Optical Legos: Building nanoshell structures

"Imagine creating novel devices with amazing and exotic optical properties not found in Nature—by simply evaporating a droplet of particles on a surface."

'Law-like' mathematical patterns in human preference behavior discovered

"In a study appearing in the journal PLoS ONE, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) scientists describe finding mathematical patterns underlying the way individuals unconsciously distribute their preferences regarding approaching or avoiding objects in their environment. These patterns appear to meet the strict criteria used to determine whether something is a scientific law and, if confirmed in future studies, could potentially be used to guide diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders."

Guest Blog: Michelangelo's secret message in the Sistine Chapel: A juxtaposition of God and the human brain

"At the age of 17 he began dissecting corpses from the church graveyard. Between the years 1508 and 1512 he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Michelangelo Buonarroti—known by his first name the world over as the singular artistic genius, sculptor and architect—was also an anatomist, a secret he concealed by destroying almost all of his anatomical sketches and notes. Now, 500 years after he drew them, his hidden anatomical illustrations have been found—painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, cleverly concealed from the eyes of Pope Julius II and countless religious worshipers, historians, and art lovers for centuries—inside the body of God."

Questions raised about 'Ardi' as man's ancestor

"NEW YORK – Last fall, a fossil skeleton named 'Ardi' shook up the field of human evolution. Now, some scientists are raising doubts about what exactly the creature from Ethiopia was and what kind of landscape it inhabited.

New critiques question whether Ardi really belongs on the human branch of the evolutionary tree, and whether it really lived in woodlands. That second question has implications for theories about what kind of environment spurred early human evolution.

The new work is being published by the journal Science, which last year declared the original presentation of the 4.4 million-year-old fossil to be the magazine's breakthrough of the year."

Scramjet-powered X-51A Waverider missile breaks Mach 6 record - CSMonitor.com

"On Wednesday morning, a US Air Force X-51A Waverider missile sustained speeds of Mach 6 for more than 200 seconds, the US Air Force has announced. The X-51A Waverider, which was launched over the southern California coast, is powered by next-gen scramjet technology."

Scientists create world's smallest electronic switch - Telegraph

"Scientists have created the world's smallest electronic switch, measuring just seven atoms."

I am treefrog, feel me shake

"Using experiments involving a mechanical shaker and a robotic frog, researchers reporting online on May 20th in Current Biology have found new evidence that male red-eyed treefrogs communicate with one another in aggressive contests by using vibrations they send through their plant perches. The findings open the door to further study of what has been a neglected channel for vertebrate communication."

Hubble finds a star eating a planet

"The hottest known planet in the Milky Way galaxy may also be its shortest-lived world. The doomed planet is being eaten by its parent star, according to observations made by a new instrument on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS). The planet may only have another 10 million years left before it is completely devoured."

What makes music sound so sweet (or not)

"ScienceDaily (May 20, 2010) — Ever since ancient times, scholars have puzzled over the reasons that some musical note combinations sound so sweet while others are just downright dreadful. The Greeks believed that simple ratios in the string lengths of musical instruments were the key, maintaining that the precise mathematical relationships endowed certain chords with a special, even divine, quality. Twentieth-century composers, on the other hand, have leaned toward the notion that musical tastes are really all in what you are used to hearing."

Supernova Explosion Rich With Calcium : Discovery News

"The discovery of a new type of supernova explosion could explain why the Milky Way and other galaxies are so rich in calcium, an element that found its way into our teeth and bones."

Hammerhead shark study shows cascade of evolution affected size, head shape

The ancestor of all hammerhead sharks probably appeared abruptly in Earth's oceans about 20 million years ago and was as big as some contemporary hammerheads, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder."

Dopamine system in highly creative people similar to that seen in schizophrenics, study finds

"New research shows a possible explanation for the link between mental health and creativity. By studying receptors in the brain, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have managed to show that the dopamine system in healthy, highly creative people is similar in some respects to that seen in people with schizophrenia."

BBC News - Face of Stirling Castle warrior reconstructed

A reconstruction has revealed the face of a medieval knight whose skeleton was discovered at Stirling Castle.

Experts are now attempting to discover the identity of the warrior, who is likely to have been killed in the 13th or 14th Century.

The skeleton is one of 10 excavated from the site of a lost royal chapel at the castle. The skeleton of a woman was found near the knight."

Even though Jupiter is made of hydrogen and helium, the lightest gasses, it is the heaviest planet in the Solar System.

