A paper lightbulb?
Designer Tien-Ho Hsu has come up with a concept idea to reduce the amount of waste created by lightbulbs and their packaging. The solution, as this design presents, is emulsion-covered paper that glows when hooked up to an electricity source…
Continue reading… “Lightbulbs made of paper eliminate packaging”
Improving the taste of tomatoes in an unlikely way.
What makes something taste ‘good’ is a complex psychological and physiological human process that has made creating artificial tasters, or accurate scientific models, very difficult. But researchers at the University of Copenhagen have come up with what’s described as a “magnetic tongue” that could allow factories to monitor and improve the flavor of tinned tomatoes during the canning process…
Continue reading… “Magnetic Resonance used to artificially taste and improve canned tomatoes”
Top: Patient in a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine. Bottom: Activity in the motor cortex during the movement of the hands while awake (left) and during a dreamed movement (right). Blue areas indicate the activity during a movement of the right hand, which is clearly demonstrated in the left brain hemisphere, while red regions indicate the corresponding left-hand movements in the opposite brain hemisphere.
The ability to dream is a fascinating aspect of the human mind. However, how the images and emotions that we experience so intensively when we dream form in our heads remains a mystery. Up to now it has not been possible to measure dream content. Max Planck scientists working with colleagues from the Charité hospital in Berlin have now succeeded, for the first time, in analysing the activity of the brain during dreaming…
Continue reading… “Scientists measure dream content for the first time”
Leave no trace.
So you’ve decided you want to drop off the map and leave Big Brother behind. It’s harder than ever in our always-connected world, but if you’re ready to plan your big vanishing act, here are a few tips to get you started.
If this looks familiar, you’re not crazy. Our guide to dropping off the map is a perennial Evil Week favorite.
Continue reading… “How to ditch big brother and disappear forever”
Charging people to deposit? Really?
It seems an odd problem to have, this “too much cash” thing. I don’t know that most of us can relate. But it seems that in times of economic insecurity, those who used to invest in stocks are simply holding their money in banks, and now bankers are inundated with money. So what’s the solution? Charge people to deposit. Or, at least some of the people, at some banks anyway…
Continue reading… “Banks with too much cash charge for deposits”
Coins can save $.
The recently-assembled super-committee tasked with saving the US from financial disaster by year’s end wants to trade dollar bills for dollar…coins? Wait, don’t we already have some of those that nobody uses?
This controversial plan has been floated before but has met with a tepid response from most Americans and strong lobbying efforts from both paper and mining industries (and the states in which those industries reside). However, a recent study by the Government Accountability Office found that the coin’s longer lifetime—4.2 years vs. 22 months for bills—would translate into a $5.6 billion savings over the course of 30 years…
Continue reading… “Would you use dollar coins if it saved the Government $5.6 billion?”
The knowledge has availed itself.
The Copiale Cipher is a 105-page handwritten document that was composed sometime in the late Eighteenth Century. It has 75,000 characters, both symbols and Roman letters. Until recently, it was indecipherable. But now linguists using translation programs have decoded the first sixteen pages. Here’s how they did it…
Continue reading… “Linguists crack mysterious 300-year old coded manuscript”
A new DARPA solicition seeks “swarming robot space vampires” (in JWZ’s evocative phrasing) to disassemble and harvest valuable components from decommissioned satellites before they’re decommissioned, to use as spare parts for the stuff that’s still functional…
The stimulus didn’t work. The bank bailouts didn’t work. Homeowner assistance and refinancing didn’t work. So could the key to solving the US housing crisis be letting foreigners buy real estate for visas?
Continue reading… “Should we let foreigners buy homes for Visas?”
Radiation is all around you on an airplange.
Since the Fukushima nuclear disaster, you’ve probably heard me and other people talk about the radiation exposure we experience in everyday life. All humans, throughout history, have been exposed to background radiation produced constantly by the natural environment. Then there’s added exposures from modern sources: X-rays and medical scans, living near power plants (both coal and nuclear, and the coal is actually worse), and flying in airplanes…
Continue reading… “How much radiation are you exposed to on a plane?”
Biocomputers are one step closer to reality.
Scientists have successfully demonstrated that they can build some of the basic components for digital devices out of bacteria and DNA, which could pave the way for a new generation of biological computing devices, in research published October 18 in the journal Nature Communications…
Continue reading… “Computing building blocks created from bacteria and DNA”
Can you hear it? Well an iPhone will be soon.
In the near future, you might have more to worry about than someone looking over your shoulder—the smartphone beside you could be snooping on what you type. Scientists have programmed phones to spy by feeling. Incredible.
New Scientist reports that the method, although requiring a lot of tweaking before it’s a viable spy toy, can already detect typed words with 80% accuracy…
Continue reading… “An iPhone can tell what you’re typing”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.