How much do you know about non teenage mutant ninja turtles?
Dark Roasted Blend has a great article on turtles right now, complete with tons of great pictures and some interesting facts about the creatures. For example:
The rigid shell means turtles cannot breathe as other reptiles do, by changing the volume of their chest cavity via expansion and contraction of the ribs. Instead, turtles breathe in two ways…
Jonas Pfiel’s “Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera” sports 36 cameras and contains firmware that stitches their output together to form a global panorama; you throw it into the air and at the top of its arc, it takes a snap and processes it…
Continue reading… “Ball-camera that you toss in the air for a 360° panorama”
Teens are vain too?
Here’s a disturbing trend: Between 1996 and 2010 the number of teenagers aged 13-19 having elective cosmetic surgery has increased by 548% – from around 14,000 procedures to 76,841 last year, according to American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The vast majority of these surgeries are rhinoplasty, followed by octoplasty (ear-pinning, typically), breast augmentation, asymmetry correction and reduction, and liposuction…
Continue reading… “The teenage plastic surgery boom”
Nanotubes contribute to another breakthrough.
Will the wonders of carbon nanotubes never cease? Engineers have now used everyone’s favorite cylindrical übermolecules to create artificial muscles that can contract and twist, in a manner not unlike like the muscles found in elephant trunks and squid tentacles. The upshot? Researchers say these tiny little motors could soon be used to propel microscopic nanobots throughout your bloodstream.
In nanoscale engineering, the term “artificial muscle” is used to refer to materials that can change their shape in response to stimuli. The mechanical movements created by these muscles have potential applications in everything from cancer therapies to portable electronics…
A Dramatic transformation.
It’s conventional wisdom that women wear make-up to appear more beautiful, but according to a new study, there’s another effect: they appear more competent.
Here’s the intriguing study by Pyschology professor Nancy Etcoff and colleagues…
Continue reading… “Makeup Makes Women Look More Competent”
Behold nature and its wonders! Tobias Lunchbreath understands that true happiness lies in the Oreo-fueled cycle of life.
Continue reading… “The cycle of life is a beautiful thing”
Crowdsourcing for innovation.
Numerous studies demonstrate that 70-80% of all new products fail. Lack of relevance, lack of differentiation, inappropriate pricing and muddled messaging all factor into a brand’s struggle when launching a new product.
However, the ultimate judgment of new products falls to consumers, who, ironically, are often absent from the development process. That development stage stands the greatest chance of generating transformative new ideas early on, before the brand has made a significant investment…
Continue reading… “The rise of Customer-Driven innovation”
Where do passwords go when you die?
I have pretty secure passwords, as much to keep would-be miscreants at bay as to keep my friends and family from finding out just how horrible a life I’m living. But according to a study, a full 11 percent of Brits plan to leave their passwords in their will.
There’s some sense to that, actually…
Continue reading… “Will you leave your passwords for your loved ones when you die?”
A new cultural perspective of time.
A huge early Celtic calendar construction has been discovered in the royal tomb of Magdalenenberg, nearby Villingen-Schwenningen in Germany’s Black Forest. This discovery was made by researchers at the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum at Mainz in Germany when they evaluated old excavation plans. The order of the burials around the central royal tomb fits exactly with the sky constellations of the Northern hemisphere…
Continue reading… “Early Celtic ‘Stonehenge’ discovered in Germany’s Black Forest”
A real walk about.
This week Der Spiegel has an article commemorating the 50th anniversary of the introduction of pedestrian Don’t Walk/Walk signals to East Germany…
Continue reading… “Pedestrian signals from around the world”
The laws of light speed still apply.
Last June, researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology published the results of an experiment that proved that light does not move faster than light—specifically, that single photons can’t move faster than the official speed of light under certain conditions.
Today, Skulls in the Stars—the nom de Internet of a UNC Charlotte physics professor—hasa really great blog post up about this paper. It’s very much worth a read. After all, this was basically a test to double check something we were already pretty sure was true. And what’s the benefit to proving something you already knew?
Continue reading… “What we don’t understand about the speed of light”
Graduate Student Jian Shi and Materials Science and Engineering Professor Xudong Wang
demonstrate a material that could be used to capture energy from respiration.
The same piezoelectric effect that ignites your gas grill with the push of a button could one day power sensors in your body via the respiration in your nose…
Continue reading… “Electricity from the nose: Engineers make power from human respiration”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.