Jupiter is a giant ball of gas and liquid, with barely any solid surface to stand on. Astronomers believe that Jupiter is primarily made up of hydrogen and helium, the two lightest elements. However, Jupiter has the most mass of any planet in the solar system. It weighs as much as 318 Earths! It also would take 1,000 Earths to fill up the volume of Jupiter. Jupiter's characteristic features are the Great Red Spot, and a complex system of red belts that look like stripes on the surface of the planet. Jupiter recently lost one of its stripes, and NO ONE KNOWS WHY. (sources: 1, 2) - OMG Facts - Your Mind. Blown.:

Yes, you CAN tickle YOURSELF!

The only place you can tickle yourself is the top of your mouth. TRY IT. The sensation of tickling is important to have. It's similar to the feeling of having bugs or spiders crawling on you. The reaction you have to being tickled is important to keep those kind of animals from crawling on you. You tickle mostly because of surprise. Even if you know you're about to be tickled, you don't necessarily know where, so you react by being ticklish. When you try to tickle yourself, it usually doesn't work because your brain already knows how you're going to do it. You can't tickle yourself because you can't surprise yourself. Possibly because the roof of your mouth isn't used to being touched like that, it still tickles if you touch the roof of your mouth. (source) - OMG Facts - Your Mind. Blown.: "The sensation of tickling is important to have. It's similar to the feeling of having bugs or spiders crawling on you. The reaction you have to being tickled is important to keep those kind of animals from crawling on you."

Ex-defence minister defends aliens, says Hawking wrong - CTV News

MONTREAL — Stephen Hawking's warnings of an alien invasion have prompted a vigorous defence of extraterrestrials by their most prominent Canadian fan.

Former federal defence minister Paul Hellyer, 86, believes not only that aliens have visited Earth but also that they have contributed greatly to human technological advances.

So he can't quite understand why the world renowned astrophysicist views them with such trepidation; Hawking recently warned that malevolent aliens could lead to the destruction of humanity."

Giant herring found in Sweden - Telegraph

"A 'giant herring' measuring 3.5 metres (11.4 feet) has been discovered off Sweden's western coast - the first such fish found in the Scandinavian country in more than 130 years, a maritime museum has said."

Largest scientific instrument ever built to prove Einstein's theory of general relativity - Telegraph

"Three spacecraft flying three million miles apart are to fire laser beams at each other across the emptiness of space in a bid to finally prove whether a theory proposed by Albert Einstein is correct."

'Starving yogi' astounds Indian scientists

Indian holy man Prahlad Jani speaks at a press conference at a hospital in Ahmedbad on May 6. Jani, who says he has spent seven decades without food or water, has astounded a team of military doctors who studied him during a two-week observation period."

Cometary dust in Antarctica?

A new family of extraterrestrial particles, probably of cometary origin, has been identified for the first time in snow in Central Antarctica."

Engineered Metamaterials Could Recreate the Birth of Extra-Dimensional Universes in the Lab | Popular Science

Multiverses from Metamaterials Using metamaterials, one physicist thinks we can create analogies for some of the most interesting – and far out – cosmological occurences like multiverses and even the birth of universes. NASA"

An Injection of Symbiotic Cyanobacteria Gives Fish the Power of Photosynthesis (Sort Of) | Popular Science

There are plenty of ways to cut down on your food intake -- you can observe the methods of fasting holy men, or perhaps toss back an appetite-suppressing hydrogel capsule -- but at last week's synthetic biology conference in Boston, one Harvard biologist presented a particularly novel idea: photosynthesis. It's not just for plants anymore."

U.S. Special Forces Set to Carry XM-25 Laser-Guided Smart-Bullet Weapon into Battle | Popular Science

U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers will deploy with the XM-25 weapon this summer, so that they can shower enemies hidden inside buildings with lethal smart rounds. Veterans of the Afghanistan conflict who tried the weapon predicted it would be a 'game changing' gun capable of taking out insurgents hidden behind cover, Military.com reports."

The 10 weirdest physics facts, from relativity to quantum physics - World News, Frontpage - Herald.ie

People who think science is dull are wrong. Here are 10 reasons why.

Physics is weird. There is no denying that. Particles that don’t exist except as probabilities; time that changes according to how fast you’re moving; cats that are both alive and dead until you open a box.

We’ve put together a collection of 10 of the strangest facts we can find, with the kind help of cosmologist and writer Marcus Chown, author of We Need To Talk About Kelvin, and an assortment of Twitter users."

2009 Finalists � Best Illusion of the Year Contest

2009 Finalists � Best Illusion of the Year Contest

Siberian Salamanders can freeze solid and still survive

Salamanders can survive temperatures as low as -45 C (or -49 F). They have a chemical in their body similar to antifreeze that keeps them alive. However, if they are suddenly frozen they will die. They need time to adjust to colder temperatures. The pic is a giant Japanese salamander. Here is another image of a giant salamander. (source) - OMG Facts - Your Mind. Blown.

