Building a sun on earth

Scientists have unveiled the first piece of a massive nuclear fusion reactor, scheduled to be turned on in 2018. The international project, called ITER, will be a testing ground for the technology needed to make the world's first fusion power plants.

Efforts to harness the awesome power of nuclear fusion have been ongoing for decades, but have become ever more alluring as our demand for clean, abundant energy has soared. Fusion power - the energy source of the sun and stars - has the potential to produce massive amounts of energy, with no greenhouse gas emissions and only small quantities of nuclear waste.

ITER is, however, a fantastically expensive project, predicted to cost up to £18 billion. The UK puts £20 million into the kitty every year - almost half of our total energy research budget.

I wonder whether it's wise to invest so much in a single flagship project?

Image: NASA

Scientists solve swarming secret

A plague of locusts is spreading rapidly across the science news landscape. To discover the happy secret behind the swarm, click here...

Cute picture of the day

Meet the gribble, a tiny marine bug that loves munching wood. Some scientists in the UK believe that it could help them to produce biofuels from wood and straw.

Image: Lauriec

Blooming marvellous

Artificially triggering blooms of plankton, like the one above off the coast of Namibia, is one of the more contentious options for reducing atmospheric CO2. Dump a load of iron into the sea and plankton proliferate like mad, absorb CO2 from the air and then die, sinking to the bottom of the ocean and taking all that nasty carbon with them. That's it in theory, but where's the evidence?

Direct experiments to assess iron fertilization are few and far between and rather frowned upon, not least because we don't really know what impact adding all that iron could have on sea life. But a team of scientists have just reported findings from an area of ocean close to Antarctica that experiences natural inputs of iron from eroding rocks. They found that plankton blooms created by the iron do indeed result in carbon being buried on the ocean floor, but not as much as scientists had previously hoped...

Click here for the full story.

Image: Nasa

Meet your ancestor

Scientists have been re-jigging the animal family tree, and have found this strange critter lurking close to the root. It's safe to say we've come a long way over the past 600 million years.

Image: W. Jakob

Unsettling picture of the day

"The design of current forceps have not really evolved in centuries and if the obstetrician pulls too hard with the current instrument during birth, it can kill the child in extreme cases, while even normal use causes facial damage and trauma."

The inventor of 'Safeceps' - plastic forceps that measure the forces exerted on a baby's head during birth - announces his creation to the world's press.

Image: UWIC

Is popularity all in the genes?

According to researchers at Harvard University, popularity is influenced by our genes.

By comparing social networks of identical and fraternal twins, they found out that identical twins who share the same genetic characteristics tend to have similar circles of friends. “We were able to show that our particular location in vast social networks has a genetic basis,” says one of the scientists who took part in the research. “In fact, the beautiful and complicated pattern of human connection depends on our genes to a significant measure.”

I can see how genes can affect our personality, but I must admit that I am a bit puzzled when hearing that they can influence how we behave in a group. What about the impact of education, social status or past experiences? Are we just inheriting a social network through our genes?

Inspired by nature

It's been a good week for biomimetics - the branch of science that pinches neat ideas from nature to make new technologies (Velcro is a classic example).

First up, a team of researchers have copied the needle-like ovipositor of a wood wasp in the design of a new medical probe. The insects evolved the structure to drill through pine trees and deposit their eggs, but scientists have applied the same mechanism to a robot which will be used to burrow accurately through brain tissue.

Other scientists have also been busy mining the insect world for new ideas. An American research team has just designed a novel propulsion system for small robots and boats that mimics the wriggling of aquatic beetle larvae. The robot they've created is propeller free - instead it uses the natural surface tension of the water to move across its surface. You can see a video of it in action here.

Image: Dan Fleet

Project Bloodhound latest

Last October, a team of British engineers came into the Antenna gallery to launch an ambitious project to build a 1,000 mph car. Since then, they've been busily working away at their headquarters in Bristol.

There's an update on how the project is coming along on the Guardian Science Blog today.

