Cutting Emissions from Cows Annie Kavanagh via Wikimedia

UK researchers seeking to cut back on greenhouse gases have found a deliciously potent weapon for fighting agricultural methane emissions: curry. It turns out two spices customarily used to season curry dishes -- coriander and turmeric -- have an antibiotic effect in the stomachs of sheep and cows, killing methane-producing bacteria there. By spicing up animal feeds, farmers could reduce methane emissions from farms by up to 40 percent. Read more »

The Nanoscale Light Mill Motor Ignore the Reich-i-ness of the motor's shape and you'll notice that at a shorter 810-nanometer wavelength the light strikes the outside of the motors arms, turning the motor counterclockwise. A larger 1,700-nanometer wave passes through to strike the elbows, turning the motor the opposite direction. Image courtesy of Zhang group

Whether wielded by Egyptian sun gods, Luke Skywalker, or your run of the mill solar-thermal power plant, light has the potential to do big things. Thanks to a breakthrough by UC Berkeley and the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, we can now make light do very small things as well. Researchers there have created the first nano-sized light mill motor that can be manipulated in both speed and direction by tuning the frequency of the light waves that serve as its power source. Read more »

A. thaliana cell development A new video animation shows cellular development in Arabidopsis thaliana, shedding light on how plants grow. Nature Methods via Scientific American

Watching grass grow is way more interesting than you think. In an effort to understand cellular development in plants, a team of French scientists made a surprisingly exciting video animation of grass growing at the cellular scale. Read more »