Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, which describes how the gravity of a massive object like a star can curve space and time, has been successfully used to predict the bending of starlight by the sun, small shifts in the orbit of the planet Mercury and the phenomenon known as gravitational lensing.

Americans used more solar, nuclear, biomass and wind energy in 2008 than they did in 2007, according to energy flow charts released by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and less coal and petroleum during the same time frame.

Natural gas consumption and geothermal energy use remained the same.

The estimated U.S. energy use in 2008 equaled 99.2 quadrillion BTUs ("quads"), down from 101.5 quadrillion BTUs in 2007.   A BTU, or British Thermal Unit, is a unit of measurement for energy, and is equivalent to about 1.055 kilojoules.

According to a recent poll by the National Sleep Foundation, 27 percent of Americans say economic concerns are keeping them awake at night.

But it may not be just stress.  According to the poll, 47 percent of the sleepless are very likely to use caffeinated beverages like coffee, tea and sodas during the day to compensate for their sleepiness and the use of artificial stimulants and insomnia are correlated. The majority of people who have difficulty sleeping report using those substances. 

“Stress and anxiety can definitely impact sleep,” says Sunil Mathews, M.D., medical director of the Sleep Center at Baylor Medical Center at Irving. “And unfortunately, insomnia can turn into a vicious cycle.”

One of the major obstacles in widespread use hydrogen as a clean energy alternative is hydrogen storage. Solid-state storage, using solid materials such as metals that absorb hydrogen and release it as needed, has safety and practicality advantages over storing hydrogen as a liquid or gas and several materials have been discovered that have met or exceeded the DOE gravimetric and/or volumetric performance targets.

Of those, however, the majority do not have the required thermodynamic and kinetic properties that allow them to release their hydrogen when needed, and be efficiently and economically reloaded with hydrogen when spent. 

It seems people still use the intelligence quotient (IQ) test even though minorities in America claim there is cultural bias that invalidates it as a measure of intelligence.

Researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at the Mailman School of Public Health have gone even further than cultural bias; they say prenatal exposure to environmental pollutants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can affect a child's IQ, according to their study of black and hispanic women living in New York City.

PAHs are chemicals released into the air from the burning of coal, diesel, oil and gas, or other organic substances such as tobacco. In urban areas motor vehicles are a major source of PAHs.

40 years ago,  July 20, 1969,  Apollo 11 Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to land on the moon, making the U.S. last to start but first to finish in the 'space race' with the Soviet Union.   Armstrong's now famous words, "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," inspired a generation of scientists.

The new R&D enterprise it fostered, built to support America's geopolitical ambitions and based largely on federally-funded contracts and specifications rather than the private funding that had been the primary source of basic research before World War II, has had a remarkable effect on science and how advancements are made.