New method to produce healthier drinking water.
In an effort to produce mass quantities of healthier H2O, Chinese scientists have come up with a new method to change water’s chemical composition. It involves making light water.
Continue reading… “China’s New Method to Mass Produce Light Water”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kviA4w4i-VA[/youtube]
Researchers at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis are working with children who have face blindness (prosopagnosia) to try to come up with ways to treat people who have difficulty recognizing and distinguishing between faces. According to the researchers in this video face blindness affects 1 to 2% of all children…
Continue reading… “Face Blindness Research at University of Minnesota in Minneapolis”
An object that is invisible to sonar.
In one University of Illinois lab, invisibility is a matter of now you hear it, now you don’t. Led by mechanical science and engineering professor Nicholas Fang, Illinois researchers have demonstrated an acoustic cloak, a technology that renders underwater objects invisible to sonar and other ultrasound waves.
“We are not talking about science fiction. We are talking about controlling sound waves by bending and twisting them in a designer space,” said Fang, who also is affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. “This is certainly not some trick Harry Potter is playing with.”
While materials that can wrap sound around an object rather than reflecting or absorbing it have been theoretically possible for a few years, realization of the concept has been a challenge. In a paper accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters, Fang’s team describe their working prototype, capable of hiding an object from a broad range of sound waves…
Continue reading… “Newly Developed Cloak Hides Underwater Objects from Sonar”
Hail, lightning and gales came through the state’s eastern region this summer thanks to scientist-puppetmasters.
As part of a secret program to control the weather in the Middle East, scientists working for the United Arab Emirates government artificially created rain where rain is generally nowhere to be found. The $11 million project, which began in July, put steel lampshade-looking ionizers in the desert to produce charged particles. The negatively charged ions rose with the hot air, attracting dust. Moisture then condensed around the dust and eventually produced a rain cloud. A bunch of rain clouds…
Continue reading… “Scientists Create 52 Artificial Rain Storms in Abu Dhabi Desert”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc4HxPxNrZ0&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Sometime this year, the world’s population will pass the 7 billion mark. By 2045, that figure is expected to be 9 billion. National Geographic is beginning a year-long series on how the world’s population came to be, where we are headed, and the challenges that come with so many of us living together. Those challenges include energy consumption, education, birth control, natural resources, immigration, and more.
A 10-year-old girl in Canada has become the youngest person to discover a supernova – an exploding star which can briefly outshine a whole galaxy. Kathryn Gray was studying images taken at an amateur observatory which had been sent to her father. She spotted the magnitude 17 supernova on Sunday.
Supernovas – which are rare events – are stellar explosions that mark the violent deaths of stars several times bigger than the Sun. The supernova was discovered in the galaxy UGC 3378, about 240 million light years away, in the constellation of Camelopardalis. “I’m really excited. It feels really good,” Ms Gray said…
(video after jump…)
Continue reading… “10-Year-Old Canadian Girl Discovers Supernova”
The material, called a “nanoscoop” because it resembles a cone with a scoop of ice cream on top, is shown in the above scanning electron microscope image.
An entirely new type of nanomaterial developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute could enable the next generation of high-power rechargeable lithium (Li)-ion batteries for electric automobiles, as well as batteries for laptop computers, mobile phones, and other portable devices.
As you’re no doubt aware, some of the precious metals used in consumer electronics — like palladium — can be both pricey and hard to come by, which has prompted some to harvest the materials from old electronics and reuse them, while others have been busily working on more readily available alternatives. Among that latter group are a team of researchers from Japan’s Kyoto University, who have just announced that they’ve managed to create a palladium-like alloy using what’s being described as “present-day alchemy.” More specifically, they used nanotechnology to combine (and “nebulise”) rhodium and silver, which don’t ordinarily mix, into the new composite, which they say could eventually replace the real thing in a whole range of electronics and other products…
A 3D image replica of a 28,000-year-old skull found in France shows it was 20 per cent larger than ours.
It’s not something we’d like to admit, but it seems the human race may actually be becoming increasingly dumb. Man’s brain has been gradually shrinking over the last 20,000 years, according to a new report.
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.