Archive Category: Science & Tech
Taste The Dark Side In Blk Bottled Spring Water
I don’t consider thick black liquid to be a tantalizing beverage option, unless it comes in a shot glass and contains about forty percent alcohol, but Blk Beverages Black Spring Water claims to be more refreshing than drinking a bottle of ink.
It doesn’t get you drunk, it gets you vitaminized, so here’s the scoop straight from the source of the darkness:
Blk Beverages Black Spring Water’s proprietary blend of Fulvic Minerals (a derivative of plant matter) are mined from a 70 million year old source deep within the earth. Naturally black in color, Blk Beverages Spring Water’s formula binds to the molecules of Blk Beverages pure Canadian Spring Water turning it naturally black, with no artificial dyes, coloring, or additives. Fulvic Minerals are critical in growth of plant life, helping the transportation and absorption of nutrients. Fulvic Mineral’s small molecular structure allows for the fast absorption of over 77 different trace minerals and elements, powerful electrolytes, antioxidants, and free radical scavengers.
Nothing like some free radical scavengers to quench your thirst. Mmmmmmmm!
Link –via Super Punch
The Other Moore’s Laws
Surely you've heard of Moore's Law, the rule of thumb by David House who stated that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years.
But what about laws by the other Moores? Ross "Rosscott" Nover of System Comics obliges: Link - via I Love Charts
Brittle Star Walks Like a Man
Whodathunk that brittle star walks like a man. After all, unlike the bilaterally symmetrical humans, the sea creature is round and has five limbs:
In a series of first-time experiments, Brown University evolutionary biologist Henry Astley discovered that brittle stars, despite having no brain, move in a very coordinated fashion, choosing a central arm to chart direction and then designating other limbs to propel it along. Yet when the brittle star wants to change direction, it designates a new front, meaning that it chooses a new center arm and two other limbs to move. Brittle stars have come up with a mechanism to choose any of its five limbs to be central control, each capable of determining direction or pitching in to help it move.
Not bad for a creature without a brain. Wait, come to think of it, that's something it has in common with some people I know! Link
Student Builds Fully Functional Portal Turret
YouTube user kss5095 decided to get creative and show his love of video games at the same time with his final project for Advanced Mechatronics at Penn State, so he built a fully functioning turret like you’d find in the video game series Portal.
The turret is so sweet that it even has a soothing voice recording, which lures you out of hiding so it can blast you with laser guided NERF missiles.
This guy has a long career ahead of him in either animatronics or engineering weapons for the military, but for now he has the ultimate home defense system at his disposal, that is once he upgrades to live rounds!
–via Geekologie
Well, At Least She’s Honest
You’d think Siri’s programers would have thought about this one ahead of time. I mean, it might sound a little silly for Siri to say the iPhone 4 was the best smartphone ever, but that’s better than promoting your competitors.
Link Via Geekosystem
The Bumbling, Crawling Sperms
In the movies, sperms have been portrayed as swimming elegantly up the female reproductive tract to inseminate the egg. What baloney.
The truth is that they're much more like bumbling male drivers who refuse to stop to ask for directions:
When Dr. Petr Denissenko of the University of Warwick first saw sperm cells crashing as they negotiated the tight turns of channels en route to a woman's egg, he couldn't help but chuckle.
"I couldn't resist a laugh the first time I saw sperm cells persistently swerving on tight turns and crashing head-on into the opposite wall of a microchannel," he said. [...]
Despite so many images of sperm swimming like fish, researchers found that sperm rarely swim in the central part of the female reproductive tract. Instead, they avoid the "middle lane" and crawl along the sides of the walls.
See also: Sperm & Egg - Moonlight Panorama at the NeatoShop
I Like Big (Robotic) Butts and I Can Not Lie!
Oh. My. God! Becky, look at this butt. It's so big. It looks like one of those robots created by Nobuhiro Takahashi of the University of Electro-Communications. But, you know, who understands those robotics professors. They only talk to the butt because it responds to human touch, 'kay? I mean, the butt, it's just so big. I can't believe it's so round, it's like, out there, I mean - gross. Look! It's just so ... robotic!
Like Sir Mix-A-Lot said, I like big (robotic) butts and I can not lie! Robot Got Back. (Via Kotaku, who has the story)
Researchers Develop Wi-Fi Blocking Wallpaper
Are your neighbors tired of you stealing their unsecured wi-fi? Here’s an expensive alternative to providing password protection. The Grenoble Institut Polytechnique and its research partners have developed wallpaper that blocks wi-fi transmissions:
The wallpaper can block Wi-Fi signals in the 2.45 – 5.5 GHz range, while simultaneously allowing television, FM radio, and mobile phone signals to pass through its surface. Metapaper can be applied to a variety of surfaces including concrete, brick and plaster, and won’t be affected by decorative additions such as a layer of common house paint. No announcement has been made as to when this product might reach the U.S. market.
