Science Glance
Researchers have worked out how to make matter from pure light and are drawing up plans to demonstrate the feat within the next 12 months.
The theory underpinning the idea was first described 80 years ago by two physicists who later worked on the first atomic bomb. At the time they considered the conversion of light into matter impossible in a laboratory.
But in a report published on Sunday, physicists at Imperial College London claim to have cracked the problem using high-powered lasers and other equipment now available to scientists.
Matter will be created from light within a year, claim scientists
Long-Necked Sauropod Dinosaur Unearthed In Argentina
It's not exactly small at 30 feet long (9 meters), but you might want to call this newly identified dinosaur the littlest giant.
Scientists in Argentina on Wednesday announced the discovery of the fossilized remains of a unique member of the famous long-necked, plant-munching dinosaurs known as sauropods, the largest land creatures in Earth's history.
The dinosaur, named Leinkupal laticauda, may be the smallest of the sauropod family called diplodocids, typified by the well-known Diplodocus, which lived in North America, they said.
Robotic submarine implodes 6.2 miles beneath ocean surface
One of the world's most proficient deep-diving submarines, the remote controlled Nereus, imploded over the weekend while exploring the Kermadec Trench, northeast of New Zealand's North Island.
Nereus was a stalwart of deep sea exploration, and a prized tool of U.S. science.
"Nereus helped us explore places we've never seen before and ask questions we never thought to ask," Timothy Shank, a scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), told BBC News. WHOI managed Nereus's research and diving activities.
Wyoming rejects science standards, won't teach man-made climate change
Wyoming, the U.S.'s leading coal-producer, has become the first state to reject new K-12 science standards put forward by national education groups after officials objected to the teaching of man-made global warming as a fact.
The Wyoming Board of Education decided recently that the Next Generation Science Standards needed more review after questions were raised over the treatment of global warming.
Board President Ron Micheli said the review will look into whether "we can't get some standards that are Wyoming standards and standards we all can be proud of."
Universe evolution recreated in lab
An international team of researchers has created the most complete visual simulation of how the Universe evolved.
The computer model shows how the first galaxies formed around clumps of a mysterious, invisible substance called dark matter. It is the first time that the Universe has been modelled so extensively and to such great resolution.
The research has been published in the journal Nature.
Stephen Hawking: Dismissing artificial intelligence would be a mistake
Stephen Hawking, in an article inspired by the new Johnny Depp flick Transcendence, said it would be the "worst mistake in history" to dismiss the threat of artificial intelligence.
In a paper he co-wrote with University at California, Berkeley computer-science professor Stuart Russell, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics professors Max Tegmark and Frank Wilczek, Hawking said cited several achievements in the field of artificial intelligence, including self-driving cars, Siri and the computer that won Jeopardy!
"Such achievements will probably pale against what the coming decades will bring," the article in Britain's Independent said.
Paleontologists discover oldest known pterodactyloid
By the end of the Jurassic period, most primitive species of the order Pterosaurs became extinct. But one lineage of the order evolved rather quickly into pterodactyloids, and managed to survive.
These were some of the largest creatures ever to take to the skies, says University of South Florida paleontologist Brian Andres.
A 162.7 million-year-old fossil of the oldest pterodactyloid species unearthed in northwest China sheds light on how such species adapted to their environments.
Chris Sloan, formerly with National Geographic and now president of media company Science Visualization, first spotted the fossil in 2001.
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