In an effort to reduce the use of precious land to build renewable energy storage facilities, the Fraunhofer Institute has been cooking up a wild but plausible idea: dropping concrete storage spheres down to the depths of our oceans.

If there is, or ever has been, life on Mars, the chances are it would exist in caves protected from the severe dust storms, extreme temperatures, and high radiation present on its surface. One place to focus our attention could be eight possible cave sites (called skylights) recently discovered by Chenyu Ding at Shenzhen University in China, and colleagues.

Using a novel method, beams of laser light can be deflected using air alone. An invisible grating made only of air is not only immune to damage from the laser light, but it also preserves the original quality of the beam, reports an interdisciplinary research team in the journal Nature Photonics.

Now, every so often, I love to switch up our mealtime with something fun and a tad different from our usual fare, and the Garbage Bread recipe fits the bill perfectly. The idea here is simple yet satisfying; it's a playful take on the stromboli or a calzone, but way less fussy.

Note from the editor: Karin McQuillan is a novelist (one novel) who was a PCV in Senegal. (She ETed after a year. ) We published a few blog items about her back in January and February of 2018. This article has just been republished on-line by the American Conservatives.

Millions of bikes get stolen every year - these little devices can help you keep an eye on yours