Are you good at keeping friends?
Researchers are suggesting that there is a link between the number of friends you have and the size of the region of the brain — known as the orbital prefrontal cortex — that is found just above the eyes. A new study shows that this brain region is bigger in people who have a larger number of friendships…
Continue reading… “Brain size may determine whether you are good at keeping friends”
What are these strange creatures capable of?
Talk about a long scientific experiment*. Japanese researchers have bred an unusual line of fruit fly called “Dark-fly” which has been kept in constant darkness for 57 years (1,400 generations). They’ve sequenced the Dark-fly’s genome and are now figuring out the genomic alterations linked to adaptation to living in the dark.
Continue reading… “Dark-Fly: A Line of Fruit Fly Bred in the Dark for 57 Years (1,400 Generations)”
Artist rendering of the Giant Magellan Telescope
Astronomers have begun to blast 3 million cubic feet of rock from a mountaintop in the Chilean Andes to make room for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), the world’s largest telescope when completed near the end of the decade. The GMT will help astronomers probe the nature of dark matter and dark energy – mysterious forms of matter and energy that allow galaxies to form while the expansion of the Universe accelerates…
This cylinder which hides contents and makes them invisible to magnetic fields.
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona researchers, in collaboration with an experimental group from the Academy of Sciences of Slovakia, have created a cylinder which hides contents and makes them invisible to magnetic fields. The device was built using superconductor and ferromagnetic materials available on the market…
Continue reading… “Cylinder hides contents and makes them invisible to magnetic fields”
Crowdfunding is closer to reality!
Well, this just in from a dispatch on Capitol Hill: The Senate has passed legislation that will essentially legalize crowdfunding in startups by practically anyone, even your mom. U.S. Senators Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Oreg.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) collectively introduced the “CROWDFUND Act” (S. 2190) earlier this month, which adds measures to the House of Rep’s now well-known JOBS Act to ensure that companies would be able to use SEC-approved crowdfunding platforms to raise money from “small-dollar investors.”
Continue reading… “Senate Passes Crowdfunding Bill 73-26 (With Protections)”
The world’s most expensive cup of tea is set to go on sale in China at £130 ($200) a cup – fertilized with panda dung. An Yanshi, a 41-year-old former teacher and journalist, is using the bamboo-eaters’ manure to help fertilize the organic green tea, which he believes will make the perfect brew…
Continue reading… “Panda excrement used in making world’s most expensive cup of tea”
Scrubba washes where no others dare.
There’s always a trade-off when packing for extended trips—bring enough outfits to last the entire trip or bring fewer sets and hope you can find a local laundromat? Or, option three, bring the Scrubba wash bag along and do your own laundry.
The Scrubba is the brainchild of Ashley Newland, who devised the system while climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro…
Continue reading… “Scrubba your clothes with this washing machine in a bag”
nicki minaj with one tiny hand.
One Tiny Hand is a Tumblr site created by Zach Vitale who photo-manipulates one tiny hand onto images of famous people. The results speak for themselves…
Continue reading… “One Tiny Hand added to images of famous people”
Robots now rule the warehouse.
Amazon just bought Kiva Systems for $775 million. The company makes robots that automate warehouse fulfillment.
The beauty of our system,” Raffaello D’Andrea says as he paces across the warehouse, ”is that you don’t have to walk over to the shelves to get things–the shelves come to you.” With that, he motions toward some 200 blue plastic racks sitting at the center of the building. A mechanical whir fills the room. And then the robots appear…
(incredible video after jump…)
Continue reading… “The amazing Kiva robots that Amazon just bought for $775 million”
Cheaper, quieter and fuel-efficient biplanes could put supersonic travel on the horizon.
For 27 years, the Concorde provided its passengers with a rare luxury: time saved. For a pricey fare, the sleek supersonic jet ferried its ticketholders from New York to Paris in a mere three-and-a-half hours — just enough time for a nap and an aperitif. Over the years, expensive tickets, high fuel costs, limited seating and noise disruption from the jet’s sonic boom slowed interest and ticket sales. On Nov. 26, 2003, the Concorde — and commercial supersonic travel — retired from service…
Continue reading… “Biplane to break the sound barrier”
Small deposit. Big return.
Elephants in captivity are becoming too inbred, so a German researcher has amassed a sperm bank of wild elephant semen for zoos to draw on. There’s just one small problem – sperm is not a commodity bull elephants give up lightly. Zoos across the world are facing a growing crisis – the dwindling gene pool of their elephants. In fact, one rather drained male called Jackson has sired many of the captive calves born in the United States in the last ten years. That’s why, every couple of years, Thomas Hildebrandt of Berlin’s Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) takes to the South African skies in a helicopter over the savannah, searching for bulls. Once a potentially fertile specimen has been identified, the helicopter swoops down and Hildebrandt fires a narcotic dart to stun the animal.
There then follows a simple five-minute procedure, known as electro-ejaculation…
Continue reading… “Scientist seeks deposits for elephant sperm bank”
Finding new ways to fend off the feds.
Here’s something that’s so crazy it might be considered genius: the Pirate Bay wants to move its servers—the same servers that draw the ire of the feds—up in the air by using GPS controlled drones. It’s a move to stay ahead of every organization that’s on the Pirate Bay’s tail.
It’s also so crazy that it might be The Pirate Bay joking around, right? Right? Maybe? Who cares! The idea that the Pirate Bay detailed was to launch drones carrying the servers that redirected your traffic to servers in a secret location into the sky. This way, if law enforcement organizations wanted to take the servers down, they would need to use plans to literally “take them out”. The Pirate Bay hilarious says it would be “a real act of war”. What if the drone was over international waters? Who could stop The Pirate Bay then!
TPB’s plans aren’t set yet but the Pirate Bay said..
Continue reading… “The Pirate Bay wants to use drones to put its servers in the sky”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.