Image: Science Museum

The changing faces of the moon

The far side of the moon, which today faces out into space, used to point towards Earth, scientists have discovered.

By looking at craters on the lunar surface, astronomers calculated that an asteroid impact 3.9 billion years ago forced the moon into a 180 degree turn.

Great information on all things lunar can be found here.

Image: NASA

Scientists dig Galileo

British and Italian scientists have announced a plan to exhume the remains of the 16th century astronomer Galileo. The team hope that DNA tests will help to diagnose the visual problems Galileo is known to have suffered from throughout his life.

Ironically, some of the findings of "father of modern physics" are thought to have been affected by his poor eyesight. Knowing what was wrong with his vision may make it possible to correct his erroneous observations, say the scientists.

Fingerprinting with Dr Bond

Last June, I organised an event in the Science Museum's Dana Centre, exploring the latest techniques in forensic science. One of the speakers, Dr John Bond of Northamptonshire Police, told us about a new method he had devised for revealing fingerprints on metal objects - guns, bullets, crowbars, that kind of thing.

Instead of 'dusting' for prints, he had discovered that the mild corrosive properties of sweat can etch fingerprints permanently onto metal surfaces. These prints can be recovered even after a bullet has been fired, a bomb has exploded, or a knife found in a lake after 20 years.

Dr Bond had never really done much work with the public before our event, but since then he's become something of a media star. I've been following his involvement over the past few months in several unsolved cases in the US. Then, in December, Dr Bond's technique was named by Time magazine as one of the top 50 inventions of 2008!

You can read about Dr Bond's latest exploits in this article on the BBC website today.

Antarctic scientists feel the heat!

Until now, scientists thought Antarctica's interior was cooling, however a new study published in the journal Nature on Thursday has shown that the centre of the continent has actually warmed over the last 50 years.

But don't get your life boats out just yet. The study, which uses satellite data, has shown that the average temperature has risen from approximately -50 to -49.5 degrees Celsius.

Is Antarctica now officially the last place on Earth to feel the effects of Climate change?

Check here for the full story.

Image: NASA

Ancient farmers chose colourful pigs

"The Mesopotamians had different coloured farm animals 5,000 years ago, and in that regard they were no different to Paris Hilton, who has a pink Chihuahua, or anyone else with animals with unusual coat colours. This study demonstrates that the human penchant for novelty stretches back thousands of years."

Research into pig genetics finds that the colourful markings of domesticated swine are due to the aesthetic choices of early farmers.

Image: Jeff Veitch

Even 'fake' acupuncture works

A big medical study has found that acupuncture relieves the pain of headaches, but it doesn't matter where you stick the needles!

Are the French eating all the frogs?

Our hunger for frog meat seems to be a far more serious threat to frogs than previously suspected.

According to researchers from the National University of Singapore, between 180 millions and 1 billion frogs are harvested every year for human consumption. Frog meat is not only enjoyed in France where 2500 to 4000 tonnes of frogs are imported each year, but also in Asia and the USA.

How serious is this threat compared to the impact of climate change or the loss of habitat?

Image: Julienbzh35

Miniature robots get motoring

Surgeons could soon be driving tiny robots around our bodies, thanks to the creation of miniature motors measuring just a quarter of a millimetre across.

Apparently, the lack of mini-motors - needed to propel the bots through the narrow passages of our bodies - has been holding this technology back for years. It sounds suspiciously like the 1986 film Innerspace to me!

Shiny crops could cool the climate

The shiny leaves of many crops could be used to keep
the climate cool, according to scientists at the University of Bristol.

The reflective surface of the plants' leaves bounces sunlight back into space - a phenomenon called "albedo".

If farmers grow more crops with glossy leaves we could reduce reduce summer temperatures by 1°C, say the researchers (see BBC and Science for details).

Big engineering fixes for global warming have been proposed before, but they usually have a serious downside. As far as I can tell, though, this idea seems free from nasty side effects. Can anyone see an obvious problem that I've missed?