Engineering News

From Wired Top Stories:

Tom Warner documents the powerful beauty of lightning with an array of optical and electromagnetic sensors. He often uses a Vision Research 'Phantom' high-speed camera. Warner is a Ph.D student at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, in Rapid City. He studies atmospheric sciences with a specialty in lightning research. "Lightning is one of nature's most spectacular phenomena," says Warner. "I want to understand how lightning behaves."

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From NYT > Science:

At his Princeton laboratory, Samuel Wang is searching for basic information on how the brains of humans and dogs work. Dr. Wang, 42, an associate professor at the university, also spends time popularizing breakthroughs in his specialty — neuroscience. His book, "Welcome to Your Brain," was named 2009 Young Adult Science Book of the Year by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Next semester, he will offer a first for Princeton: an undergraduate course called "Neuroscience and Everyday Life." Here is an edited version of a four-hour conversation.

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From mental_floss Blog:

We're still stumped on that whole chicken vs. egg question, but there's one thing we do know for sure -- traffic congestion predates the automobile. Long before the invention of the internal combustion engine, horses and people were already having so much trouble yielding to each other at intersections that, in 1868, a British railroad engineer designed the first traffic signal to help them out.

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From Discovery News - Top Stories:

"While it's no surprise that there is water there, these short-lived ions are extra evidence for sub-surface water and where there's water, carbon and energy, some of the major ingredients for life are present," said Andrew Coates from University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory.

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From NYT > Science:

The world's biggest and most expensive physics experiment will finally rumble into regular operation later this month, but it is going to operate at only half power for the next two years and then shut down for a yearlong repair session, CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, said this week.

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