Siberian Salamanders can freeze solid and still survive Siberian Salamanders can survive temperatures as low as -45� C (or -49� F). They have a chemical in their body similar to antifreeze that keeps them alive. However, if they are suddenly frozen they will die. They need time to adjust to colder temperatures. The pic is a giant Japanese salamander. Here is another image of a giant salamander. (source) - OMG Facts - Your Mind. Blown.

Siberian Salamanders can freeze solid and still survive Siberian Salamanders can survive temperatures as low as -45� C (or -49� F). They have a chemical in their body similar to antifreeze that keeps them alive. However, if they are suddenly frozen they will die. They need time to adjust to colder temperatures. The pic is a giant Japanese salamander. Here is another image of a giant salamander. (source) - OMG Facts - Your Mind. Blown.

The inventor of television, Philo Farnsworth, had blueprints for television when he was fourteen. He made a working prototype television when he was 21. He was child prodigy, who had a complete understanding of the theory of relativity when he was 15. Upon completing construction of the first television he exclaimed "There you are: electronic television", and thus he changed history forever. Sadly, he fell completely into obscurity. (source) - OMG Facts - Your Mind. Blown.

The faster you move, the heavier you get.

You're heavier when you run than when you're standing still. The more energy you put into something, the more mass it accumulates. So if you're moving fast, you gain weight. It's only a tiny, temporary weight gain, but if you were traveling close to the speed of light your mass would increase rapidly. Other weird physics facts: All the matter that makes up the human race can fit into a sugar cube. This is because atoms are mostly empty space. If you crammed all the atoms in all human beings together, without any wasted space, they wouldn't be any bigger than a sugar cube. However, that sugar cube would weigh 5 BILLION TONS. Light doesn't always travel at the speed of light. The speed of light is only constant in a vacuum. When it passes through matter it can slow down. Photons (light particles) pass through water at 3/4ths the regular speed of light. Light was once slowed down to 38 miles per hour. (source) - OMG Facts - Your Mind. Blown.

Archaeologists uncover land before wheel; site untouched for 6,000 years

A team of archaeologists from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, along with a team of Syrian colleagues, is uncovering new clues about a prehistoric society that formed the foundation of urban life in the Middle East prior to invention of the wheel."

Archaeologists uncover land before wheel; site untouched for 6,000 years

A team of archaeologists from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, along with a team of Syrian colleagues, is uncovering new clues about a prehistoric society that formed the foundation of urban life in the Middle East prior to invention of the wheel."

Trapping giant Rydberg atoms for faster quantum computers

ScienceDaily (May 7, 2010) — In an achievement that could help enable fast quantum computers, University of Michigan physicists have built a better Rydberg atom trap. Rydberg atoms are highly excited, nearly-ionized giants that can be thousands of times larger than their ground-state counterparts."

NASA team cites new evidence that meteorites from Mars contain ancient fossils

LEAGUE CITY, TEX. -- NASA's Mars Meteorite Research Team reopened a 14-year-old controversy on extraterrestrial life last week, reaffirming and offering support for its widely challenged assertion that a 4-billion-year-old meteorite that landed thousands of years ago on Antarctica shows evidence of microscopic life on Mars."

Resembles Yoda, this cloud does - Boing Boing

Resembles Yoda, this cloud does - Boing Boing

Neanderthal genome reveals interbreeding with humans - life - 06 May 2010 - New Scientist

How closely are Neanderthals related to us?

They are so closely related that some researchers group them and us as a single species. 'I would see them as a form of humans that are bit more different than humans are today, but not much,' says Svante Pabo, a palaeogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, whose team sequenced the Neanderthal genome."

A Single Molecule Computes Thousands of Times Faster than Your PC | Popular Science

A demo of a quantum calculation carried out by Japanese researchers has yielded some pretty mind-blowing results: a single molecule can perform a complex calculation thousands of times faster than a conventional computer.

A proof-of-principle test run of a discrete Fourier transform -- a common calculation using spectral analysis and data compression, among other things -- performed with a single iodine molecule transpired very well, putting all the molecules in your PC to shame."

Google Goggles Now Translates Text in Pictures

If you had any doubt that we are living in the future, Google today introduced visual translation tools for use with a camera phone. Specifically, the new version of its Google Goggles app, available for Android phones running version 1.6 of the OS or higher, can recognize pictures of words written in English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish and rapidly translate them into other languages."

Tesla Predicted Mobile Messaging in 1909 | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

It turns out Nikola Tesla, the famed electric engineer, first predicted the existence of the BlackBerry over 100 years ago.

