Category: Science
Cryogenics: Scientists clone mouse frozen for 16 years
It’s not quite freezing someone and then waking them up thousands of years into the future, but it’s getting there. Scientists in Japan have successfully cloned a mouse that has lain frozen for 16 years. It raises the possibility of cloning other animals who’ve been frozen for hundreds or thousands of years – resurrecting extinct mammals.
The authors of the study are doubtful, however. They point out that it would be impractical to resurrect a mammoth, for instance, because there are no live mammoth cells available, and the ‘genomic material’ in something frozen for that long is ‘inevitably degraded’. Damn. I was looking forward to a pet pygmy mammoth.
(via ABC News)
Related posts: George Lucas frozen in carbonite – silent at last | Making ice while the sun shines
The BBC's TV detector vans are simply a form of psychological warfare
The UK’s Information Commissioner, who’s been a very busy man/department recently, declined a freedom of information request to reveal how many TV license detector vans the BBC operates – because it might stop people believing they exist.
The shadowy fleet of TV-detecting vans is supposed to be able to pick up tell-tale signs that a TV’s being used inside a house, but the ICO ruled that revealing how many vans the BBC actually operates – and the technology they use – might undermine the level of threat they pose. And lead to us not bothering to pay our licence fees any more…
The internet is making your brain better and creating a new master race of geeks
Good at filtering information but only have pretend friends you’ve never met in real life? That’s good! That means you have evolved. You are better than other people. You are the next level of mankind.
That is according to neuroscientist Gary Small, who reckons that our brains are already changing and evolving thanks to modern technology. 24/7 access to facts, trivia about Star Trek, text messages and weather forecasts is making People 2.0 better at filtering out rubbish data from useful fact, making us all much better at instantly deciding what to keep/remember and what to bin/forget…
Scientists invent brain-wiping tool for use on feeble mouse brains
If you’ve just been caught doing something by a mouse, science has come up with a useful way to get you off the hook – it can now erase the memories of mice.
This would also mean you could tell a mouse a joke, erase its memory, then tell it the joke again. A mouse could also watch “Total Recall” and be amazed, then erase its own memory of ever having watched “Total Recall” and be amazed by it all over again. Plus you could buy your mouse the same present for Christmas every year and it would never know. The real-world applications for this technology are boundless…
Genetically Engineered Beer Could Combat Cancer
I have copied the headline of this post directly from Wired Gadget Lab because it’s the best words I’ve ever read. I haven’t even looked at the rest of the piece but I know I’m going to write about it already. Hang on, let me see what it’s all about…
…yes, as suspected, all very good news. A substance known as resveratrol has been found to extend the lifespans of middle-aged mice and keep their hearts healthy too, and it’s now hoped the same stuff can work its magic on human beings. The trick is, and obviously we’re all very upset by this, that resveratrol is made more potent by putting it in beer…
Swiss researchers can steal passwords from 65 feet away
A bunch of Swiss researchers have worked out “a variety” of ways to steal passwords from wired keyboards. That’s right – wired keyboards. It relies on the electromagnetic emanations that happen when you push the keys on the keyboard, and you can see a demonstration in the video above…
World about to get lighter and stronger thanks to "buckypaper" and the magic of nanotubing
Buckypaper is similar in concept to papier mache – layer it up thick and it gets stronger. So strong, in fact, that aeroplanes and rockets and even common household chairs could all be made from buckypaper in distant some future world. We are therefore calling it papier mache 2.0.
The invention of scientists at Florida State University’s High-performance Materials Institute (headed by Ben Wang, pictured), buckypaper is a simple way of compositing…
Make your expensive architect-designed house look RUBBISH with a LEGO radiator
Sarah Beeny would not be impressed. This could take tens of thousands off the value of your home. The terms & conditions of your mortgage would be voided. You’d be out on the street for Christmas. If you let your children be in charge of your internal design decisions, you get what you deserve.
This is a concept radiator (or at least a concept image of a concept radiator) by Italian firm Sciroccoh, made out of component pieces that resemble LEGO. It’s not particularly clever, as all the illustrator has done here is take an existing thing – in this case a household radiator – then imagine what it would look like if it was made out of LEGO…
eBay Nutcase of the Week: Bigfoot hoaxers sell their fake rubber suit and accompanying chest freezer
Remember the latest Bigfoot hoax that tricked a few extremely gullible conspiracy theorists on the internet a few months back?
Well, you can now purchase a very special souvenir of the event – the actual rubber suit shown off to the world as a discovered Bigfoot corpse. You also get the original chest freezer the body was shown in, like it’s a big toy in a presentation case…
Stephen Hawking gets cast in a bronze statue
One of the greatest living scientists, Professor Steven Hawking, is to be depicted in a bronze statue sited near his office in Cambridge. The sculptor, 32-year-old Brightonian Eve Shepherd, has been following Hawking around to learn more about his personality…
