Citizen science has been around as long as there have been citizens. And science. But with the rise of private- and government-controlled research, science is more of an occupation. Areas like astronomy and paleontology still get valuable contributions from 'amateur' scientists but for the most part when people think of science they think of highly-paid academics and corporate labs.
 

One way to clean up hazardous heavy metals like arsenic, lead and mercury in contaminated materials could be to use waste from the processing and canning of onions (Allium cepa L.) and garlic (Allium sativum L.)

Biotechnologists Rahul Negi, Gouri Satpathy, Yogesh Tyagi and Rajinder Gupta of the GGS Indraprastha University in Delhi studied the influence of acidity or alkalinity, contact time, temperature and concentration of the different materials present to optimize conditions for making a biological heavy metal filter for industrial-scale decontamination.

Facial transplantation has ushered in a new era of craniofacial surgery but already surgeons are pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved. 

Most candidates for facial transplant have loss of soft tissues only, like skin, muscle, blood vessels, and nerves.  Although still a rare and relatively new procedure, facial transplantation now offers a reconstructive option for patients with severe facial deficits and so doctors are creating a roadmap for work on patients with extensive facial defects, including loss of the normal bone and soft tissue landmarks. 'Reverse craniofacial planning' approach can restore normal facial relationships.

Just because you can buy something doesn't mean it works. You can buy a home gym, for example, but it won't make you thin. However, there are some things you can buy that won't work even if you actually try to achieve a result.

You buy devices that control pests using ultrasonic frequencies - they are purported to work for mosquitoes, cockroaches, ants and now there are new versions targeting bed bugs, since those were in the news a lot.

A new paper reports the results of tests of four commercially available electronic pest repellent devices designed to repel insect and mammalian pests by using sound. 

In the constellation Taurus, astronomers have found the youngest still-forming solar system yet seen - an infant star called  L1527 IRS, surrounded by a swirling disk of dust and gas 450 light-years from Earth.

The star only has about one-fifth the mass of the Sun, but will likely pull in material from its surroundings and eventually match the Sun's mass. The disk surrounding the young star contains at least enough mass to make seven Jupiters, the largest planet in our Solar System.

Smoke from Arctic wildfires have been drifting over the Greenland ice sheet, tarnishing the ice with soot and making it more likely to melt under the sun, according to satellite observations.

NASA's Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite captured smoke from Arctic fires billowing out over Greenland during the summer of 2012. Researchers have long been concerned with how the Greenland landscape is losing its sparkly reflective quality as temperatures rise. The surface is darkening as ice melts away, and, since dark surfaces are less reflective than light ones, the surface captures more heat, which leads to stronger and more prolonged melting.

New cells develop in the heart but how these cardiac cells are born and how frequently they are generated remains unclear. New research from Brigham and Women's Hospital used a novel method to identify these new heart cells and describe their origins - a Multi-isotope Imaging Mass Spectrometry (MIMS) imaging system that demonstrates cell division in the adult mammalian heart. 

Cycling is safer than driving for young British males ages 17 to 20 - driving brings an almost five times greater risk per hour of an accident than cyclists of the same age.