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(credit: Andrew Hart)

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the most common greenhouse gas produced by the US. It enters the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels, solid wastes, wood, and certain manufacturing processes. The growing abundance of CO₂ in the atmosphere makes it an attractive feedstock for commodity synthesis, which could reduce the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Though scientists have explored this concept before, few have had success due to the difficulty of breaking the carbon-oxygen bond and forming carbon-carbon bonds efficiently. The current approaches require high-energy reagents, which limit the reactions to low volumes, ultimately negating any environmental benefit of drawing down CO₂.

A team of scientists at Stanford recently published a successful route to using CO₂ to produce a highly desirable bio-based feedstock. This particular feedstock can be used to synthesize a renewable polymer that has the potential to replace a pervasive, fossil-fuel derived polymer, polyethylene terephthalate.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft in March, 2015, from Florida. (credit: NASA)

The most reliable US rocket company, United Launch Alliance, could not compete with upstart provider SpaceX during a competition in late 2015 for an Air Force payload, a senior engineer with the company said Wednesday. SpaceX was able to offer launch capabilities for as little as one-third the price of what United Launch Alliance could, said Brett Tobey, vice president of engineering for the Colorado-based rocket company.

It does not appear Tobey knew his remarks at a University of Colorado-Boulder seminar were being recorded. But Space News obtained a copy of the audio and posted the revealing, nearly hour-long recording on its website. By Wednesday night Reuters reported that Tobey had resigned from his position at United Launch Alliance, effective immediately.

"The views, positions, and inaccurate statements Mr. Tobey presented at his recent speaking engagement were not aligned with the direction of the company, my views, nor the views I expect from ULA leaders," the company's chief executive, Tory Bruno, said in a statement. Tobey's comments are likely to undermine the efforts of Bruno, who has received kudos within the US spaceflight community for trying to make ULA more competitive and innovative.

Sean Gallagher

The Electron starter kit comes in a storage box with everything you need to turn lights on and off over the Internet.

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A while back, Ars took our first step into building the Internet of Extra Creepy Things (IoECT) with BearDuino, a hardware-hacked Teddy Ruxpin combined with an Arduino Uno and some desktop software. We have not yet turned BearDuino into a cloud-connected, mobile journey down the uncanny valley. But since we've started testing Particle's Electron, a cellular-connected Arduino-like device that wirelessly tethers sensors, servos, lights, and other electronics to a cloud-based service, that goal is within our grasp.

When we first heard about the Electron in February, we were eager to get our hands on a kit to see what was possible. Now that we've tested it out a bit—turning lights on and off across the Internet and diving into the code a bit—we're preparing to push it further. Like many "maker" kits, Electron starts off with a relatively mild learning curve that suddenly becomes more severe as you push toward doing anything practical beyond the tutorial samples. But unlike others we've laid hands on recently, it comes with a well-polished set of tools and services behind it that takes some of the sting off the harder climbing.

The main concern most hardware developers will have, however, is whether the Web-based consoles and services and the one-stop supply of global cellular connectivity is worth it to get locked into Particle's ecosystem—which can also become expensive. That's not something we can effectively answer for everyone based on this test drive. But we can say that if you're looking for a reasonable way to remotely manipulate an animatronic teddy bear wherever it is in the world, Electron is perfectly capable of doing that.

There are at least two distinct ways to think about intelligence. Some people believe that intelligence is a fixed characteristic, something you are born with, like your bone structure or hair color. Others believe that intelligence is more malleable and can be shaped throughout your life. Regardless of whether either of these is true, it seems that the belief itself can change our behavior.

A new study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that believing that intelligence is fixed makes people more likely to overestimate their own intelligence and therefore less likely to develop their own intellectual capacity.

The study used a GRE-style test administered to participants, and it found that people who believe intelligence is fixed are more likely to spend time on easy test questions, but they avoided challenging ones. By contrast, people who have a growth mindset regarding intelligence—believing that intelligence can be developed and changed—are more likely to spend their time on the hardest questions. This develops their skills in answering the problems they find the most difficult.