BBC Learning English - Learning English A States' Rights Battle over Light Bulbs The incandescent light bulb has been around for more than 130 years. But starting in January 2012, it will become a piece of history, pulled off the shelves in all 50 states—unless a group of fired-up conservatives manage to spark a mini-revolution over states’ rights. In 2007, George W. Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman and Presidential candidate, was one of the first national figures to fight for the right to light up a room Thomas Edison-style. Washington having failed them, the light bulb brigade is now taking its case to the states. Some of the states, including Michigan, aren’t currently home to a light bulb manufacturer. One state is giving bulb activists hope.
Interactive 3D model of Solar System Planets and Night Sky Onestopenglish: Number one for English language teachers Interactive 3D model of Solar System Planets and Night Sky These Cars Built By High School And College Students Get Up To 3,587 MPG Every year, the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas challenges over 100 teams of high school and university students to build and race incredibly energy-efficient vehicles powered by all types of sources--solar, electric, fuel cell, gasoline, and more. This year’s race was especially impressive: The prototype gasoline vehicle of Quebec City-based Laval University achieved a staggering 3,587 miles per gallon on the Houston racetrack. That’s the most mileage per gallon ever seen at a Shell Eco-Marathon Americas competition. In the UrbanConcept Diesel category, which focuses on practical vehicle designs (Laval’s prototype vehicle was focused on efficiency more than practicality), Louisiana Tech took first place for its HotRod diesel car. The vehicle traveled around the track at 315.9 mpg. The team is already working on next year’s design, which will have a completely new drive train. Check out all the winners in the slide show above.
Audio/Video Lectures Shrunken Proton Baffles Scientists One of the Universe's most common particles has left physicists completely stumped. The proton, a fundamental constituent of the atomic nucleus, seems to be smaller than thought. And despite three years of careful analysis and reanalysis of numerous experiments, nobody can figure out why. An experiment published today in Science only deepens the mystery, says Ingo Sick, a physicist at the University of Basel in Switzerland. The proton's problems started in 2010, when a paper published in Nature seemed to show that the particle was 4% smaller than originally thought. The latest experiment also used muonic hydrogen, but probed a different set of energy levels in the atom. But it is still not compatible with the measurements taken by non-muonic techniques, says John Arrington, a nuclear physicist at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois. Perplexing puzzle One possibility is that Antognini's team has inadvertently discovered new physics. Arrington and Sick both have their doubts.
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