Science and Tech

Karin Prangley, an estate-planning attorney in Chicago, became an expert on post-mortem online assets after experiencing firsthand such complications.

DUNEDIN, Fla. - The volunteer bucket brigade formed around 11 a.m. At one end tossed the chilly, choppy shallows off Honeymoon Island in the Gulf of Mexico. At the other sat a box truck holding dozens of sea turtles.

They had been plopped into kiddie pools and laundry baskets at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, then driven to a dirt road at the end of the Dunedin Causeway.

Like everyone else in the computing world, all eyes were on Apple last week when it unveiled the iPad, which if nothing else proved Apple had no women on the committee in charge of naming new products.

Smart phones and laptops, handheld video games and MP3 players, and now, perhaps, Apple's new iPad -- the latest technology is great, but it is also a literal pain in the neck, doctors say.

Wonder about those chemicals in the river? Ask a bald eagle.

In a warning to humans, eagles along the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway in Minnesota are showing scientists to what extent certain chemicals are polluting water, fish and small animals.

Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory report that they have taken a major step toward harnessing the forces that power the sun in an effort to create unlimited energy on Earth.

Move over, "Avatar." Duke University has a 3-D virtual-reality theater called the Dive with ceiling and floor projection screens.

As Mushtaqur Rahman floated to the rafters of Duke Chapel, in Durham, N.C., it was easy to forget that he was neither in a church nor off the ground.

For all its lethal, concrete-crumbling power, the Haiti earthquake this month was no bigger -- and probably a good bit smaller -- than the seismic shocks that convulsed the New Madrid fault zone not once or twice, but three times during a ghastly winter nearly 200 years ago.

OK, Google wins again.

The newest browser version of Google Chrome, version 4.0, was released this week, and is now my favorite browser by far. It's fast, it's lovely and now supports some cool features that I find appealing.

TUCSON, Ariz. - What if you could grow fuel and food while cleaning wastewater and capturing unwanted carbon dioxide?

That's the promise of turning algae into a biofuel and the premise on which the Department of Energy is investing hundreds of millions of research dollars.