A genome-based immunization strategy may 'illuminate' ways to combat AIDS and other diseases. 

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) causes AIDS in cats as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) does in people, by depleting the body's infection-fighting T-cells. The feline and human versions of key proteins that potently defend mammals against virus invasion, termed restriction factors, are ineffective against FIV and HIV respectively. A Mayo Clinic team along with collaborators in Japan write in Nature Methods of their efforts to mimic the way evolution normally gives rise over vast time spans to protective protein versions. They devised a way to insert effective monkey versions of them into the cat genome. 

Optofluidic solar lighting systems could mean a real boost in solar energy - they capture sunlight from a roof using a light concentrating system that follows the sun's path by changing the angle of the water's refraction, and then distribute the sunlight throughout the building through light pipes or fiber optic cables to the ceilings of office spaces, indoor solar panels, or even microfluidic air filters.

Every three hours, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope scans the entire sky. Every year, the satellite's scientists reanalyze all of the data it has collected about the high energy universe.

The Sheriff of Nottingham will be pleased. It only took 800 years, but poachers can now be tracked down through tests for human DNA on deer remains, according to research led by scientists at the University of Strathclyde.

Aside from being silly, since most 'poachers' are actually just poor people feeding a family, just like they were in Robin Hood's day, identifying deer poachers can be problematic because these 'crimes' are not discovered until long after the event - and no one cares.  These 'poachers' also field dress the deer carcass (hunters wear gloves) so little human DNA is left behind.

Kepler-19b, which orbits the Sun-like star Kepler-19 650 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra, has been found to have an 'invisible' world tugging on it.

How do astronomers know, since it's invisible?  Kepler-19b alternately runs late and early in its orbit, the first definite detection of a previously unknown planet using this method. No other technique could have found the unseen companion.   Kepler-19 is a 12th-magnitude star and can be seen by backyard telescopes on September evenings.

A new alginate binder material for lithium-ion battery electrodes could boost energy storage and perhaps help eliminate the toxic compounds in batteries - good news for Prius owners who are concerned their batteries may be doing more harm to the environment than their emissions are saving.