The future is here.

The Dutch company PAL-V has successfully built and tested the prototype for a flying car, the PAL-V ONE (Personal Air and Land Vehicle).

Tecca's Mariella Moon describes the gyrocopter PAL-V ONE as "most of a flying three-wheeled enclosed motorcycle." If it becomes commercially available — Geekosystem reports the vehicle is "slated to go into production in 2014" — drivers will fly below an altitude of 4,000 feet in uncontrolled airspace, nowhere near the commercial jets flying above at 30,000-plus feet.

"The PAL-V ONE has a very short take off and landing capability, making it possible to land practically anywhere. When not using controlled airspace, you can take off without filing a flight plan," states the official site.

If you have a driver's license, you can drive the PAL-V ONE. But to take it into the air, you'll need a Sport Pilot's certificate.

"You can drive like a car with your normal car, then you can fly like a plane but in one vehicle." PAL-V CEO Robert

Jadav Payeng, known as "Mulai" to his friends and neighbours, has spent the last 30 years single-handedly planting and caring for a huge 550-hectare forest on a sandbar in the middle of the Brahmaputra River in Assam, India.

In 1980, Assam's Jorhat district's social forestry division launched a tree-planting initiative on 200 hectares of the land. After five years, the project was completed and the labourers left — except for Payeng. He stayed behind, living alone on the sandbar.

"Mulai was one of the labourers who worked in our project which was completed after five years. He chose to stay back after the completion of the project as others left,"
assistant conservator of forest Gunin Saikia tells The Asian Age.

Payeng chose a life of isolation on the sandbar where he cared for the trees and continued to plant thousands more of them.

First, he transformed the sandbar into a bamboo thicket.

"I then decided to grow proper trees. I collected and planted them. I also transported red ants

Seventeen-year-old Marian Bechtel has invented a prototype for a new land-mine-detection device that uses sound waves to identify where deadly mines are buried.

The invention earned her a spot as a finalist in the 2012 Intel Science Talent Search.

Land mines have been on Bechtel's mind since the eighth grade.

"My parents are both geologists," Bechtel tells Co.Exist. "Years ago they got connected with an international group of scientists working on a project called RASCAN, developing a holographic radar device for detecting land mines. During the summer before eighth grade, I met all of these scientists and talked with them about their work and the land mine issue. I was really touched and inspired by what they had to say, and wanted to get involved in science and possibly land mine detection."

The inspiration for her detection device came from an unlikely source: piano lessons.

"I noticed that when I played certain chords or notes on the piano, the strings on a nearby banjo would

Students know the all the studying tricks, creating little songs and rhymes to help memorize formulas, definitions and terms. But the following song, meant as a study aid, takes science-as-song to the next level.

Want to memorize the periodic table's symbols in order? You'll find them listed in "elements made elementary" by David Newman below.

Good luck.

Missed something? Here are the lyrics:

HHe LiBe
BCNOFNe NaMg
AlSiP SClAr KCaScTi
VCrMnFe CoNiCuZnGaGe

AsSe BrKrRbSrY
ZrNbMoTcRuRh Pd Ag
CdInSnSb TeIXeCsBaLaCe
PrNdPmSm Eu Gd

TbDy HoErTmYbLu
HfTa WReOsIr Pt Au Hg
TlPb BiPoAtRn FrRa Ac!
ThPa U Np

PuAm CmBkCfEsFm
MdNoLrRf Db Sg
Bh! Hs! Mt! Ds!
Rg CnUut Uuq Uup Uuh Uus Uuo!

Newman insists that the video is best used in conjunction with "These are the Elements," a song that's a little simpler to recall come exam time.

Last month, Encyclopaedia Britannica announced that it was discontinuing its print editions after 244 years.

With the announcement, company executives revealed that there remained 4,000 sets of the final 32-volume 2010 edition in a warehouse.

Most of them are now gone, with collectors rushing to acquire the final print edition of the "oldest continuously published encyclopedia in the English language."

From record low sales of just 60 sets a week to 1,050 a week, customers are overwhelming Britannica's sales staff with demands for the 129-pound, $1,395 sets.

"When they thought it would be around forever, there was no rush to buy one," Jorge Cauz, president of Encyclopaedia Britannica, told the New York Times in an e-mail. "But now, suddenly, it's a scarce item."

With the cancellation of its print edition, Britannica will focus on its online encyclopedias and educational curriculum.

"It's a rite of passage in this new era," said Cauz. "Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic

Trooper loves Trooper.

Trooper, the "miracle cat" found frozen to a driveway in Newfoundland this February, recently received a care package from his namesake, rock icons Trooper.

The cat, who is recovering from the loss of his tail and a hind leg, was sent a feline-sized band shirt — with "Raise a Little Hell" sprawled across it — and autographed CD from the Canadian rock band.

The band asked for a photo of Trooper in his new Trooper shirt — the first cat-sized T-shirt in the 37-year history of the band — for their Facebook page. See the shot here.

Since Trooper's rescue two months ago, strangers have donated over $12,000 to pay for his medical bills. The cat also has nearly 4,000 Facebook fans.

"When we rescued him we knew we were going to do whatever we could for him, but we never dreamed that it would go this far," Gwen Samm, one of the volunteers from the Society for the Care and Protection of Animals (SCPA) who helped rescue Trooper, told QMI Agency.

Trooper is currently doing

Kevin and Libby Barrieault paid $25 admission to dig for emeralds at the aging North American Emerald Mine in Hiddenite, North Carolina, last Friday.

It was the first time in 40 years that a gemstone club had been granted digging access to the land.

Within five minutes, Kevin found a 50-carat emerald, worth more than $10,000.

"My husband asked where we should start digging," Libby Barrieault told ABC News. "I said 'This looks like a good spot,' and turned around to get out our picks and shovels. Then he said 'What do you think we can do with this?' and flipped the emerald over to me," she said. "It was just one of those 'wow' moments."

"I didn't think I would ever find anything, but I guess God shined down on me and let me find that emerald for her," Kevin told WSOCTV.com.

The next day, engaged couple John Kehoe and Terry Lofgren found a "pocket of crystals," including "a 30-carat emerald, 240-carats worth of loose emeralds and about 160-carats of high quality matrix emeralds embedded

Igor Vovkivinskiy, 29, stands 7-feet-8.33 inches tall.

He can't find shoes that fit.

America's tallest man hasn't been able to buy shoes from a shoe store since he was a teenager. He's had 16 surgeries on his feet in the past five years; non-supportive footwear has left him in constant pain.

"None of my shoes for too long have been made specifically for my feet. They rub, they make wounds, I have surgery, foot gets more deformed, they rub more, I have more surgery and so on. And the circle goes on," he wrote on his website.

"I do not have a shoe size," he added.

Seven years ago, a German cobbler made Vovkivinskiy three custom pairs of shoes. They were size 26. Since then, Vovkivinskiy's foot surgeries have altered the shape of his feet, making the shoes unwearable.

Vovkivinskiy contacted shoe companies. Reebok responded: a new pair of custom-made shoes would cost about $15,000.

Fed up with his sad shoe situation — and now aware of a price tag — he launched a fund-raising website and