Who’ll Stop the Rain?

Countries go to great lengths of make sure the Olympics are perfect- Athens officials took unconventional steps to clear away stray dogs and prostitutes. But Beijing’s preparations may take the cake- they’ve designed a rocket to blast away rain clouds and guarantee sun. History shows that there’s a 50 percent chance of rain during the opening and closing ceremonies, but Chinese scientists have created a method to disperse precipitation clouds and prevent rain over the city. The rocket is still being tested and while some meteorologists say it won’t work, Chinese officials expect nothing but sunny days ahead.

NASA gets sexy
Current spacesuits have layers upon layers of fabric and pressurized gas to keep a safe amount of air pressure on the body. But they’re so bulky and unflattering. Luckily, astronauts can now show off their svelte figures with the new BioSuit, a spandex-like alternative in space fashion. This new suit provides pressure by tightly wrapping the fabric around the body, but also allows for flexible movement. The redesign wasn’t just done for vanity- the current suits weigh almost 300 pounds and make movement difficult when astronauts aren’t floating in space; the new suits will make those football games on the moon a little less awkward.
Harry Potter and the Environmental Conscience
Admit it, the only thought you had when you were reading the new Harry Potter book wasn’t ‘Will Harry defeat Voldemort?’ or ‘I wonder who’s going to die.’ No, you were too busy thinking ‘This behemoth of a book probably single-handedly destroyed an acre of the Amazon and now the Earth is going to die because I wanted to know what happened to Snape.’ Well, worry no longer; Deathly Hallows was actually the greenest book in publishing history. Scholastic got 65 percent of their paper from forests maintained in an environmentally- and socially-responsible way and also contained 30 percent post-consumer waste fiber. The printing is expected to inspire other publishers to use environmentally responsible methods for choosing their paper.

Liquid TV, Why You’ll Never Be Able to Beat Your Computer in Checkers (if it’s really playing) and Bee Deaths Solved all after the jump!

The Chameleon Liquid
Scientists say a new liquid that changes color with exposure to magnetic fields could do for LCD monitors what ethanol is doing to oil. The liquid, which contains oxide particles covered in plastic, is cheaper and easier to make and control. Besides replacing LCD technology, the liquids could also revolutionize paper; The ability to make the liquid as thin and flexible as necessary means that scientists could use it to make rewritable paper. As far as I’m concerned, if they can make a TV that makes Planet Earth look even better for less money, I’m on board.

No Words, Just Emotions
Chinese researchers have created a video player that doesn’t just measure volume or time, but also the emotions of the video. The EmoPlayer will eventually be adapted to use emotion-detecting technology, but for now it just lets users edit the emotional timeline. Experiments show that people found it easier to navigate the videos. It’ll probably be a while before the EmoPlayer gets fully integrated onto YouTube, so for now here’s a quick tip: kittens, puppies and babies always signal happy.

King me!
If neither player makes a mistake, checkers will always end in a draw. That’s the result of a study at University of Alberta, Canada, which used computer simulations and plenty of complex math to “solve” checkers. This shows how a computer was able to defeat checkers champ Marion Tinsley in the 1990’s and why you’ll never be able to beat your computer at work.

Bee Deaths: Case Closed
Weeks I ago I wrote about a condition that was killing the world’s bees. Now a Spanish scientist says an Asian parasite called nosema ceranae is to blame. After studying the deaths for several years and testing various theories, he settled on the parasite as the culprit. Asian bees aren’t as susceptible to it, but it kills Western honeybees in a matter of days. Among the other ideas that were tested were drought and some odd theory about the electromagnetic waves from cell phones throwing off bee navigation.