on ... rocket launches?

Future ozone losses from unregulated rocket launches will eventually exceed ozone losses due to chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which stimulated the 1987 Montreal Protocol banning ozone-depleting chemicals, said Martin Ross, chief study author from The Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles. The study, which includes the University of Colorado at Boulder and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, provides a market analysis for estimating future ozone layer depletion based on the expected growth of the space industry and known impacts of rocket launches.

Cicadas might have used their wily prime number scheme to dodge 2 and 4 year predators, but what about a predator with continual exponential growth? 

The microcircuitry industry has reliably doubled the density of transistors on a chip every 2 years, as observed by Gordon E. Moore in 1965. This exponential density growth trend is known as Moore’s law, and satisfying it requires that nanofabrication techniques are constantly embraced, devoured, then cast aside. 

... Not that the Texas school board creationists were coherent before, but what else do they have left? After the defeat of language in the state standards to teach the "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution in Texas public schools, the creationist school board members have rallied under the motto "Somebody's got to stand up to experts!" Thus, in defiance of the logical thinking and coherent grammar embraced so fondly by those nefarious experts, the Texas school board on Friday passed a number of incoherent amendments to their state science standards.

Here's another reason to hate leftovers. A research study in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology sheds light on one cause of arthritis: bacteria. In the study, scientists from the United States and The Netherlands show that a specific gene called NOD2 triggers arthritis or makes it worse when leftover remnants of bacteria cell walls, called muramyl dipeptide or MDP, are present. This discovery offers an important first step toward new treatments to prevent or lessen the symptoms of inflammatory arthritis.

Here's another reason why dieters should avoid all-you-can-eat buffets: When faced with a large variety of items, consumers tend to underestimate how much of each item is present, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Authors Joseph P. Redden (University of Minnesota) and Stephen J. Hoch (University of Pennsylvania) investigated consumers' perceptions of quantity in a set of experiments that may help us understand how quantity perceptions influence portion sizes.

"Does a bowl with both red and blue candies seem to have more or less than a bowl with only one color candy?" the researchers asked. "Contrary to popular belief, the presence of variety actually makes it seem like there are fewer items."

Some consumers will opt for local products and others always prefer global brands.   A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research takes a look at why local goods can even beat out recognizable global brands like Coke or Pepsi.

"Due to rapid globalization, local products—products with specifications and packaging tailored for local markets, such as Mecca Cola (France) and Fei-Chang Cola (China)—and global products (products with the same specifications and packaging for consumers from around the world) such as Pepsi and Coke, routinely compete against each other," write authors Yinlong Zhang (University of Texas at San Antonio) and Adwait Khare (Quinnipiac University).

It has been revealed that 1 in 3 people in the UK are still struggling to find an NHS dentist, according to new research from Simplyhealth.

Simplyhealth's Annual Dental Survey has revealed that alarmingly just over a third of Brits (35%) struggled to find an NHS dentist over the last year, which has increased from 23% at the same time in 2008.

Perhaps more shocking is the fact that this figure soars in certain areas of the UK, with over half of the people in Plymouth finding it difficult to get an NHS dentist, closely followed by those in Southampton and Manchester, where 45% and 43% have struggled.

The severity of the situation this year has been heightened by the economic downturn, as almost half of people across the UK have put off visiting the dentist becaus

There are four caffeine-induced psychiatric disorders recognized by the DSM-IV, the diagnosis manual of the American Psychiatric Association: caffeine intoxication, caffeine-induced anxiety disorder, caffeine-induced sleep disorder, and caffeine-related disorder not otherwise specified.

And, as you know if you have ever had to walk low-Starbucks-density wastelands, withdrawal can result in nausea, lethargy and depression. But what of the classic, washed-up-child-star-style overdose?