My car is much more focused on performance and power than it is on creature comforts. When I get into my wife’s SUV, it takes me a while to acclimate to all the gadgets and gizmos the car has. I can only imagine the shock to the system having to drive the Porsche 911 GT3 Hybrid at normal speeds would have with all those buttons on the wheel…
Continue reading… “Porsche 911 GT3 Hybrid Racer has the Most Complex Steering Wheel Ever”
The Google Science Fair has reached the semi-finals stage. Now is your chance to vote!
I’m really excited about the way this particular science fair is set up. It’s open to teenagers all over the world, and happens online so that “open to teenagers all over the world” really does mean just that. And entries could come from a wide range of scientific disciplines—everything from math to food science. Most of the finalists are still kids from the USA, but there’s also some representation from the UK, New Zealand, India, Singapore, and South Africa…
Continue reading… “Vote for Google Science Fair Semi-Finalists”
It’s amazing how the storage of music and movies and increased exponentially over the years. This diagram illustrates how far we have come from vinyl records which could hold 44 minutes of music to today’s iPods which can hold over 83 days of music.
Continue reading… “Physical Storage Vs Digital Storage”
Engineering students at Harvard University have developed a cell phone app that, when paired with an ordinary metal detector, can be used effectively to detect land mines. Instead of just beeping when it passes over a metal object, these enhanced metal detectors present the shape of the object found below ground…
Continue reading… “App for Detecting Land Mines”
Who likes their tap water nice and fiery? I know I do — I simply won’t drink any water that doesn’t catch fire when held over an open flame. That’s why I drink all my water from underground aquifers that have been contaminated by hydro-fracking operations. Yes, a scientific study, the first of its kind, has discovered a link between flammable drinking water documented in communities around the nation, and everyone’s favorite method of extracting natural gas from the ground…
Continue reading… “New Study Traces Flammable Drinking Water to Fracking”
In the May-June issue of the journal American Mineralogist, a team of scientists announced the discovery of the new mineral krotite, one of the earliest minerals formed in our solar system. It is the main component of an unusual inclusion embedded in a meteorite (NWA 1934), found in northwest Africa. These objects, known as refractory inclusions, are thought to be the first planetary materials formed in our solar system, dating back to before the formation of Earth and the other planets…
Continue reading… “New Mineral Discovered: One of Earliest Minerals Formed in Solar System”
This is just plain fantastic. The LeafSnapapp for iPhone identifies any leaf you take a picture of, as long as it’s in their library. Right now it’s limited to trees native to the Northeastern US, but they’re working on expanding that. The best part is it’s free! Hopefully this will get me to finally learn the names of the trees around here. All I know is “pine” if it has pine cones and “not pine” if it doesn’t.
Inevitably, you’ll open your toolbox and find three Gungans but not a single Torx wrench.
At the link: Doctor Who, Back to the Future, and Jurassic Park…
Continue reading… “Science Fiction IKEA Manuals”
Hybrid cars have been around for a while, but one German grad student is taking the concept to the water. A new hybrid propulsion motorboat designed by Stefanie Behringer, would reduce drag thanks to its three-hull, or trimaran, form.
A jet ski attaches to either side of the main hull, helping stabilize the boat. While the jet skis are electric-powered, the 49-foot long watercraft is also powered by two diesel engines that use Audi’s turbo-charged injection technology. Audi’s Concept Design team in Munich worked with Behringer on the project…
Continue reading… “Hybrid Motoryacht Design Powered By Diesel And Electric Jet Skis”
Though we saw another paper phone not to long ago, but the latest paper phone we’re seeing is much more high tech. Like the Kindle, it uses an E-Ink display and works by bending the phone into different positions to make calls, use apps, and listen to music.
Created by research teams at Queen’s University in Canada and Arizona State University, the 9.5-centimeter (diagonal) screen is actually a lightweight flexible display. It’s said to feel similar to a bendable piece of plastic.
Its thin body resembles that of a paper document, but, according to the video below, underneath the screen is a “flexible printed circuit with resistive bend circuits,” which are used to identify the bending of the display screen. The user actually chooses the shape for each function…
Continue reading… “Flexible Paper Phone will be the Phone of the Future”
Whisky. Is there anything it can’t do? Here’s what the Scots are going to do with the byproducts of whisky-making process:
It is the spirit that powers the Scottish economy, and now whisky is to be used to create electricity for homes in a new bioenergy venture involving some of Scotland’s best-known distilleries…
Who needs males when you have parthenogenisis? With a little help from science, biologist Peter Baumann and collagues have created an all-female lizard species…
Continue reading… “Scientists Create All-Female Species of Lizard”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.