So far, the wallpaper costs $800 for 10 square feet.
Link -via Technabob | Photo: L’informaticien
NASA Spotted Light Coming Out of an Alien Planet
NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope has just spotted light coming out of the alien "super-Earth" exoplanet 55 Cancri e, 41 light-years from our own world.
It's an amazing technical accomplishment, but before you get your hopes up that we've found alien civilization, you should know that the planet is not habitable:
The new Spitzer observations revealed that the star-facing side of 55 Cancri e is extremely hot, with temperatures reaching up to 3,140 degrees Fahrenheit (1,726 degrees Celsius). The planet is likely a dark world that lacks the substantial atmosphere needed to warm its nighttime side, researchers said.
And to top it all off, the planet is oozing.
Past observations of the planet by the Spitzer Space Telescope have suggested that one-fifth of 55 Cancri e is made up of lighter elements, including water. But the extreme temperatures and pressures on 55 Cancri e would create what scientists call a "supercritical fluid" state.
Carnivorous Plant Has Bodyguard Ants
The carnivorous pitcher plant Nepenthes bicalcarata isn't that terrifying of a deathtrap: its pitcher leaf isn't slippery and it doesn't have the corrosive slime that kill its victims quickly.
But it does have something that makes up for all those weaknesses: vicious bodyguard ants!
The carnivorous plant has swollen tendrils at the base of each pitcher that serve as homes for the insects, and a food source in the form of nectar secreted on the pitcher rims.
In return, the ants apparently provide a host of services for the pitcher plants. They clean the pitcher mouth to keep it slippery enough to help catch prey. They attack weevils that would otherwise munch on the plant. They cart off the remains of large prey from the pitchers that would otherwise rot. They lie in ambush under pitcher rims and systematically attack any of the plant's prey that attempt to escape the traps. And their droppings fertilize the plants.
Link (Photo: Vincent Bazile)
Exoplanets: Home Planet of Aliens?
If there is alien life, then they'd live in an exoplanet like these four that scientists have found. Visual.ly has the scoop of the four candidates in this nifty little infographic: Link - Thanks Tal!
Actually Transforming Robots
This is impressive: Kenji Ishida and JS Robotics have created a robot (his eight in the Brave Robot series, actually) with 22 servo motors that can transform itself from car to robot and back again.
Let's see your version, Hasbro! Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Engadget
Bomb Disposal Robot is Ring Bearer
The bride is a mechanical engineer who helped design the Dragon Runner unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). So when Laura got married, it was only appropriate for the little robot to take part. As the ring bearer! The Dragon Runner wore a tiny tuxedo and carried the ring in while the song “Mr. Roboto” played. A grand time was had by all. You can see a video about the robot (but not the wedding) at Electronic Design. Link -via Gizmodo
How to See Hummingbirds Up Close
Hummingbirds are beautiful, but they move way too fast to actually get to see up close for the most part.With the Wearable Hummingbird Feeder though, you can now see the stunning birds closer than ever.
How Many Times do You Need to Fold a Piece of Paper to Get to The Moon?
Let's find out! Adrian Paenza schools us in the lesson of exponential growth with this enjoyable TED-Education video clip about folding a piece of paper.
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
Previously on Neatorama: Fold a Paper in Half More Than 8 TimesWhat Your Dog Is Thinking
What (bacon) is your dog (bacon) thinking (bacon)? Scientists from Emory University decided to find out by putting a dog in an MRI machine:
In a new study, scientists report that they have for the first time successfully trained dogs to lie awake and still in an MRI machine for 10 to 15 seconds, long enough to complete a scan.
“We can actually capture brain images and see what parts of the brain are activating when we have hand signals or when we talk to [the dog] or when we point this way or that way. Now we can really begin to understand what a dog is thinking,” said researcher Gregory Berns, a professor of neuroeconomics at Emory, in a video about the study.
Protect Your Data Old-School Style
I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve always found the idea of wax seals being used to ensure privacy to be rather romantic. Unfortunately, as we are becoming increasingly technological, use of these types of antiquities is becoming more and more rare. But the new Top Secret USB combines modern functionality and vintage sensibilities by allowing you to stamp your USB drive shut with a wax seal so you know no one else has opened it.
