Echoing luminaries before him--from Norman Borlaug to Kofi Annan --the world's richest man, Bill Gates, called last night for a second Green Revolution focused on African farmers. That revolution won't just be in new crop varieties and higher yields but also in farmer training and infrastructure--and, perhaps most controversially, will be genetically modified. [More]

Researchers have discovered that, contrary to previous assumptions, older adults are more amenable than younger ones to having a robot "perform critical monitoring tasks that would require little interaction between the robot and the human."

An "optical soil dipstick" will help scientists, urban planners and farmers understand the changing health of the soil, as well as the soil's agricultural potential and other environmental concerns.

Direct communication between Earth and Mars can be strongly disturbed and even blocked by the Sun for weeks at a time, cutting off any future human mission to the Red Planet. An European Space Agency engineer working with engineers in the UK may have found a solution using a new type of orbit combined with continuous-thrust ion propulsion.

A breakthrough discovery in mice may lead to a new treatment for Alzheimer's disease that actually removes amyloid plaques -- considered a hallmark of the disease -- from patients' brains. This discovery is based on the unexpected finding that when the brain's immune cells (microglia) are activated by the interleukin-6 protein (IL-6), they actually remove plaques instead of causing them or making them worse.

It's all about the meters . As any would-be installer of solar rooftop panels knows, having the right meter to count how much power your photovoltaics are producing is key. So perhaps it's no surprise that Team Germany snatched victory on the last day of the 2009 U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon with a perfect score in, you guessed it, net metering. [More]

People are more likely to wash their hands when they have been shamed into it, according to a new study.

All of life is founded on the interactions of millions of proteins. These are the building blocks for cells and form the molecular mechanisms of life. The problem is that proteins are extremely difficult to study, particularly because there are so many of them and they appear in all sizes and weights. Now, researchers have made a breakthrough in protein research -- making virtually the complete inventory of all the proteins in the mitochondria, the energy producers found in every cell.

Patients reporting new low-back pain are more likely to undergo surgery if treated in an area with a higher-than-average concentration of magnetic resonance imaging machines, according to new research.

Tree leaves may be powerful tools for monitoring air quality and planning biking routes and walking paths, suggests a new study. Leaves along bus routes were up to 10 times more magnetic than leaves on quieter streets, the study found.