These days, the biggest problem in medicine is not curing the disease, but rather diagnosing it early enough that something can be done. Enter the Breathalyzer v.2.0: a breath test that can be used to diagnose a number of illnesses just like a police officer might check for inebriation. If this moves into widescale use, maybe I could actually get my girlfriend into a doctor despite her phobias.

Tests of a new vaccine on mice have shown success at reversing memory loss with no side effects. Success in animal models is a long way from success in humans, but it’s certainly a promising development.

I try not to be a humbug, but I’m having a hard time closing my eyes to the downside of drivers checking their cell phones for open parking spaces.

Or so argues Carlo Longino in his blog. In his formulation the distinction between old media and new media is primarily new media’s willingness to express an opinion about the material they’re presenting. In my opinion, he’s right.

I’m beginning to see a trend. Popular Mechanics has an article up taking a look at some alternative fuels research going on GE. Apparently, they’ve solved come close to solving the problems plaguing the commercialization of hydrogen power: namely, extremely high cost and the fact that it takes many times more energy to produce the hydrogen than will be released in its combustion. With this new technique, the folks at GE expect to produce hydrogen at a cost comparable with that of gasoline.