Link Via Geekosystem
Company Offers Pet Mummification Service
Salt Lake City is known for many things-a deep connection to Mormonism, the 2002 Winter Olympics, their NBA team the Utah Jazz, and now as the home of pet mummification company Summum.
Summum offers a unique service to grieving pet owners-mummification of your dead pet via traditional methods, so you can bring home a bit of ancient Egypt without having to walk funny or learn how to read hieroglyphics.
It costs tens of thousands of dollars (from $6k to $128k according to the website) and takes four to six months to complete the process, but isn’t it worth all that to know that your beloved pet’s corpse is now permanently encased in a nifty looking statue?
Link –via Geekologie
Black Hole Eating a Star
Image: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Nom nom nom, said the black hole, which was caught eating a star by a team of astrophysicists:
Geeks Are Sexy has the video clip: LinkUsually when we get to see a star being swallowed by a black hole, we’ll end up turning to take a look at it only after the destruction has already begun. “What makes this so special was the fact that they actually caught the black hole as it was ripping the stellar core apart,” says Dr. David Floyd from the Monash Centre for Astrophysics in Melbourne.
The fact that we’ve managed to observe this event from beginning to end means that there is a lot more information available than ever before. We know the size of the black hole (approximately the same as the Milky Way’s central black hole), the fact that the star was probably a late-stage Red Giant and that it suffered its terrible fate because it got to within about 150 million kilometres of the supermassive black hole (about the same distance from the Sun to the Earth).
How To Survive A Robot Uprising
When the Robopocalypse begins, you’ll need some pointers for survival. Epipheo Studios brought in an expert: author Daniel H. Wilson. -via Blame It On The Voices
The Periodic Ceiling of Elements
High school chemistry teacher Scott Byrum found a brilliant way to catch the attention of his students. When it was time to renovate his classroom, he made vinyl letters and numbers and attached them to the tiles of his drop ceiling. When arranged properly, they formed the periodic table of elements. It got just the effect that Byrum was looking for:
“My students love it,” Byrum says of his new ceiling. “It makes them feel more connected to my instruction.” The artwork is also an instant conversation starter. “Even faculty members, when they walk in and see it,” want to talk about it, he says.
Byrum no longer worries about his students daydreaming in class. When their minds start to wander, and they look up at the ceiling, well, there’s the periodic table. “Even though they may be daydreaming, they’re daydreaming science,” he says.
Link -via Make | Photo: Allie Knight
Dino Fart to Blame for Global Warming 150 Million Years Ago
Why did the Earth got warmer in the Mesozoic Era 150 million years ago? Science has the answer: dino fart.
By scaling up the digestive wind of cows, they estimate that the population of dinosaurs - as a whole - produced 520 million tonnes of [methane] gas annually.
Scientists Halt Neurodegeneration in Mice by Rebooting Brain Cells
Scientists have discovered a way to halt neurodegeneration in mice affected by prion diseases: by rebooting their dying brain cells.
"We think it worked because we hit the executioner of the cells," says Mallucci. One challenge now, she says, is to find drugs that reboot normal protein production in the same way. A second challenge is to see if the same "production line closures" are what kill cells in patients with Alzheimer's and other dementias. If they are, then finding a drug to halt them might work in several diseases.
Link (Photo: Shutterstock)
Magnet-Making Bacteria: Future Computers?
If you think your computer has got bugs in it, wait till you hear this: scientists are working with a strain of magnet-making bacteria that may one day become part of a biological computer.
When the bacteria ingest iron, proteins inside their bodies interact with it to produce tiny crystals of the mineral magnetite, the most magnetic mineral on Earth.
Having studied the way the microbes collect, shape and position these nano-magnets inside themselves, the researchers copied the method and applied it outside the bacteria, effectively "growing" magnets that could in future help to build hard drives.
"We are quickly reaching the limits of traditional electronic manufacturing as computer components get smaller," said lead researcher Dr Sarah Staniland of the University of Leeds.
"The machines we've traditionally used to build them are clumsy at such small scales.
"Nature has provided us with the perfect tool to [deal with] this problem."
Bees That Drink Human Tears
Remember the Neatorama post about the sweat bees in New York that use humans as giant salt licks?
Well, turns out that's not as creepy as these bees in Thailand that drink human tears:
And yes, the scientists captured these tear-drinking bees using their own eyes as bait: Link - via NerdcoreOn landing, automatic blinking with the eye often prevented the bee from getting a firm hold, causing it to fall off the eyelashes. If so, the bee persistently tried again and again until it was successful, or finally gave up and flew off. In a very few cases the approach was so gentle that the host (H.B.) did not realize he had a Lisotrigona attached to his lid, imbibing his tears. After landing and whilst sucking tears, H.B. often could barely feel the presence of a bee; indeed, checking by mirror was then required to make sure whether it was still there or had left.
