Sam Barrett

Although we still have much progress to make on reducing emissions, new research suggests the situation could be worse.

According to a study by the Desert Research Institute, pollutant levels at the beginning of the 20th century were two to five times higher than current levels of pollution. Researchers attribute the decrease in pollution levels to the advent of more efficient coal-burning technologies, as well as legislation aimed at reducing emissions.

The world may finally be ready for the awesome taste of calcium.

Chemists from the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia have done research that suggests mice may have a specific taste for calcium. Because mice and humans share many of the same genes, the finding suggests that humans may have the ability to taste the elemental nutrient as well.

When most people think of gold, they think of Fort Knox, or a phat set of grillz. The exceptionally nerdy -- like some people at popsci.com -- automatically recall gold's atomic number of 79. But no one suspected gold's role as nature's nanotechnological answer for purifying air, except for a team of researchers from the Queensland University of Technology.

Psychology researchers from Princeton University have created a computer program that provides better analysis of facial expressions and helps scientists determine what makes a face seem trustworthy or threatening.

Earlier research has found that people make snap judgments—within a tenth of a second—whether or not a person can be trusted solely on the appearance of the person’s face. Based that finding, Princeton researchers tried to quantify and define which characteristics a face must have to for people to reach a conclusion about that person.

Chemists from Aerodyne Research, Inc. and Boston University have developed an aerosol mass spectrometer that will aid in the study of airborne particles and their effect on climate change and public health.

A team of engineers at Virginia Tech University has designed a pair of pants that may identify people who have a high risk of falling.

Several small circuit boards containing microcontrollers, sensors, and communication devices -- called e-TAGS -- are embedded in the pants at the hip, knee, and ankle joints. Each foot has a piezoelectric sensor—a sensor that generates an electric pulse through applied stress—at the heel that is connected to an e-TAG in the pants. The whole setup is powered by a nine-volt battery attached near the waist.

As researchers find new technologies to power the world of the future, the answer may be blowing in the wind.

Across the country, wind-generated power has been showing the potential to be a significant energy generator. Last week, Rock Port, Missouri, became the first city in the United States to generate its electricity entirely through wind-powered technology. Meanwhile, Texas, known for its oil connections, has become the nation's largest producer of wind-powered energy and is investing almost $5 billion in a wind power project.

Ninety billion tons, nearly one-tenth of Earth's biomass, is made up of microbes living beneath the sea floor, according to two studies appearing this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Nature.

A new study by the University of Alberta suggests that a massive undersea volcano eruption 93 million years ago was the source of much of the world’s oil.

Researchers Steven Turgeon and Robert Creaser were alerted to the prehistoric blast when they found specific levels of osmium isotopes (indicators of volcanic activity in sea water) in black shale rocks off the coast of South America and in the mountains of central Italy.

Biologists at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University have a strange fascination with pond scum. But the fascination may prove more useful than anyone could have imagined.