Electricity around the world: it’s not a perfect science

When it comes to the simple task of plugging an electrical appliance in to make it work, there is no global standard for voltage or wattage. And that’s not to mention the different plug shapes, plug holes, plug sizes and sockets that vary vastly from country to country. Most appliances bought overseas simply cannot be connected to the wall outlets at home. There are only two ways to solve this problem: you just cut off the original plug and replace it with the one that is standard in your country, or you buy an unhandy and ugly adapter.

While it is easy to buy a plug adapter or a new “local” plug for your “foreign” appliances, in many cases this only solves half the problem—because it doesn't address the possible voltage disparity.

A 240-volt electrical appliance designed for use in Europe will provide a nice fireworks display—complete with sparks and smoke—if plugged into a U.S. socket.

The lack of a single voltage, frequency and globally standardized plugs results in extra costs for manufacturers and increase the burden on the environment.

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1,000 mph car ‘on track’ to break record

British officials say they’re set to break the world land speed record in 2012 with a car that can reach 1,000 mph. Construction on the Bloodhound vehicle's rear should begin in January.



"We've got companies all over the world wanting to sponsor the car," project director Richard Noble of Bloodhound SSC Engineering Adventure told BBC News. "We've actually got more people who want to financially back this thing than we've got space for them."

To snag the world record, the Bloodhound will need to beat out the current record of 763 mph set by the Thrust SuperSonic Car in 1997.

The British car will be powered by a hybrid rocket and a jet engine from a Eurofighter-Typhoon, according to Bloodhound SSC.

Once built and ready to go, the car is expected to race across what is now a dried-up lake bed in Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

When snakes fly

The worst nightmare of ophidiophobes—people with a phobia of snakes—may have just been realized. Scientists have captured footage of “flying” snakes, explaining how five related snake species stay airborne for up to 79 feet. The acrobatic arboreal snakes, all in the genus Chrysopelea, use what's known as gliding flight to sail from tree to tree in their Southeast and South Asia habitats.



The new research, presented by the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics, explains how the snakes accomplish their seemingly improbable feat.

“The snake isn’t defying gravity or doing something out of the blue,” project leader Jake Socha told Discovery News. “It's the magnitude of the forces that are somewhat surprising. Given that this is a snake, and its cross-sectional body shape is more like a blunt shape than a typical streamlined wing, we wouldn’t have expected such good aerodynamic performance.”

Chocolate supply threatened by cocoa crisis

Chocolate was once the drink of Mayan and Aztec kings. Now a cocoa shortage may make chocolate an exclusive luxury again. Chocolate could become as rare as caviar, said John Mason of the Ghana-based Nature Conservation Research Council. That means chocolate treats may become unaffordable for the average person.



The price of cocoa, the raw ingredient for chocolate, has been skyrocketing in international markets. Demand for chocolate, especially for dark chocolate which uses more cocoa, has helped fuel price increases.

But unfair trade and environmental problems have resulted in supply not keeping pace with demand. West Africa leads the world in cocoa production. But the profits don't come back to many of the farmers there, and that is one of the main causes of the shortage.

In the Ivory Coast, cocoa farmers often earn less than $1 a day, and in many cases the land they farm has lost its fertility, said Tony Lass, chairman of the Cocoa Research Association in the UK Independent. Ivory Coast farmers are leaving behind unprofitable, failing cocoa orchards for the cities.