The Science of Losing Your Manhood
Thursday, February 18th, 2010Ever wonder about the scientific effects of getting kicked in the nuts by an MMA fighter?
No?
Well too bad, you’re about to find out what happens:
(via Russell; via Geekologie)
Moment of Cool: Vortex Smoke Ring Collision
Monday, August 17th, 2009Photo of the Week: Atlantis-Hubble Transit
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
(Photo: Thierry Legault 2009)
Thierry Legault looks at the Sun so you don’t have to.
His most recent awesome photo:
On May 13th, the Space Shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Space Telescope transited the Sun (passed in front of it). These photos of the transit are the only ones of their kind.
You rock, Thierry.
(via (Roughly) Daily, via Astrophoto.fr)
Earth Hour – Tonight from 8:30-9:30
Saturday, March 28th, 2009Tonight from 8:30-9:30pm (your local time), people will be turning off their lights and appliances in a global effort organized by the World Wildlife Fund to make a statement against climate change. Join in if you can– if you can’t spare electricity tonight, hopefully you’ll be able to reduce your carbon footprint in other ways, or at least increase your awareness of climate change!
Go Team Earth!
Minority Report – Only Years Away
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
On December 11, the Japanese Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (Computational Neuroscience Laboratories) provided the press with these two sets of images. The top set of characters was shown to a test subject, and the bottom set was scanned from the brain of the test subject.
Yes – black and white image snapshots from the human mind.
By using fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging), the ATRI-CNL team was able to map bloodflow patterns in the visual cortex of test subjects. With the aid of software and voodoo, they were able to reconstruct the images “seen” in the mind of the test subjects.
Holy sh!t!
Super-cool technology we can expect to see from this:
• “Dream photography.”
• Witnesses producing mental photographs of perpetrators and crime scenes.
• Communication with the paralyzed/comatose.
• Espionage: photography of sensitive/classified materials from memories.
• Testing “psychic abilities” by photographing “visions.”
• Marketing development: learning what images “stick.”
• Real-to-mind artwork: photographing your artistic vision.
(via Pink Tentacle, via Chunichi)
NASA Trickles Closer to Addressing World’s Water Woes
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008Say what you will about the United States government, but they can no longer be accused of being unconcerned with the world’s dwindling water supply. With all the extra cash we’ve had kicking around lately, NASA has been pissing away a reported $154 million into a Urine Recycler project… we kid you not.
The device is apparently an absolute necessity for life on the International Space Station, whose occupancy will double in bladders next year – since we have no other pressing concerns at the moment. On a more serious note, I’m sure there are prospects for this technology to have a huge impact in the developing world, where access to water is a serious concern, but we can only hope that there will not be too many severe blockages to getting this technology downstream.
As for any sneek peeks as to what the technology looks like… no such luck. On the other hand, we’re sure you remember the last time a ton of money was flushed down the toilet on a pee-drinker.
Meet the Neighbors
Monday, November 17th, 2008
(artists’ concepts of Fomalhaut b. Left image by David A. Hardy)
A few days ago a team from UC Berkeley, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Lawrence Livermore Labs, and NASA JPL announced in Science that they have taken a photograph of a planet outside of our own solar system. Though numerous planets outside our solar system have been discovered in recent years, this is a rare example of an extrasolar planet identified through photographs. This planet – between one and a half to three times the mass of Jupiter – orbits the star Fomalhaut (25 light years away) in the constellation Piscis Australis (”The Southern Fish”). The star Fomalhaut is about twice the size of our Sun, but 15 times as bright, glowing bright blue-white. Remarkably, this young star has features similar to our early solar system: it has a large disk of debris surrounding it, serving as a “nursery” for young planets.
Several years ago, scientists noticed that this debris ring has a sharp inner edge (as if something large is shaping the inner edge) and that it is not entirely centered around the star (as if some other mass is pulling the ring slightly off-center). A comparison of photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2004 and 2006 revealed an object in orbit around Fomalhaut on the inside of the star’s debris ring – this planet moves at a pace of 872 years for one complete orbit around the star.
This planet is named Fomalhaut b: it’s one and a half to three times the size of Jupiter, it appears to be a giant ball of gas (much like Jupiter or Saturn), and may have a large ring system of its own (and much larger than Saturn’s).
