Virus Sebagai Energi Listrik ??

London: Scientists claim to have developed a unique technique to harness electricity from a bacteria eating virus to power your mobile phones.
A team at the University of California, Berkeley are using the virus known as M13 bacteriophage to replace toxic elements used to charge the cell phones.

The virus possesses a property known as piezoelectricity, which means it can translate mechanical energy into electrical energy, the Daily Mail reported.

Researchers believe the discovery could pave way for mobile phones that can be charged while you walk and replace the toxic piezoelectric elements already used in mobile phones.
Most mobile phone microphones are piezoelectric because they need to convert energy from sound waves into electrical output that can be transmitted and then translated back into sound waves at the other end of the line.

A Banner Year in the Hunt for Exoplanets

2012: A Banner Year in the Hunt for Exoplanets

Some astronomers say the discovery of Earth 2.0 isn’t far behind.

Andrew Fazekas

for National Geographic News

Published January 2, 2013

The search for worlds outside our solar system has come a long way since the first exoplanets were confirmed in the early 1990s. Since then, the average rate of alien-world discoveries has shot from about three per year to between fifty and a hundred per year in the last five years. As of the end of 2012, with the tally standing at 854 newfound worlds and reports of new detections being announced nearly every week, thanks in large measure to NASA's Kepler space telescope, astronomers are calling this the golden age of exoplanet discovery.

Now the race is on to find Earth's twin, the elusive Earth-size planet in the habitable, or "Goldilocks," zone around a star where liquid water can exist—and experts believe we may hit the cosmic jackpot soon.
"I think we are very close to finding a potential 'Earth 2.0'—possibly next year," said Abel Méndez, a researcher with the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.

the Tiniest Reptiles in the World

 Unmatched Among Chameleons?

Photograph courtesy Frank Glaw

Match-tip tiny, Brookesia micra (juvenile pictured) is the smallest of four new chameleon species found on the African island country of Madagascar. With an average adult length of just over an inch (2.9 centimeters) from snout to tail, B. micra is among the tiniest reptiles in the world.
(Related: "Record-Breaking Chameleons Live Only a Few Months.")