CERN owes its historic aversion to patenting to its 20 European member states, says spokesman James Gillies. They pump millions of euros into the organisation every year to help develop new technologies – and don't want to have to pay to use the inventions in their own country. "So we have to square a circle: how do we protect the technology without double-billing member states?"

Last week, it struck a deal with the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to ensure that it profits better from its engineers' innovations.

In line with my article today, How To Make Open Access Better: Make Publishing Free Too, here is an economic analysis of which journal to choose for your publication.

Dorothy wanted to submit to PLoS One, whereas Al wanted to submit to a more prestigious journal. The advantage of publishing in PLoS One is that they have a very high acceptance rate and are fast 

RICHARD FEYNMAN, Nobel laureate and physicist extraordinaire, called it a “magic number” and its value “one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics”. The number he was referring to, which goes by the symbol alpha and the rather more long-winded name of the fine-structure constant, is magic indeed.

The Big Bang was the result of the inevitable laws of physics and did not need God to spark the creation of the Universe, Stephen Hawking has concluded.

The science blogosphere is shrinking and growing at the same time. Today, the Public Library of Science (PLoS) starts a new network called PLoS Blogs.   Consisting of 11 blogs by scientists and journalists,  it joins several other relatively small networks launched this summer, including those by the Guardian, Wired and Scientopia. 

With his new book, Danish scientist Bjørn Lomborg has become an unlikely advocate for huge investment in fighting global warming. But his answers are unlikely to satisfy all climate change campaigners.

It’s an 80-year-old illustration showing the largest animals and plants in the world. The ugly little secret is item no. 10, that totally unnoticeable line in the middle of the picture just below the dinosaur and the snake.



The image first appeared in H.G. Wells, J.S. Huxley and G. P. Well’s book "The Science of Life", published in 1931.

If you are anti-military this is not for you but if you've ever shot competition rifle, or just have an appreciation for anyone who is among the best at what they do, you can appreciate this Marine sniper who takes out a target over a mile away - through a brick wall.  The tactical breathing issues alone to make a shot from a mile away are unfathomable.    Better: after he makes the shot, the sniper stays there for another 12 hours.   

I don't recommend doing this at your local shooting range, even if they have a .50 cal.  Why?   The air will positively shimmer when that thing goes off and the recoil, even with a low-recoil gas system, will make inexperienced shooters physically ill.

A robotic hand attached to a small helicopter can successfully and autonomously grip objects while the helicopter is hovering(link to video there too) ...



Article: Paul E.I. Pounds and Aaron M. Dollar,  Hovering Stability of Helicopters with Elastic Constraints, proceedings of the 2010 ASME Dynamics Systems and Control Conference (DSCC 2010).