New Earthquake-Proof Alloy Allows Bridges to Bend but Not Break (With Video!)

A nickel-titanium alloy recently developed and currently being tested by the University of Nevada, could make bridges elastic—allowing them to move slightly with vibrations and then revert back to their original shape. Click For More.

• PLUS: 5 Lessons From the Reopened Minnesota Bridge

Can a Kind of Ancient Charcoal Put the Brakes on Global Warming?

Nine countries are pouring research dollars into the charcoal-like substance to see if biochar can sequester carbon, improve the soil and produce biofuels all at once—on an economically competitive scale. Click For More.

• PLUS: CO2 Capture Could Prevent Global Warming

Just How Toxic Was the Tennessee Coal Sludge Spill?

The coal sludge spill near Knoxville, Tenn., last week sent more than a billion gallons of coal ash (mixed with water, making coal sludge) spilling across more than 300 acres, at some points covering the land 6 ft deep. Click For More.

• PLUS: U.N. Puts Clean Coal on the Back Burner

3 Projects We Hope to See From the DOE's Next Nuclear Research Facility

While generating nuclear collisions is one sexy science project, it can be practical too, giving a boost to national security, cancer research and our understanding of how the universe came to be. Click For More.

• PLUS: Can Safe Nuclear Power Work for America?

NASA'S Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Is Ready for Its April Launch, but Will It Help the U.S. Return to the Moon?

NASA announced that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), the object of the next moon mission, had passed a battery of punishing tests that simulate the hazards of a space voyage, and now the craft is ready for an April launch. Click For More.

• PLUS: Inside NASA's Plan to Bomb the Moon

Could the Whistler Blackcomb Gondola Accident Happen Again?

Disaster struck at British Columbia's Whistler Blackcomb ski resort when ice buildup snapped one of the supporting towers for one of the resort's gondolas, slamming several of the cars to the ground. Click For More.

• PLUS: Inside Whistler's Peak to Peak Gondola

Can You Put a Price on Space History? For NASA's Space Shuttle, It's About $42 Million

Need that perfect gift for the space buff in your life? Then has NASA got a deal for you: Once the space shuttle fleet retires, probably by 2010, the shuttles will be ready for purchase at a hefty price—about $42 million each. Click For More.

• PLUS: Discovery Carries Self-Destruct Switch

Findings on Saturn's Moon Titan: You Say Ice-Spewing Volcano, I Say Squiggly Lines

Titan is one of the few rocky worlds in the solar system with a thick atmosphere, and it could be home to volcanoes that spew subzero mixtures of water and ammonia or methane, according to scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Click For More.

• PLUS: Astronomers Find Titan's Surface Similar to Earth

Trees to Power Their own Wildfire Sensors

MIT researchers have discovered that trees carry a (small) charge. Now, green energy takes on new meaning with wildfire sensors powered by the woody plants themselves. Here's how it works. Click For More.

• PLUS: The Best Eco-Friendly Products and Projects of '08

5 Projects Ask if Life on Earth Began as Alien Life in Space

Researchers are launching rovers to Mars, sending life on long journeys through space, attaching rocks to heat shields and shooting pellets at 4 miles per second—all to find out if life on Earth could have begun in outer space. Click For More.

• PLUS: The Man Behind NASA’s Vertical Gun Range

Bringing Stem Cells to War: Meet the Blood Pharmers

New research from DARPA could open the door to on-demand blood-cell manufacturing on battlefields and in hospitals. Who needs blood donations when you have blood pharming? Click For More.

• PLUS: 10 High-Tech Health Breakthroughs Coming Soon

World’s Hardiest Organisms to Face 3 Years in Space

This year a Russian spaceship will send more than 10 of earth’s toughest life forms on an interplanetary Iditarod of sorts. But these animals, plants and bacteria are tough creatures, and scientists think they may survive against all odds. Click For More.

• PLUS: Glenn Reynolds Hopes There's No Life on Mars

The Man Behind NASA's Ballistic Range Complex

When the manager of NASA’s Ballistic Range Complex gets ready for target practice, he’s not firing ordinary shells. Rather, he's shooting tiny replicas of meteors and spacecraft to mimic how craters form and how vehicles may fare in space. Click For More.

• PLUS: Meteor Showers Create Lunar Explosions

U.N. Puts Greenhouse-Free Clean Coal on the Back Burner

Negotiators met this week for the United Nations Climate Change Conference to discuss what to do to reduce climate change after the Kyoto Protocol expires. Click For More.

• PLUS: 7 Energy Efficiency Myths Debunked

Can Offshore Grids Solve Our Wind Power Woes?

The race is on for offshore wind power. The U.S. Department of Energy says that wind power, including offshore wind farms, could account for up to 20 percent of America's electricity generation by 2030. Click For More.

• PLUS: How to Fix U.S. Wind Power

Is a Controversial Technology to Blame for the F-18 Crash?

An F-18 fighter jet crashed in a residential neighborhood in San Diego, leaving a fiery trail of wreckage and at least four dead. While investigators have given no word of possible causes, they are investigating error in the plane's fly-by-wire system. Click For More.

• PLUS: Exclusive B-2 Bomber Crash Scene Photos

Fringe Pushes Probability to the Limit as Characters Walk Through Walls

Fringe's tenth episode, "Safe," opens with a team of burglars who rob banks by walking through walls. We talked to experts about the real quantum mechanical phenomenon of tunneling to find out just how unlikely the scenario is. Click For More.

• PLUS: Jumper's Tricked-Out Teleportation Reality

Why I Hope There's No Life on Mars

We've already found water on mars, but finding organic inhabitants on our red neighbor would be the discovery of the ages. Columnist Glenn Harlan Reynolds worries that it would only make life on Earth more complicated. Click For More.

• PLUS: Search for Life Goes On as Phoenix Mission Ends

How Fringe Gets Memory Science Wrong: Hollywood Fact vs. Fiction

In the latest episode of Fringe, "The Dreamscape," the Pattern-seeking team turns to its old tricks. The memory-erasing experiment and a fatal hallucination are this week's topics for our resident brain expert. Click For More.

• PLUS: Fringe's Questionable Music to Math Connections

For 10th Anniversary, 10 Headaches and Near-Mishaps on the International Space Station

Happy Birthday, International Space Station. On Nov. 20, 1998, a Russian rocket launched the first piece of the station into space. Here are some of the headaches, mishaps and near-misses the ISS has had to confront in its 10 years of existence. Click For More.

• PLUS: High-Wire DIY Can Save the Space Station

How to Save and Purify the World's Water Supply: Experts Weigh In

Four water experts came to the Hearst Tower in New York City to discuss how the country can deal with the water crisis, why global warming will exacerbate the problem and what will happen if we do nothing. Click For More.

• 2008 BREAKTHROUGH AWARDS: PUR Water Purifier