- Global warming may become a thing of the past. Courtesy a bacterium that could help retard the process, turning methane into energy before the gas can escape into the atmosphere and add to the global temperature. The microbe, known as Beijerinckia and found in the peat bogs of Siberia, loves "munching" methane, a greenhouse gas, says a Science report authored by scientists at the Michigan State University.
- Athletes banned from tak-ing performance-enhancing drugs now have a natural substitute: mothers milk. An eight-week study of 40 Australian athletes by scientists at the University of South Australia showed that those who took daily doses of colostrum the protein-rich fluid found in mothers milk in the first few days after a babys birth ran longer, covered longer distance and did more work than those given a protein placebo.
- Scientists at New Zea-lands Massey University have harvested a crop of gold-digging plants called Brassica juncea. They used a technique called phyto extraction to goad plants to take up gold from the soil into their shoots. After the shoots are dried and burned, the gold can be removed from the burnt ash. Time for the gold rush?
- Now a substitute for plastics. By lacing goats milk with synthesised spider proteins, researchers in Quebec plan to make biosteel, a very light fabric thats biodegradable and nearly bullet-proof.