Within the last three years there has been increasing interest in the use of field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) as a new revolutionary supercomputing architecture.  FPGAs are semiconductors that can be software configured by customers or designers after manufacturing.  They can be used to implement any logical function of a classic computing chip but their reconfigurability  after design offers great potential flexibility.

For several years scientists have been studying how geckos manage to climb up and remain on very sheer surfaces. Recently scientists at the University of Dayton have created an adhesive inspired by the gecko's remarkable ability.

Since 2004, Evergreen State College ecologist Nalini Nadkarni has used prisoners at Cedar Creek Corrections Center as assistants in a project "to identify the best ways to cultivate slow-growing mosses."

Scientists have found a tree fungus "in the Patagonian rainforest, [which] naturally produces a mixture of chemicals that is remarkably similar to diesel."