Category: Science
And finally… brave GPS-equipped turtle foils amateur drug grower
A keen marijuana user hit upon the great idea of using some off-the-track American park land to grow himself a few special plants.
In these environmentally worrisome times, you’d think he’d be applauded – but no. When a box turtle equipped with a GPS tracking device stumbled into his little outdoor hydroponics lab, the park ranger followed, found his stash and…
Robots become self-aware, but think that they're rats, so we're okay for now
Scientists at the University of Reading have got a step closer to creating Cybermen – human brains inside a robot – after putting together a small robot that uses rat neurones to control itself.
The scientists have managed to grow around 300,000 rat neurones artificially in the lab by starting off with the brain of a rat faetus. These neurones have gone on to make connections with each other and work in much the same way a regular rat brain does, using electrical impulses to make the brain “do stuff”. The neurons are connected to a regular microchip, where they can be stimulated and the results analysed to see what happens. For example, they’ve built a robot on wheels with an ultrasound sensor, to spot when it is approaching a wall. I guess it’s like giving a rat the Bat-power of echo-location. Maybe.
MIT develops 6D technology display that responds to surrounding light
It’s all go in the world of 3D and beyond. Not content with a 3D image cube and 3D LCD gCubik box, researchers have now come up with 6D imagery.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are developing a system which can not only show realistic images in three dimensions, but can also cast shadow and highlights depending upon the surrounding lighting…
FANTASY GADGETS MADE REAL: Scientists prepare cloaking devices for consumers
A fully cloaked shirt? A fully cloaked pair of trousers? A fully cloaked balaclava and glove set so even your head and hands remain invisible?
That’s the dream hunting (I MEAN STALKING) scenario about to be made real, thanks to two teams at the University of California that are both getting close to making invisible fabrics. Team A has developed a material that uses a “fishnet of metal layers” to reverse light, while Team B’s uses minuscule wires to carry light around…
Keep your eye on the destruction of the planet with the Real-Time Global Disaster Alert Map
How are you feeling? Feeling good? Happy? Good, well go look at something else.
Feeling terribly depressed? Just watched ‘Zeitgeist the Movie‘ and think the world is going to hell in a teacup? Well, excellent. Join me, and read on…
The world is a big place, and no matter how often you read the papers or watch the news, you have no idea exactly how big the scale of the problems that exist at anyone time around the planet really is. Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Biological Hazards, Chemical accidents.. all these things are happening somewhere on the globe right now and unless you have access to the Thunderbirds mission control computer on Tracy Island, then you’re completely ignorant of them all.
Well, you were. Not anymore. Because EDIS, a non-profit emergency services organisation in Hungary, has provided us with a free-to-use online map compiling all of the world’s reported disasters in continually refreshing real-time. The perfect thing to look at and fret over.
A bitter pill to swallow: Scientists give mice effort-free exercise
Lazy bastards and fatties rejoice – scientists in California have gone and created a pill that does all the hard work of exercise for you, helping you lose weight AND get fitter. Great news, yeah? Well, no.. Because before you get all excited and go mad ordering an extra large stuff-crust pizza in celebration – you should probably note that the pill only works on mice.
NASA briefing the White House on secret Mars news. HG Wells' fear of Mars may be vindicated.
A couple of weeks ago the sixth man on the moon, Edgar Mitchell, in an apparent bid to catch up with James Watson in the “man of science inexplicably becomes a crackpot” stakes, went on the radio and claimed that the human race has made contact with aliens and there’s a big cover-up to disguise this fact.
Maybe he’s not mad after all if Aviation Week, a publication not usually known for its hyperbole (or generally not known) is right with its story about NASA deliberately sitting on a huge announcement?
Like horror films? Well, make one at home, with the Wi-Fi Inter-Oral Dental Camera.
Remember the scene in the film Marathon Man where Laurence Olivier’s Nazi dentist ‘mines for gold’ in Dustin Hoffman’s non-anetheatised mouth? Well I do. I still get the sweats just thinking about it. In fact, i’ve been a confirmed odontophobe ever since my own Nazi dentist decided it was a jolly wheeze to rip out four of my teeth, then cement sharp metal braces to the rest.
Which is why i greet the new Wi-Fi Inter-Oral Dental Camera like the piece of hellish equipment it absolutely is. The company blurb says that it’s a great new ‘scientific tool’ for peering in your pie-hole, with ‘a high 1.3 mega-pixel camera lens’ at the end of the probe which allows you to get really up-close-and-personal on your lovely little toothy-pegs. Or for that matter: any other cavity you’re curious to search. The mind boggles.
The "Heart Robot" that just wants to be needed
It looks like a Teletubby that’s had all its skin burned off in an industrial accident, but don’t let that put you off – the Heart Robot is very friendly on the inside.
Designed by The University of the West of England’s David McGoran, the robot likes a good cuddle. Its heart starts pounding when it’s particularly excited, plus its eyes flutter when you touch it – and its puny limbs tense themselves for a smack round the head or a shove down the stairs when it hears raised voices…
Invisible Nanotube ropes could revolutionise the circus trade
I know what you’re wondering – when, oh when, is cutting edge modern technology going to be used to help our travelling circus friends? Well don’t worry, it won’t be long now. Scientists have calculated that an invisible Carbon Nanotube rope just 1cm thick and invisible to the naked eye could support the weight of a human, potentially putting a radical new twist on boring old tightrope walks (but potentially destroying the mime industry).
