Asexual fission from one cell?
Planarians, a type of flatworm, reproduce by asexual fission. Cut one in half, and the missing parts will regrow until you have two planarians. Scientists have known for a while that the regeneration took place among a cluster of cells called cNeoblasts. Some wondered if was possible to grow an entire worm from a single such cell, and so performed an experiment…
Continue reading… “Worm Regenerates Entire Body from a Single Cell”
Online retail spending reached $38 billion this quarter, up 12 percent from a $33.8 billion a year ago according to Comscore. This growth is due to an increase in the number of buyers (7%), transactions per buy (9%) and tempered by a decline in spending per transaction (4%).
According to a ComScore report released today, nearly half of those orders included free shipping, at 47% versus 53% for Q’1 ’11, 49% versus 51% in Q’4 10 (the holiday season) and 41% versus 59% in Q3 ’10.
Continue reading… “Almost Half Of All Online Orders Now Include Free Shipping”
Exactly how long do you want your pet to stay around?
Grieving pet owners are turning to a US woman to give their lost loved ones eternal life by making them into mummies. PD Cagliastro is one of few in the US offering animal mummification services based on the ancient Egyptian art It took her 20 years to perfect her formula by studying embalming, consulting with chemistry students and reading the few scraps of ancient Egyptian texts available on the subject.
“It was a sick fascination,” said Ms Cagliastro, who works and lives in her “house of death” with her teenage daughter and her husband, an exterminator…
Continue reading… “Woman Makes Mummies for Bereaved Pet Owners”
Help keep the Busuu language alive.
Busuu is a language that is only spoken by eight people in the world (according to Wikipedia this may be as low as three people as of 2005) in Cameroon. To help save this dying language the folks at Busuu.com have created a music video in the Busuu language.
Continue reading… “Busuu: A Language That Only 8 People Speak”
Like a drop on a wine glass, a snake venom “tear” runs down the groove of the fang.
The surface tension acting on the venom is the dominant physical force underlying envenomation.
Most snakes do not inject venom into their victims bodies using hollow fangs, contrary to common misconceptions. The fact is that most snakes and many other venomous reptiles have no hollow fangs. Physicists have now uncovered the tricks these animals use to force their venom under the skin of their victims.
For years Professor Leo von Hemmen, a biophysicist at the TU Muenchen, and Professor Bruce Young, a biologist at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, have been researching the sense of hearing in snakes. While discussing the toxicity of their snakes, it dawned on them that only few snakes inject their venom into their victims’ bodies using hollow fangs. Yet, even though the vast majority of venomous reptiles lack hollow fangs, they are effective predators.
Only around one seventh of all venomous snakes, like the rattlesnake, rely on the trick with the hollow fang. The vast majority has developed another system…
Since the debut of the iPad, tablets have captured the imagination of consumers. In just one year, the iPad surpassed even the most optimistic of projections to define a brand new product category and become the best-selling gadget of all time, and Forrester analysts project that in 2011, tablet sales will more than double.
But are tablets ready for the classroom? Though tablets have caught on with consumers, the higher education market has been slower to adopt, and understandably so. From grades to degrees to job placement after graduation, the devices that are used in classrooms are tied to important outcomes…
Continue reading… “6 Reasons Why Tablets Are Ready for the Classroom”
We know that a piece of toast, if dropped, will fall butter-side down. We also know that a cat, if dropped, will land on its feet. What happens when you strap a piece of buttered toast to a cat’s back and drop them both is called the Buttered Cat Paradox, and there’s an extensive amount of research on the internet devoted to just this conundrum…
Continue reading… “The Buttered Cat Paradox”
Daniel Kish had both eyes removed at the age of 13 months after being diagnosed with retinoblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer. He didn’t let that slow him down. Though blind he can mountain bike, navigate the wilderness alone and recognize a building as far away as 1,000 feet. Kish is president of a nonprofit organization called. World Access offers training on how to interact with one’s environment, using echolocation as a primary tool. Kish hears echos and interprets their meaning to visualize objects, similar to the way bats, beluga whales and dolphins ”see” objects…
Continue reading… “Daniel Kish Uses Sound To See”
Pedro Martin Ureta, a 70-year old Argentine farmer from General Levalle, has used 7,000 cypress and eucalyptus trees to create a giant guitar in memory of his late wife, Graciela, who died in 1977, when she was only 25. He consulted a number of landscapers, but none of them were interested in such a daring endeavor, so the farmer just had to do it himself…
Continue reading… “Argentine Farmer Makes Giant Guitar With 7,000 Trees”
Construction material manufacturing often produces hazardous byproducts that are either toxic or difficult to recycle, as are many of the materials themselves. Brooklyn based Planetary ONE is experimenting with the idea of grow-your-own construction materials by making bricks from mushrooms.
Their latest project, Mycoform, places mushroom roots known as mycelium spores into a mold and feeds them with agricultural byproducts like buckwheat husks. In just over a week at 80 degrees, the spores grow to fill the form, resulting in a light yet solid structure. The brick is heated to 100 degrees when complete to kill the spores, preventing further growth.
Continue reading… “One Day Will People Be Living In Shroom Houses?”
Albert Einstein
Huge objects in the universe distort space and time with the force of their gravity, scientists said on Wednesday after a NASA probe confirmed two key parts of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
Continue reading… “Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity Proven”
Are Anti-gravity Devices Just Around the Corner?
The Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus (ALPHA) at the CERN particle physics laboratory announced that they have been able to hold 309 atoms of antihydrogen in a magnetic trap for 1000 seconds, approximately 10,000 times longer than before.
When they experimented with the anti-atoms last year they verified that they were in fact antihydrogen atoms by releasing them from the trap and observing them being annihilated by hydrogen atoms. During that experiment they were only able to contain the atoms for 170 milliseconds.
They have repeated this experiment, but have made a few changes. By cooling the antiprotons that create the antihydrogen they were able to lower their energy, this allowed for more atoms to be contained with a longer life span. The longer life will allow scientists to do more experiments, like checking if antihydrogen has the same energy level as hydrogen…
Continue reading… “Antihydrogen Could Lead to Anti-gravity”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.