However, when several bees were involved, the experience was rather unpleasant, causing strong tear flow. Once a bee had settled and more were approaching, these tended to settle near each other in a row. Closing the eye did not necessarily dislodge bees but some continued to suck at the slit. They were even able to find and settle at closed eyes.
Disney Develops “Touchscreen” for Everyday Objects
Capacitive touch on your smartphone's screen (like the ones on your iPhone) is neat, but you know what's REALLY neat? Sensing touch interactions on every day objects.
Here's Touché from Disney Research (yes, that Disney): Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Wired
The Physics of Spilled Coffee
Scientists are concerned about spilled coffee, because long hours of research require coffee, and a spill can ruin your train of thought, if not your valuable notes. Mechanical engineer Rouslan Krechetnikov of the the University of California, Santa Barbara, and graduate student Hans Mayer did some experiments after noticing coffee being sloshed at a fluid dynamics conference (of all places).
Back at the lab, Krechetnikov and Mayer set up an experiment: They asked a person to walk at different speeds along a straight path with a filled coffee mug in hand. The volunteer did this in one of two ways-either focusing on the coffee mug, or looking straight ahead. A camera recorded the person’s motion and the mug’s trajectory, while a tiny sensor on the mug recorded the instant of spillage.
A fluid’s back-and-forth movement has a certain natural frequency, and this is determined by the size of its container. In their paper published last week in Physical Review E, Krechetnikov and Mayer show that everyday mug sizes produce natural frequencies that just happen to match those of a person’s leg movements during walking. This means that walking alone, without any other interference, is tuned to drive coffee to oscillate in a mug. But the researchers also found that even small irregularities in a person’s walking are important: These amplify the wilder oscillations, or sloshing, which bumps up the chance of a spillage.
“This is a very cool study,” says Lei Ren, a specialist in the biomechanics of walking at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. “It reveals the sophisticated interplay between human body dynamics and the fluid mechanics of spilling coffee.”
Their advice? Don’t walk too fast while carrying coffee, don’t fill the cup to the brim, and watch what you’re doing. There’s more, which you can read at Science Now. Link -via reddit
(Image credit: H.C. Mayer and R. Krechetnikov)
Most People Are Actually Below Average
Reach back into the deep recesses of your mind and recall the bell curve from that statistics class.
That Gaussian distribution is what most people think when they measure human performance (be it a school test or athletic performance). The bell curve posits that most of us are average, with a few extremely good and a few extremely bad people.
It turns out, however, that is wrong: most of us are actually well below average:
The bell curve powerfully shapes how we think of human performance: If lots of students or employees happen to show up as extreme outliers — they're either very good or very bad — we assume they must represent a skewed sample, because only a few people in a truly random sample are supposed to be outliers.
New research suggests, however, that rather than describe how humans perform, the bell curve may actually be constraining how people perform. Minus such constraints, a new paper argues, lots of people are actually outliers.
Human performance, by this account, does not often fit the bell curve or what scientists call a normal distribution. Rather, it is more likely to fit what scientists call a power distribution.
NPR's Morning Edition explains: Link
Image: Remember Half the People You Know Are Below Average T-Shirt from the NeatoShop
Your Brain Knows The Difference Between Metaphors and Similes, Even if You Don’t
Much to the chagrin of my high school English teacher, my classmates and I always got our metaphors and similes mixed up.
But take heart, Mrs. Potter! It turns out that our brains did understand that there are differences between the two:
LinkMidori Shibata and colleagues at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, asked 24 men and women to indicate, while in an functional MRI scanner, whether they could understand a series of metaphors or similes.
In keeping with previous fMRI research, participants' brains were active in the left inferior frontal gyrus. But Shibata's team also found that, when processing similes, there was an increase in activity in the medial frontal region, which may be linked to processes of inference. The right inferior frontal gyrus was more active for metaphors.
Axolotl Never Grow Up T-Shirt
Never Grow Up Axolotl T-shirt - $14.95
The axolotl "Never Grow Up" T-shirt by Nathan Mazur of Scared of Bees is my new favorite Science T-Shirt from the NeatoShop. Get it? Hah, neoteny has never looked so cute!
Check out more Funny T-Shirts and Science T-Shirts from the NeatoShop.
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