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Environmentalists are counting on hydrogen to replace greenhouse gas producing gasoline in cars and trucks, because it’s colorless, odorless and its byproduct is water vapor. But hydrogen has such a small molecule that it can easily escape, making it hard to keep it inside your gas tank. Liquid hydrogen doesn’t escape as easily, but it needs to be kept cold, meaning your car would also have to be a refrigerator. NASA has come up with a solution: put rocks in your gas tank.
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In You Can Be Blind & Not Know It, we reported that people see much less than they realize, which is a problem when police take eyewitness statements. Now research reveals that people’s memories of a criminal’s face are much poorer among eyewitnesses who described what the perpetrator looked like shortly after seeing him, compared with those who didn’t?and the words seem to be the problem.

Psychologist Jonathan W. Schooler says this is caused by “verbal overshadowing of visual memories.” Studies have found that verbal descriptions impair people’s memories of faces and other hard-to-describe things as well, like the taste of wine or the sound of a person’s voice.
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The reason so many women have trouble getting pregnant may be linked to a newly-discovered vitamin. Japanese scientists have discovered a new vitamin that plays an important role in fertility in mice and may have a similar function in humans.

Takafumi Kato says pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ), a substance discovered in 1979, is a vitamin. Mice deprived of PQQ have reduced fertility and roughened fur, and vitamins that have an important effect on mice usually act in the same way in humans. Kato says, “There are many possible factors behind the drop in fertility. We need more research to find out exactly what is happening to these mice and what would be the effect on humans.”
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The New York City Health Department detained a foreign tourist against his will for a week after he checked into a hospital with SARS symptoms but refused to be quarantined for the mandatory 10 days. He had stopped in Hong Kong on his way to New York. After his fever went down, he wanted to leave the hospital so he could go sightseeing and to a basketball game, but he wasn’t allowed to leave.
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