Using commercial solar cells, researchers have converted over 40 percent of the sunlight hitting a solar system into electricity, the highest efficiency ever reported.

For many men, the down sides of PSA testing outweigh the benefits. Gerald Streiter/Flickr, CC BY-NC

By Ian Haines, Monash University

A study has found that elite Kenyan athletes have greater brain oxygenation during periods of maximum physical effort, which contributes to their success in long-distance races.

Dr. Jordan Santos-Concejero, of the Department of Physical Education and Sport at the University of the Basque Country carried out the research to analyze the response of cerebral oxygenation at maximum and progressive rhythms amongst elite Kenyan runners from the Kalenjin tribe. 

Researchers from the University of Hawai'i (UH) and NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries today announced the discovery of an intact "ghost ship" in 2,000 feet of water nearly 20 miles off the coast of Oahu - the former cable ship Dickenson, later the USS Kailua.

Launched in Chester, Pennsylvania in early 1923 for the Commercial Pacific Cable Company, Dickenson was part of a global network of submarine cable that carried telecommunications around the world. Repairing cable and carrying supplies, Dickenson served the remote stations at Midway and Fanning Island from 1923 until 1941. it arrived in Pearl Harbor with evacuees from Fanning Island on December 7th, during the Japanese attack that brought America into World War II.

Wind farms like this one probably wouldn't exist if the government didn't provide a hefty subsidy. Shutterstock

By Randy Simmons, Utah State University

Congress passed the wind production tax credit (PTC) more than two decades ago to spur development in an industry still in its infancy. The wind sector has since matured into adulthood, prompting thousands of turbine farms to sprout in fields across the country.

One of the funniest misnomers in particle physics is the naming of coupling strength parameters of the fundamental interactions as "constants".

We speak of a fine structure constant (alpha) to address one of the most important parameters of electromagnetism; and we call "strong coupling constant" the coupling strength parameter alpha_s of QCD. But these are not constants at all! In fact, they are parameters that show a quite distinct dependence on the energy of subatomic processes.

The chemical messenger dopamine, colloquially called the 'happiness hormone', is important outside social psychology articles on Valentine's Day also; it has been linked to motivation and motor skills and may help neurons with difficult cognitive tasks.  Researchers have found how dopamine influences brain cells while processing rules.

Skin color varies according to latitude and therefore by the intensity of incident ultraviolet light; according to biologists, that is why individuals living at low latitudes developed darker skin, whereas those living at high latitudes ended up with paler pigmentation. 

Yet the mutations that lightened the skin, probably owing to the need to synthesize vitamin D at latitudes with less solar irradiation, also increase the probability of developing melanoma or skin cancer, which is a negative in natural selection. 

Not Hitler. This is Edward Burton, also known as Eric Arthur Blair, also known as George Orwell

By Luke Seaber, University College London

A new article  in the Georgia Law Review
details the relationship of two U.S. Supreme Court cases, their impact on freedom of expression, and how they relate to blogging and citizen journalism.