The man who helped to first sequence the human genome ten years ago, is looking to use biology to tackle the energy problem.

First proposed in 1929 by J.B.S. Haldane in his essay on the origin of life, the "soup theory" suggested that life as we know it was the result of UV radiation converting methane, ammonia and water into the first organic compounds in the early earth oceans. The first cells grew by fermenting this organic primordial soup to generate energy in the form of ATP.

Finding and treating a tumor without disturbing normal tissue presents challenges -- sometimes the most effective therapies can be invasive and harsh.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have devised a way they might deliver the right therapy directly to tumors using special molecules, called aptamers, which specifically bind to living tumor tissue.

For years, geology textbooks have described the 'Biogenic' theory - what is thought to be the only way oil and natural gas form in the Earth's subsurface. It is simply a product of compression and heating of ancient organic materials over geological time.

Beginning this week, the Mountaineer power plant in West Virginia will try a new strategy for dealing with its gas problems: it will bury them. Maligned by many for the large quantities of undesirable emissions, coal driven power plants such as Mountaineer will soon be trying out the first commercial demonstration of the technology known as sequestration, in which an unwanted compound is bound up chemically for later disposal. Carbon dioxide may be nearly impossible to filter out in its gas form, but once it has reacted with ammonium carbonate it can be compressed and liquefied for underground disposal. Once underground, the CO2 would slowly seep into microscopic pores before reacting harmlessly with assorted minerals.

While the scope of the Mountaineer project - half a million tons of carbon dioxide over the next five years - accounts for only a small fraction of the plants total emissions, success could pave the way for higher efficiency and more widespread usage in the future.

Researchers from the Technical University of Munich have fashioned industrial grade hook-and-loop tape - commonly known as velcro - out of steel, which they say can operate at temperatures up to 800 degrees Celsius, and withstand tensile loads up to 35 metric tons per square meter.

Although they have no sensory organs, by secreting and taking in chemicals from their surrounding environment, bacteria are able to communicate with each other and gain insight into what is going on around them.

Typically, when a television or computer monitor goes bad, the set is taken to the dump, where the LCD panels are incinerated or buried in the ground.

Researchers from Dupont and Lehigh University are using short stretches of single-stranded DNA sequences to accurately sort and separate mixtures of Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) into distinct categories - previously a major hurdle in nanotube production. The details are published in an article found in the July 9 issue of Nature.