MacArthur Foundation Will Award $100 Million for Solution to a Global Problem and other top stories.

• MacArthur Foundation Will Award $100 Million for Solution to a Global Problem

  

  The application process, the foundation said, is designed to provide feedback and visibility, so the proposals that do not win the MacArthur award might still attract backing or other forms of support. It is open to nonprofit and for-profit organizations, but not to individuals or government entities. Registration must be completed online by Sept. 2, and applications detailing the problem, its solution and its budget, along with a video pitch, will be accepted through Oct. 3, it said. S..

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• Mysterious underwater Greek city isn't really a city, after all

  

  When divers off the shores of Greece's Zakynthos island found smooth floors and what looked to be circular column bases, they thought that they had found the remains of an ancient civilization. The divers' discovery may be more ancient than they ever imagined, according to research published Friday – but it wasn't built by human hands. The site was not created and abandoned in ancient Grecian times, but rather in the Pliocene era, approximately five million years ago. And credit goes to microbe..

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• New Ultra-Thin Metalens Could Replace Bulky Lenses in Cameras, Phones And Telescopes

  

  The new ultra-thin and flat metalens can potentially replace the stacked, bulky lenses used in today’s modern gadgets. The new lens technology offers better focus than the current best-in-class commercial lenses.  ( Capasso Lab | SEAS ) Researchers developed a new ultra-thin planar (flat) "metalens" that can potentially replace the stacked, bulky lenses used in telescopes, microscopes, smartphones, cameras and other gadgets. Despite the many advancements in lens technology, there..

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• The Brightest Planets in June's Night Sky: How to See Them (and When)

  

  Saturday, June 11, sunset. Jupiter will be west of the waxing crescent moon at sunset. Credit: Starry Night Software Soon after the sun sets and the sky becomes sufficiently dark to see the brighter stars, our attention is drawn to not one, but three bright planets. High in the southern part of the sky we can see silvery-white Jupiter, while low in the south-southeast glows amber colored Mars, while cream-colored Saturn is coming up over the southeast horizon.  If you're up at dawn an..

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• Birth of baby 'dragons' in ancient cave in Slovenia

  

  Dragons are still the stuff of legend. But in Slovenia, a bizarre, cave-dwelling olm salamander serves as a worthy, real-life stand-in.For the past four months, biologists have been closely watching a clutch of "dragon" eggs at the Postojna Cave in southwestern Slovenia. No one had ever witnessed the birth of an olm outside of a lab until Wednesday, when two baby olms emerged from their eggs, to researchers' delight."Our first dragon literally shot itself out of the egg in a single attempt," Po..

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• Hold on tight: Universe is expanding faster than we thought

  

  You’ve probably already heard that the universe is expanding. It’s been doing so since the Big Bang – about 13.7 billion years ago – so you’ve had plenty of time to get in the loop. But according to new research, that constant expansion is happening at a rate 5 percent to 9 percent faster than previously thought. Led by Nobel Laureate Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University, the research team developed new, more accurate techniques for measuring the ever..

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