Seeing is not always believing
Remember all those Star Trek gadgets you wished you had because they looked so cool? Well, it turns out looking cool is about all they’d be good for.
Here’s five inventions that will be available some day … even if nobody wants them.

Whoops
A lot of you are probably reading this at work and despite that, a lot of you are probably also drunk. That’s because most of us have jobs where, if you maybe screw up here and there, it’s not the end of the world.
Or at least that’s what we’d like to think. It turns out [...]

mouse responding to light 
A newly created set of light-sensitive proteins grants scientists unprecedented control over the brain’s biochemistry, potentially shedding light on addiction and other complex neural processes. To demonstrate the potential of this novel molecular toolbox, researchers from Stanford University engineered mice to carry light-sensitive proteins in the brain’s reward center, which responds to [...]

Genetically modified tobacco plant 
Tobacco isn’t famous for its health benefits. But now scientists have succeeded in using genetically modified tobacco plants to produce medicines for several autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, including diabetes. The research is published in the open access journal BMC Biotechnology.

 
The influence children wield over their parents’ purchase decisions at the point of sale is grossly underestimated by parents. This was shown in a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Vienna, Austria. According to the study by consumer researchers Claus Ebster and Udo Wagner, twice as many purchases in supermarkets are triggered [...]

Venus 
NASA may send a fleet of spacecraft to Venus after a planned mission to Jupiter and its moons set for launch in 2020, the US space agency has said.

The Paco 
Japanese architect Jo Nagasaka and the Schemata Architecture Office have come up with a home design that rethinks just how much space one person needs. 6,000 square feet? 600? Well, try 30 square feet. (Pics)

Neil Strauss has a new book, “Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life”, which reveals the secrets of people who in a hypothetical apocalypse will be roasting your femur over oil barrels. He made this video showing how to make a knife from a cigarette for Danger Room. Too bad my cigarettes use cotton filters.

Electric Motivation

No-one sane drives a scooter along Pittsburgh’s road-strewn potholes. The Movito, though, can combine with another Movito to become a kind of street catamaran: good for mastering the elements and awful chipsealing alike. A design by Tai Chiem, it was a winner at NASA’a “Create the Future” design contest, and is imagined as a [...]

Dan Meth produced a map of the United States featuring the places some of your favorite TV shows were set. It was inspired by his earlier map of sitcoms set in New York City.