Wash your hands, folks, especially you ladies. A new study found that women have a greater variety of bacteria on their hands than men do. And everybody has more types of bacteria than the researchers expected to find.
“One thing that really is astonishing is the variability between individuals, and also between hands on the same individual,” said University of Colorado biochemistry assistant professor Rob Knight, a co-author of the paper.
In the wake of immensely growing crime around the world, the best way out to nab a criminal is the use of an accurate lie detection test. The Narco test is one way of lie detection done nowadays. However, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel have come up with a new technique for lie detection. This method under research uses infrared images, beaming them directly into the brain. Infrared sensors have been put to many innovative uses in the past, from interactive image generation to treating cancer, to measuring body fat levels. Infrared usage has come a long way, and these functional near-infrared sensors (fNIR), used in a band, monitor the hidden truths in the brain.
Maritime Flight Dynamics wants to make high speed travel on the seas practical, safe, fuel-efficient and hell, while they’re at it, comfortable too. Their vehicle of choice? The SeaPhantom. It’s fast enough to get you from Key West to Cuba in 45 minutes! It uses an airfoil to fly above the crests of the waves, thus reducing drag.
Amass the Biomass
When asked about alternative energy, most people think of solar and wind power generators. But there are other forms, like geothermal or biomass power system.
Our pal WebEcoist explores one unique benefit of using this form of alternative energy:
Bad Attitudes Get a Good Foot Bending
Badly behaved schoolchildren are set to face alternative punishment in the form of foot and head messages as a means of controlling bad behaviour. A London-run company called Bud-Umbrella will work in 60 primary and 14 secondary schools, offering the alternative therapy to improve unruly children’s behaviour.
Lambeth Council in south London is to reportedly spend £90,000 next year sending the reflexologists into the schools - despite the fact there is little evidence such treatment improves behaviour.
For the myopic eyeball toucher, this is brilliant: an electronic contact lens case with a simple LED display that tells you how long it’s been since you started wearing your current set of contacts.
Robert X. Cringely: It isn’t very often I get to apply Moore’s Law to a non-Information Technology business and rarer still that I can then relate the whole thing back to Microsoft, so I’m going for it. Here’s what the solar power industry can teach us about Microsoft.
A year ago, the idea of free Web content was all the rage. Now the future of free is less clear. Andrew Keen, Silicon Valley author and entrepreneur, recently posted to a Wired blog that the economic downturn would strike a blow to free content.
See other types of voting!
A healthy adult bladder can hold up to 16 ounces (2 cups) of urine comfortably, according to the National Institutes of Health. How frequently it fills depends on how much excess water your body is trying to get rid of.
Nestled along a short stretch of coastline in Northern Taiwan lies a strange complex known as The San-Zhi Pod Village. This abandoned futuristic luxury vacation spot remains a complete mystery to locals and tourists alike. There are several stories surrounding the circumstances that led up to its abandonment, but no one seems to know exactly why or how the site fell into such a state of disrepair.
Sunlight comes only rarely, with a sliver slicing down between the ramshackle towers. The light here is fluorescent and the people packed sardine tight amongst twisting corridors. Some of the lower levels are widely considered uninhabitable due to trash. Up the street (if it can be called that) there’s a drug parlor with an unlicensed “doctor” open for business upstairs. They exist openly: there are no police because there is no law.
The Ryugyong Hotel resides in N. Korea. Work began in 1987 and was abandoned in 1992. At 105 stories, with 7 revolving restaurants, it would have been the tallest hotel in the world. However, word has it that is suffers from crumbling concrete, problems with the elevator shaft, and funds to complete it. Video after the jump. (Pics)
Let’s face it: humans are not machines. Humans are complex. Life and business is chaotic, interconnected and self-organizing.
Are you still on the fence about exhibiting at the Colorado Inventor Showcase? Well, the good news is you still have a couple days to decide, until Wed Nov 5th. The bad news is that we only have a limited few of these great spaces left.
Teenagers who watch a lot of television featuring flirting, necking, discussion of sex and sex scenes are much more likely than their peers to get pregnant or get a partner pregnant, according to the first study to directly link steamy programming to teen pregnancy. (Pics)
As one you YouTuber put it: “Any simple task in Japan requires the effort of tens of aging men dressed in fluorescent jackets and hard hats.”
Giving birth in a warm water bath is much more popular in Europe and Asia than in the USA, and most mothers in this country who choose a waterbirth, deliver their babies at home in a bathtub.
This video was created by sound artist, Daito Manabe, front man to the Face Visualizer designed by Masaki Teruoka and built by Katsuhiko Harada. No, the music is not controlled by facial contortions. Rather, Daito-san’s face is twisted to the music via electrical-pulse stimulation — 10 channels in total, 8 to control his facial expressions, 2 to keep the music and face in sync. More videos after the jump.
Photographer David Maitland won the 2008 Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest with this stunning photo captured in the dead of night in a Belizean rain forst.
They are the stuff of legend - signifying mystery and traditionally believed to be able to grant the owner youth.
Eating tomatoes to help prevent cancer, garlic to prevent AIDS or drinking fruit juice to ward off Alzheimer’s? Despite a bevy of research, the impact of food on killer diseases remains to be proved.
Created by an aerospace engineer tired of having his trunk ruined by spilled takeout food and muddy sports gear, StowRightTM is the Extra Clever Cargo Carrier. It’s the only vehicle storage solution offering a generous 3.5 cubic feet of contained, leakproof storage that instantly partitions to keep items of any size from sliding, breaking or turning over. Plus, StowRight’s patented space-saving design folds flat to a lightweight storage case in just 10 seconds.
Think Like a Genius is a dynamic software program that enables kids of all ages to build 3D virtual worlds that are fun, interactive and inspiring.
Each week we try to find the most unusual photos in the world. At the same time, we begin to scream, do crazy Norwegian dances, argue amongst ourselves, and even eat artificial vegetables in an effort to devise an appropriate caption for the photos. It is this combination of amazing photo, couple with a “left hook” kind of caption, that leads us to our final masterpiece. Well, it a masterpiece in an Andy Warhol sort of way. (Pics)
