Scientists have challenged Mother Nature by building a better plant - only theirs is a digital one. Researchers at the University of Illinois have built a simulation program for a SuperLeaf: it doesn't leap tall building in a single bound but its efficiency allows it to produce more leaves and fruit using the same amount of energy a normal leaf uses.

Now if only they can actually make the leaf... Read the full article for more details on SuperLeaf.

If you think that all the matter in the universe is made up of the stars, planets and other stuff within galaxies, you'd only be partly correct. Scientists now consider that most of the other matter in the known universe is hidden.

Around 75 years ago, astronomers noticed that all matter in the universe are innately endowed with gravitational forces. Measuring their gravity in relation with their mass, scientists were able to accurately calculate the specifics of heavenly bodies such as density, mass, gravity and size. This enabled them to predict how the sun and moon move, along with the motion of the planets. All was going well until they tried the same thing with stars.

As it turned out, various anomalies were noticed in the study of the gravity of stars. It was noticed that each one of them had hundreds of times the gravity that they should have with respect to their mass. Baffled, astronomers started looking for an explanation.

It was out of the question to assume that distant stars had more powerful gravity, lest they would draw in other bodies. The only other possible answer was that there was immense matter hiding unseen, and scientists theorize that it might actually make up 74 percent of all the matter in the cosmos.

Cosmologist Michael Turner calls this stuff "dark matter" and he says it's an extremely weird concept. Turner believes that most of the matter in the universe may be trickling in undetected fashion in forms never considered before by human science. These particles also wield a force called "dark energy" which acts as an anti-gravity force that repels galaxies, pushing them apart at very high speeds.

One theory is that dark matter comes in different forms. One of which are neutrinos that trickle off the sun. These, however, may only make up a small amount of the total dark matter in the cosmos. Scott Dodelson, an astrophysicist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois says one thing's certain "until we actually discover particles, we're not home yet."