Names for three new elements have been approved by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. They are darmstadtium (110), roetgenium (111), and copernicium (112). Elements 114 and 116 are still awaiting naming. (New Scientist)

A kook in California has developed a laser that can burn off the layer of brown in people’s eyes so as to supposedly reveal the blue hidden beneath. I call him a kook because he thinks this is a worthwhile endeavor because brown eyes are opaque while blue eyes are not and eyes are windows to the soul, so you can look into the soul of a blue eyed person, but not a brown eyed person. As a brown eyed person myself, I call bullshit. (CNET News)

Russia’s 520 day isolation experiment, simulating a trip to Mars is over (Reuters). Next may be a more realistic simulation on the ISS (New Scientist)

Eclectus parrots engage in gendercide when times are tough, such as in a flood. Unlike the human practice in areas like ancient Greece and modern China where they kill off their girls, these parrots go with the much more rational slaughter of their male young. If you want to ensure survival of the species, preserving the lives of females at the cost of males will have a minimal effect on the size of the next generation for obvious reasons. (New Scientist)

Tractor beams, which so far have been limited in real world scope to very small objects like molecules or viruses, are now being considered by NASA for the collection of dust and gases on future missions. (Slash Gear)

In 2009 scientists working for a biotech company released 18,000 genetically modified male mosquitoes which if they mate with wild females would produce infertile offspring. The first results from this experiment show the genetically modified males making up 16% of the total male population and 9.6% of the larvae in the area carried the modified genes. (Scientific American)