Why screw around with one propellor when your personal multicopter can have 16. I cannot wait to hover around my neighborhood making everyone jealous and finding frisbees stuck on roofs…
Continue reading… “Amazing multicopter could be your ticket to the heavens”
Caloric restriction slows down aging.
By consuming fewer calories, aging can be slowed down and the development of age-related diseases such as cancer and type 2 diabetes can be delayed. The earlier calorie intake is reduced, the greater the effect. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have now identified one of the enzymes that hold the key to the aging process…
Continue reading… “Live longer with fewer calories? Key enzyme involved in aging process found”
What’s on the minds of the new minds?
The world’s most successful entrepreneurs play hard, but they work even harder. That much was made clear after the dust settled on f.ounders, an event that has quickly become one of technology’s premiere conferences.
There aren’t many events where you meet two heads of state, eat dinner with Bono, and party with 150 of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs. But that’s exactly what happened at the f.ounders conference in Dublin, Ireland last week. The conference brought together the founders of Skype, YouTube, Netflix, Rovio, GroupMe, StumbleUpon, 4chan and more for four days of intensive networking, extravagant dinners and Irish hospitality — you couldn’t walk five steps without somebody offering you a Guinness…
Continue reading… “Four days with the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs”
Colony of E. coli bacteria.
When a bacterial cell divides into two daughter cells and those two cells divide into four more daughters, then 8, then 16 and so on, the result, biologists have long assumed, is an eternally youthful population of bacteria. Bacteria, in other words, don’t age — at least not in the same way all other organisms do…
Continue reading… “Do bacteria age? Biologists discover the answer follows simple economics”
Massive change on a distant planet.
Quite snickering! Something on Uranus has erupted and now scientists are all in a tizzy about what and why it might be.
The news is exciting for a number of reasons. The simplest being we know very little about Uranus, mostly due to its incredible distance form Earth and because it’s, well, frankly one of the more “boring” planets out there…
Continue reading… “Something has exploded in a spectacular fashion on Uranus”
A piece called Steampunk Time Machine Antique Master Bathroom Computer Workstation
by Bruce Rosenbaum and Walter Parker repurposes Victorian-era plumbing components as an eye-catching desk.
A computer workstation built from Victorian-era bathroom fixtures spells retro-futuristic relief at a new exhibit of geek-friendly “antiques.” The Steampunk Time Machine Antique Master Bathroom Computer Workstation, designed by Bruce Rosenbaum and Walter Parker, melds a modern computer with antique plumbing components, including a ribcage shower, toilet and pipes…
Continue reading… “Steampunk computer workstation and toilet”
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”
Look at the size of that thing!
Dinosaur movies have taught us that things were a lot larger back in prehistoric times, but this is ridiculous! Scientists at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography have found a giant amoeba the size of your hand…
Continue reading… “Giant prehistoric Amoeba the size of your hand”
Harnessing wast for power.
This concept design for a “microbial home” centered around a methane digester hub that feeds gas from your food into various appliances has a nice, bodgy, Rube Goldberg feel. We can call it methanepunk (not perfect, but better than “fartpunk”)…
Continue reading… “Microbial home: fuelling the kitchen with methane from waste”
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?”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.