Batteries are common in the devices we use - everything from electric cars to laptops. Unfortunately the last real breakthrough in battery technology was lithium-ion and it's been 25 years of not much since. We're no longer using a 386 PC but our devices are using that equivalent in battery power.

There are efforts to try and get the most performance out of this legacy technology and one effort is replacing the graphite traditionally used in one of the battery's electrodes  with a sponge-like silicon material. Silicon has more than 10 times the energy storage capacity of graphite. 

A new study on biological erosion of mesophotic tropical coral reefs - low energy reef environments between 30-150 meters deep - provides new insights into processes that affect the overall structure of these important ecosystems.

The purpose of the study was to better understand how bioerosion rates and distribution of bioeroding organisms, such as fish, mollusks and sponges, differ between mesophotic reefs and their shallow-water counterparts and the implications of those variations on the sustainability of the reef structure.

Astronomers have found a "hotspot" beneath the Big Dipper emitting a disproportionate number of the highest-energy cosmic rays, a discovery which may move physics toward identifying the mysterious sources of the most energetic particles in the universe.

Many astrophysicists suspect ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays are generated by active galactic nuclei, or AGNs, in which material is sucked into a supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy, while other material is spewed away in a beam-like jet known as a blazar. Another popular possibility is that the highest-energy cosmic rays come from some supernovas (exploding stars) that emit gamma rays bursts.

There are 10 proteins in the blood which can predict the onset of Alzheimer's and that means there may be a blood test for the disease on the horizon.

Proteomics company Proteome Sciences plc and King's College London examined over individuals from three international studies. Blood samples from a total of 1,148 individuals (476 with Alzheimer's disease; 220 with 'Mild Cognitive Impairment' (MCI) and 452 elderly controls without dementia) were analyzed for 26 proteins previously shown to be associated with Alzheimer's disease. A sub-group of 476 individuals across all three groups also had an MRI brain scan. 

In modern times, an otherwise healthy pre-term baby has a very strong chance of survival. And that survival chance goes way up in high-volume neonatal units; a counter-intuitive finding for people who think that slower dedicated health care is the way to go. Doctors and nurses in high-volume neonatal units have likely seen it all and have far more experience.

An analysis based on 14 marathons that occurred in the U.S. in 2011, which included almost 92,000 competitors, led scholars to conclude that, when it comes to running marathons, men are more likely than women to slow their pace.

The United States leads the world in science output, with 5 percent of the population producing 30 percent of the world's research. And yet compared to scientists in other countries, U.S.-based scientists are underrepresented as authors of articles on the potential role of innate variation in athletic performance. 

Grand Valley State University researchers searched journals and NIH and NSF databases for grant proposals solicited or funded from 2000-2012 to determine if the proportion of authors that listed U.S. addresses was associated with funding patterns. NIH did not solicit grant proposals designed to examine these factors in the context of athletic performance and neither NIH nor NSF funded grants designed to study these topics.

Recent re-examination of a 100,000 year old early human skull using micro-CT scans has revealed the interior configuration of a temporal bone thought to occur only in Neanderthals.

The fossilized human skull was found during 1970s excavations at the Xujiayao site in China's Nihewan Basin.  Since Western Europe and Eastern Asia are a long way apart, "The discovery places into question a whole suite of scenarios of later Pleistocene human population dispersals and interconnections based on tracing isolated anatomical or genetic features in fragmentary fossils," said study co-author Erik Trinkaus, PhD, anthropology professor at Washington University in St. Louis. 

Warren Buffett, billionaire invested, says that investors should try to "be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy only when others are fearful." 

In the US, there is constant discussion about minimum wage and little recognition that those jobs are just that - a minimum wage and not a career. They are for young people and people starting out, it isn't expected that minimum wage is the goal.

Instead, minimum wage should be the reason to do better. The ocean does not rise to wherever you want to put your boat. Young people who recognize what a minimum wage summer job is tend to do have more fulfillment later.