Sewage is flush with precious metals, and the safer future of nuclear energy

DIGITAL | RENEW | GIFT Discover Newsletter:  01/22/2015 Sewer Sludge is Flush With Gold and Platinum In big cities, roughly $13 million in precious metals flows through wastewater annually.   DISCOVER BLOGS THE CRUX Thorium is the Safer Future of Nuclear Energy Nuclear fission with thorium is within our reach, and it’s safer than present technology.  MORE  |            THE CRUX Ebola’s Possible Future as an Endemic Disease How would things change if Ebola becomes a permanent fixture in West Africa?  MORE  |            IMAGEO 2014 Was Hot, But We Haven’t Seen Anything Yet A single piece of coral tells scientists a troubling story.  MORE  |            INKFISH This Robot Learned to Cook from YouTube Machine learning could let robotic chefs of the future teach themselves to cook.  MORE  |            D-BRIEF Good Intentions Are Killing Monarch Butterflies How planting the wrong type of milkweed makes monarchs sick.  MORE  |              THIS MONTH IN DISCOVER MAGAZINE Hunting Down HIV Holdouts Katie Bo Williams Discovering where HIV lingers in the body could lead to a cure.  MORE  |            Nature’s Most Patient Mother Carl Engelking This octopus species has the longest brooding period of any animal.  MORE  |            A New Angle on Light Control Shannon Palus A tiny block reflects rays like a mirror except at one angle.  MORE  |            Tinkering With the Cosmos’s Constants Sarah Kollmorgen Scientists updated Planck’s constant and the gravitational constant this year.  MORE  |            Massive Viking Fortress is First Found in 60 Years Gemma Tarlach A Trelleborg style Viking fortress is discovered in rural Denmark.  MORE  |              RECENT PHOTO GALLERIES  Building Healthier Hospitals  Retro Travel Posters for Extraplanetary Destinations  Are Insects the Future of Food?