Adobe has announced that it will be lifting licensing fees for Flash to developers working on mobile applications as part of its new Open Screen Project. The goal is to bring more rich content to phones across a standardized platform. Flash is already ubiquitous in Web browsers, so the available content on the net is mature and widespread. Currently, phones use a disparate variety of software to power video and games; rarely has the feedback been overwhelmingly positive about a mobile experience with either kind of media.

What do starfish, salamanders, and the Hulk have in common? They all have the power of regeneration. Starfish can regenerate their legs; salamanders can do that and a few better by regrowing their tail, and parts of their heart and eyes. The Hulk, well, the Hulk can regenerate it all. We ordinary humans are not so lucky. If we lose something, it's gone for good, unless, that is, we happen to have a brother working in the field of regenerative medicine.

While the news that Mayor Bloomberg's plan for NYC congestion pricing was defeated is something of a low point for urban cyclists, that coming out of Washington, D.C., is much more encouraging. Next month D.C. will become the first U.S. city to launch a public bike sharing venture like the wildly popular Vélib (short for “vélo liberté”) program in Paris. One hundred and twenty bicycles will be available at 10 central locations for an annual membership cost of $40.

I've seen hand-held solar chargers before—the Solio immediately comes to mind—but I've yet to see a functional wind-powered hand-held charger. Enter the HYmini. It's palm-sized, comes in three colors, costs 50 bucks, and can charge your gadgets with nothing but a stiff breeze. Well, almost. While it's a welcome idea, on closer inspection, the feature set isn't all we'd like it to be.

We've talked in this space in the past few months about detecting the existence of Earth-like planets in other solar systems, and on the educated guesswork which goes into putting a number on the probability of intelligent life existing out there as well. You may remember that the discovery of terrestrial planets is well on its way as technology improves; and that the Drake equation—with all its assumptions—has proved to be remarkably accurate.

Portland is arguably the furthest along of any American city as far as far as bicycle-friendly infrastructure goes (Seattle and Davis are close seconds). But none of them even approaches the level of cultural saturation prevalent in the Netherlands; the grand Mecca of cycle commuting. That is not to imply the American cities' efforts are futile, I mention the disparity only to convey the weight behind a statement this week from the Dutch Cycling Federation calling on the government to mandate the installation of air bags on cars. On the outside.

Bioplastics, like biofuels, are on the rise as consumers demand alternatives to fossil fuel-based plastics and big business take their wants seriously. Everything from shopping bags to clamshell containers are being reengineered out of bio-based packaging in the hope of finding a truly disposable container; one that, instead of ending up floating in the ocean, will quickly decompose underground. That ideal, as you might expect, is not quite so simple. And already, our two leading alternative bag types are falling short of the hype.

We have all at one point or another learned some variation of a mathematical formula involving trains and their timetables. For example: if a train leaves Boston for New York at 7am and travels at 60mph, will it beat a train leaving Providence at 6am traveling 45mph? The idea behind this kind of "story" problem is to engage a student with a real-world example to which they can relate. The thinking follows that that engagement will solidify the mathematical concept. It's one of those conceits that has hung around for seemingly as long as math has been taught. And it may very well be completely wrong.

The science of defining measurements is a strange pursuit, and very much a quest to pin down those things which refuse to be immutably static. We have come exceedingly close to exact on a number of the important basics, like time and distance. We do that with methods and materials that can be recreated in laboratories anywhere on Earth, just the same as any published research should be replicable by a group of scientific peers. We have the second bound to the predictable radiation patterns of a caesium atom. The meter is a fixed interval of laser light traveling in a vacuum.

Nintendo Wii devotees are likely already familiar with Johnny Chung Lee as the guy who appeared one day last year on YouTube with a mind-bender of a demo on how to use the Wii remote and sensor bar to do head tracking. By placing the Wii remote at the base of a TV and attaching the sensor bar to a pair of glasses (and in conjunction with a bit of custom software), Lee made the three-dimensional images on screen respond to his position in space, appearing to float off in front of the screen. As it turns out, Lee is more than just a guy with a knack for understanding the Wii remote; he's currently a graduate Ph.D. candidate in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. And he's so impressed the gaming world with his developments that EA is bringing a Wii game to market this spring with a head tracking Easter egg.