Science and Tech

The wind turbine is a symbol of an alternative to an oil-based economy. But on radar, it looks like a storm.

Letters have clogged the mailbox this week as people are preparing for summer and doing some spring-cleaning. Let's get right to it.

-- Q. I can't believe you recommended Internet Explorer 8. I installed it a couple weeks before your article ran and had all kinds of problems with it and had to uninstall it to get my computer back. What a piece of junk it is.

When hurricanes hit, it's often the water that kills.
So the National Hurricane Center is making it easier for people to learn if a hurricane is likely to cause seawater to surge into their homes. They soon will be able to find out at the Web site www.hurricanes.gov.

A University of Utah physics professor wants to use new technology to revive an old way of looking at and learning about stars.

A saying repeated over and over in the technology industry is that the best time to build a company is during a downturn.
Many entrepreneurs are testing the theory by forming their startups this year, when many more established companies are cutting jobs and, in some cases, shutting down.
Optimistic? Definitely.
Foolish? Only time will tell.

For owners of lost pets, the frantic search for Fido does not always end happily.
Now one company is betting that even in a recession, pet owners will pay $250 for some peace of mind.

People unfamiliar with Nevada's vast desert often find it more difficult to see what is there than to imagine what could be superimposed on the seemingly endless landscape.
Nuclear waste wedged inside a mountain.
Towering mushroom clouds.
A network of nuclear missiles covering 10,000 square miles.

The heavyweights of the computer world are looking to go welterweight.

One of the innovations in recent years in the world of online gaming has been the MMOG or "massively multiplayer online game." These games, like the ever-popular EverQuest and World of Warcraft, have taken on lives of their own for many people, some of whom spend all of their waking hours online playing with and adding to their online characters.

Nintendo has already sold 100 million DS and DS Lites.
Is there really much of a market out there for more of these handheld wonders? The new DSi, which went on sale Sunday for $170, is about to find out.
I spent some time with the new handheld and think Nintendo won't have much trouble peddling the latest DS iteration to existing owners and newcomers.