What’s that sound?
Commercials have become so effective at focusing on what us human people want that we can’t stop watching them. Oh scantily clad women. Oh short attention spans. Dogs can join in the braindead fun now too, there’s a commercial made with sounds only a dog can hear…
Continue reading… “This dog food commercial has sounds only a dog can hear”
Could Alzheimer’s be transmissible?
The brain damage that characterizes Alzheimer’s disease may originate in a form similar to that of infectious prion diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob, according to newly published research by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
ALMA
The windswept, sunburned Chajnantor plateau in Chile rises 16,500 feet above sea level and has some of the driest air on Earth. That makes it the perfect location for the world’s biggest, most sensitive, and most complex ground-based telescope…
Continue reading… “The billion dollar ALMA observatory can spot a golf ball from 15 Kilometers”
Hand gestures have a whole new meaning.
Researchers from Taiwan have developed a machine that reads people’s hand gestures and thereby permits them to open doors by waving a few fingers:
“In the future, you won’t have to worry about losing or forgetting your keys,” said Tsai Yao-pin, who teaches at the Technology and Science Institute of Northern Taiwan…
Continue reading… “Researchers design locks that can be opened with certain hand gestures”
This is a simulation of matter ejected from a star merger.
Einstein wrote about them, and we’re still looking for them — gravitational waves, which are small ripples in the fabric of space-time, that many consider to be the sounds of our universe. Just as sound complements vision in our daily life, gravitational waves will complement our view of the universe taken by standard telescopes.
Albert Einstein predicted gravitational waves in 1918. Today, almost 100 years later, advanced gravitational wave detectors are being constructed in the US, Europe, Japan and Australia to search for them…
Continue reading… “Gravitational waves that are ‘Sounds of the Universe’”
Self cleaning cloth.
This is laundry science at work. Researchers at the University of California at Davis have developed a compound that blends into cotton clothes and, when exposed to sunlight, destroys bacteria and toxins.
The compound is known as 2-anthraquinone carboxylic acid, or 2-AQC, and can be incorporated into cotton threads without the risk of washing off. After an hour’s exposure to our yellow sun, the super compound produces reactive oxygen species, such as hydroxyl radicals and hydrogen peroxide, that break down nasties like E. coli and dangerous pesticides…
Continue reading… “Self-cleaning cloth keeps your shirts bacteria-free with pure sunlight power”
Futurist Thomas Frey: It was roughly two years ago, October 15, 2009, when I got a call from a desperate lady, panicking, as she asked for my help.
Being a futurist, I don’t get many calls from people who urgently need my help. Futurists are rarely first responders.
Continue reading… “Why Industries Collapse”
New value found in psilocybin activities.
A single high dose of the hallucinogen psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called “magic mushrooms,” was enough to bring about a measurable personality change lasting at least a year in nearly 60 percent of the 51 participants in a new study, according to the Johns Hopkins researchers who conducted it…
This simple looking membrane could change the industry.
If you want a rechargeable battery in a power-hungry device today, the only real choice is a lithium-ion battery. They are heavy, quite large depending on how much charge you need, and volatile. They also have a high cost and limited life span.
A replacement for lithium-ion has long been sought after, and recently there have been some breakthroughs such as the jelly-like polymer battery. However, researchers at the National University of Singapore may have come up with the best solution yet in the form of an new energy storage membrane…
Continue reading… “Energy storage membrane set to revolutionize rechargeable batteries”
Is Wi-Fi the new spy eye?
Neal Patwari of the University of Utah discovered that breathing affects Wi-Fi signal strength. Chest expansion during a breath bends the wireless signals and they lose some power. This slight drop can be measured and used to calculate your breathing rate.
Measuring someone’s breathing rate is helpful, but the use of this technology as a spy tool is where things get interesting…
Continue reading… “Wi-Fi signals may be used to track your movement inside your house”
Drinking that depression away.
For many women, the mood-elevating effects of a cup of coffee may be more than fleeting. A new study shows that women who regularly drink coffee – the fully caffeinated kind – have a 20 percent lower risk of depression than nondrinkers. Decaf, soft drinks, chocolate, tea and other sources of caffeine did not offer the same protection against depression, possibly because of their lower levels of caffeine…
Continue reading… “Coffee drinking linked to less depression in women”
Did you ever wonder?
The Visible Barbie Project is part of the Foundation for Unnatural Research’s long-range plan for advancing the state of human knowlege of things that no normal person would ever think to wonder about.
The project began with the acquisition of a suitable marked-down subject at a nearby toy store and ended approximately six hours later, not including the time required to pick out the bits of hair that got stuck in the bandsaw.
The cause of the subject’s markdown was unknown, but we didn’t care; all that mattered was that the gross physical anatomy of the body was intact…
Continue reading… “The Visible Barbie Project”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.