Here are some noteworthy science and environmental links folks are Digging today:

 

— Great needs are supposed to inspire great ideas, and the world's needs are certainly great at the moment. President Obama seems to understand this, pumping $400 million toward research and development of new energy technology. While things like wind turbines and electric cars get all the attention, however, TIME takes a look at green tech's Island of Misfit Toys — eco-innovations spanning the usefulness spectrum, from reusable toilet wipes and stapleless staplers to dance-powered nightclubs and tempura-powered cars.

 

— The idea of "e-waste" is still relatively new on our environmental radar, lacking the iconic salience of saving trees and saving whales. But the United States produced about 2.25 million tons of it between 1980 and 2007 — computers, monitors, TVs and such — only 18 percent of which was recycled. Since we don't have sorted bins for these things, figuring out how to recycle them can be an exhausting endeavor. To help, PC Magazine has compiled this massive, aptly named "superguide" — which MNN blogger Siel Ju also wrote about yesterday — that breaks down the details on an array of electronics makers and retailers. Even more importantly, it also lists websites that'll pay you for your e-waste. 

 

— A Florida developer is billing this $29 million, 15,000-square-foot house he's trying to sell in Manalapan Beach as green. It does have some environmental bona fides — reclaimed and renewable wood floors, energy-efficient light fixtures, solar panels and a grass driveway, for example — but it also has 11 bathrooms, two elevators, two laundry rooms and a movie theater. While the house isn't LEED-certified yet, the developer says he expects it will be.

 

— Scientists have made a major breakthrough in their battle against C. difficile, a vicious spore-forming bacterium that sickens about 500,000 Americans each year and kills another 15,000 to 20,000. Since it was discovered in 1978, scientists have struggled fruitlessly to defeat the microbe, but a new study in the journal Nature suggests C. diff's two main toxins aren't the same diff. "For 20 years, we have been focusing on Toxin A. But it turns out the real culprit is Toxin B," says a co-author of the study. 

 

— I know he's been California's governor for several years now, and it's become lame to keep making cheeky references to his action-movie days. Still, what a long way we've come from this to this: Arnold Schwarzenegger speaking astutely and articulately about things like high-speed transit and sustainable development. In this two-minute video he uses an argument similar to what President Obama used in his speech to Congress last week: The United States has fallen behind other First World nations in areas such as renewable energy development, energy efficiency and smart growth, and our economic future may depend on us catching up.

 

— Russell McLendon