New findings show that planets orbiting red dwarf stars are more likely to be habitable than previously believed.
Only about a dozen potentially habitable exoplanets have been detected so far but, scientists say the universe should be teeming with alien worlds that could support life. The Milky Way alone may host 60 billion such planets around faint red dwarf stars, a new estimate suggests. (Video)
Continue reading… “60 billion alien planets in our galaxy could support life: Study”
Phil Watts conducting an experiment
Working day and night in his backyard workshop, energy pioneer Phil Watts has developed a significant number of breakthrough power technologies, but none quite as significant as the “virtual battery.”
The Virtual Battery Hybrid is an aggregation of 4 technologies; Thermoelectric power generation, solar thermal, ground loops and Nanofluid heat transfer fluid. This technology is currently part of the Colorado Innovation Challenge where people can vote on their favorite energy technology.
Continue reading… “Introducing the Virtual Battery”
Researchers have developed a technique using nanotechnology to increase the data storage capacity of a DVD from a measly 4.7GB to 1,000TB.
The 4.7 GB DVDs have slowly started to fade into obscurity thanks to Blu-ray. But is it going to make a comeback? Three Chinese scientists have discovered a breakthrough process that could, at least in theory, allow a DVD to store a whopping 1,000 TB—or a full petabyte—of data. Suck on that, Blu-ray.
Continue reading… “How to cram 1,000 terabytes onto a single DVD”
Dua’s layer, a new layer of the human cornea.
A new discovery to the human anatomy is just 15 microns thick, but it will make eye surgery safer and simpler. Harminder Dua, a professor at the University of Nottingham, recently found a new layer in the human cornea, and he’s calling it Dua’s layer.
Continue reading… “Scientists discover new human body part”
What makes us itch?
Scientists now know the secret. In what will be a boon for millions of people with chronic itch conditions, such as eczema and psoriasis, a small molecule released in the spinal cord has now been found to trigger a process that is later experienced in the brain as the sensation of itch.
Continue reading… “Scientists discover the secret to what makes us itch”
The quest started with trying to make better yogurt.
Bacteria that uses a tiny molecular machine to kill attacking viruses could change the way that scientists edit the DNA of plants, animals and fungi, revolutionizing genetic engineering. The protein, called Cas9, is quite simply a way to more accurately cut a piece of DNA.
Continue reading… “New protein discovery could change biotech forever”
Scientists have used brain scans to decode imagery directly from the brain.
Brain researchers can tell whom a person is thinking about by scanning the human brain. For the first time they have been able to identify what people are imagining from imaging technologies.
Continue reading… “Scientists can tell who we are thinking about by scanning the brain”
Scientists have long known that the young and old brains are very different.
A single molecular switch, that when flipped, helps create the mature neuronal connections that allow the brain to bridge the gap between adolescent impressionability and adult stability.
Continue reading… “Flipping a single molecular switch can make an old brain young”
The presence of human cells made the mice’s brains function better.
Scientists discover that human brains cells transplanted into mice’s brains make the mice smarter. These results shed light on how important a certain overlooked class of brain cells are in human brains.
Continue reading… “Human brain cells make mice smarter”
A remarkable Empire of One business
Rich Burlew created the first The Order of the Stick, a hilarious webcomic that celebrates and satirizes tabletop role-playing games and medieval fantasy, on September 29, 2003. The strip was originally produced to entertain people who came to his website for gaming articles, but it quickly became the most popular feature, leading Burlew to eventually abandon writing articles almost entirely.
The entire comic strip is drawn with simple stick characters, hence the name.
On September 30, 2005, The Order of the Stick began appearing in Dragon, the long-running official D&D magazine, and the strip became profitable enough for him to quit his job as a freelance graphic designer and concentrate on cartooning.
Rich also started self-publishing his comics in book form in 2005, but it became hard for him to keep all of the older books in stock. So in 2012 he decided to do a Kickstarter project with a goal of $57,750. Instead, he raised $1,254,120 from 14,952 backers…
Continue reading… “Rich Burlew’s Comic Book Business Success Story”
Recently, someone in the office came across the home that inspired Tony Stark’s house in the Iron Man movies (it’s real, but not quite as extravagantly located). Instead of talking about that actual home, we launched into a debate about Stark’s fictional palace and the many, many expensive things he’d keep inside. Debating his home lead us to another fictional character with billions of dollars and penchant for fighting crime: Batman.
It’s a little outside of what we normally post here, but come on, who hasn’t wondered this? After you review all the financials, it comes out that it’s cheaper to be Batman. He’s a bit more frugal, and seems to take better care of his stuff. He also doesn’t require the power of flight. Tony Stark is a little more cavalier with his equipment, but perhaps he recycles all those suits he trashes?
(See the infographic after the jump…)
Continue reading… “The Billion Dollar Hero Battle”
Dolphins are the only other living beings on the planet to assign such specific monikers to known family members and associates.
One of the defining characteristics of human intelligence is language. We like to think that the complexity of our social interactions is one of the things that makes humans unique, but we do know that other animals do communicate with each other. Dolphins are one of the other smartest species on Earth, and new research suggests they may have language skills that are a lot more complex than we thought, as they’ve demonstrated their ability to call each other by individual names.
Continue reading… “Dolphins refer to each other by name: Study”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.