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European researchers are perfecting the invisibility cloak that the Japanese invented. It may take a long time, but some day we may stumble over things that we don’t see because, to us, they’re just NOT THERE.

German scientists were able to do this by covering a tiny bump in a layer of gold, which prevented it from being detected by infrared light. In PhysOrg.com, Randolph E. Schmid describes the new cloak as “a structure of crystals with air spaces in between, sort of like a woodpile, that bends light, hiding the bump, which is so tiny that it can only be seen with a magnifying glass, in the gold layer beneath.”
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This isn’t the kind of pollution that monkeys MAKE, it’s the kind they DETECT. It turns out that testing hair from Asian monkeys living close to people may provide early warnings of toxic threats to humans and wildlife (and those of us who don’t have jungles nearby will just have to find another way). And at least monkeys listen to their females’ advice most of the time!

In parts of South and Southeast Asia, macaques and people drink from identical water sources, breathe the same air, share food sources, and play on the same ground. When macaques live in environments polluted by motor vehicles, openly disposed garbage, and industrial waste, they can come into contact with toxic substances such as lead, just as their human neighbors might.
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Teaching stroke victims who have lost the ability to speak to sing again can “rewire” their brains so they can speak again as well. And music isn’t just important for the old: Neuroscientists now think that music training should start in kindergarten and go through high school, because music helps shape the sensory system (this is at a time when most schools have eliminated music classes).

In BBC News, Victoria Gill tells the remarkable story of a woman whose “speech center” was damaged (a common aftereffect of a stroke) who learned to talk again by putting the words she wanted to use into melodies.
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Our enemies are figuring out new ways to attack us all the time: There will be new forms of terrorism in the future, and one of these could be a cyberattack, which could knock out both cell phones and computers.

A cyberattack has been simulated recently in order to figure out what defenses need to be put in place, and like earlier simulations, it did not turn out well for us.In Information Week, Elizabeth Montalbano quotes researcher Eileen McMenamin as saying, “You can’t visualize this kind of attack until it happens. The panel agreed we were not sufficiently prepared for an attack of this magnitude. We don’t have the systems to deal with [it].”
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