As the UK-based Telegraph reports, Tesla, who died in 1943, made a prediction about a portable messaging service in Popular Mechanics magazine in 1909. He wrote in the magazine that one day it would be possible to transmit wireless messages all over the world, and that wireless was the only way the use of electricity could truly thrive."

Kanalu nui

Wanna see a big damn wave well here you go .....

NASA-Inspired Aerogel

NASA-derived aerogels could clean up future oil spills.
* The ordinarily hard material can be engineered to soak up and release oil, like a sponge.
* Aerogel is the least dense material on Earth and was originally developed to capture comet dust.

Aerogel, also called 'frozen smoke,' is being engineered to act as an oil spill sponge.

Solar storm creates killer "zombie satellite" - Boing Boing

"A solar storm semi-nuked the Intelsat's Galaxy 15 satellite last month, enough so that it's not talking to Earth but it also isn't completely dead. So now it's wandering around the geostationary arc still broadcasting and about to mess up other satellites in its way:"

Mysterious YouTube Sensation iamamiwhoami Has a New Video

"Everyone loves a good mystery — add in some pretty decent music and rad visuals and you’ve got a viral win. Today, mysterious YouTube sensation iamamiwhoami released a new vid, and it’s just as baffling as the previous eight.

iamamiwhoami came on the scene back in December when several music bloggers and journalists were sent links to her/his first video. After that, more and more strange, Julie Taymor-esque clips began appearing on YouTube (YouTube), and the speculations starting flying.

Could s/he be: Trent Reznor, Little Boots, The Knife, Karin Dreijer Andersson, Goldfrapp, Lykke Li, Gwen Stefani, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera, The Golden Filter or possibly Jonna Lee? As of right now, no one knows."

The Talents of a Middle-Aged Brain

"After we hit 40, many of us begin to worry about our aging brains. Will we spend our middle years searching for car keys and forgetting names?

The new book “The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind,” by Barbara Strauch, has the answers, and the news is surprisingly upbeat. Sure, brains can get forgetful as they get old, but they can also get better with age,"

Google speeds up Chrome browser

Google speeds up Chrome browser - Computerworld: "DG News Service - Google's latest beta version of its Chrome browser packs a performance boost to the Javascript engine that the company describes as 'hefty' and adds the ability to apply pre-defined browser preferences in multiple machines through users' centralized Google accounts.

Chrome's latest version also adopts several HTML5 features, including geolocation APIs (application programming interfaces), application caching and drag-and-drop capabilities, Google announced on Tuesday."

Seagate introduces new GoFlex range: multi-port HDDs, media players,

Seagate introduces new GoFlex range: multi-port HDDs, media players, etc. -- Engadget: "We all knew Seagate's FreeAgent line couldn't hang around forever, and tonight the storage mainstay has revealed the next logical step for the line. The GoFlex family is one of the more varied ranges out there from any hard drive maker, with the primary intent on the HDD side being to create drives (ranging from 320GB to 2TB) that are friendly with both Macs and PCs (simultaneously) while also giving users the ability to upgrade their connection or switch it out depending on what workstation they interface with. The new crew supports USB 2.0 out of the box, though upgrading to USB 3.0, FireWire 800 or eSATA can be accomplished via the new GoFlex cable system. Also launched today is the GoFlex TV HD media player, which essentially acts as a liaison between your tele and your media, regardless of whether it's stored locally, on the LAN or on the internet."

Ptolemaic statue found

Ptolemaic statue and temple gate discovered at Taposiris Magna - News, Archaeology - The Independent: "Archaeologists excavating at Taposiris Magna, a site west of Alexandria, have discovered a huge headless granite statue of a Ptolemaic king, and the original gate to a temple dedicated to the god Osiris."

You can overdose and die from coffee.

You can overdose and die from coffee. There is such a thing as a lethal dose of caffeine. Medical literature contains reports of people dying from ingesting large amounts of caffeine, often through unconventional means, such as injecting caffeine straight into the bloodstream or having a coffee enema (literally putting coffee in your butt!). It takes ten grams of caffeine in one sitting to kill a person, which would literally take between 80 and 100 cups of coffee, which is pretty hard to do. If you want to know how many cups of coffee will kill you, check out this calculator. (source) - OMG Facts - Your Mind. Blown.

Lie-Detection Brain Scan Could Be Used in Court for First Time | Wired Science | Wired.com

Lie-Detection Brain Scan Could Be Used in Court for First Time | Wired Science | Wired.com

Coming Soon: a Synthetic Brain Built from Tens of Thousands of Smartphone Chips | Popular Science

Coming Soon: a Synthetic Brain Built from Tens of Thousands of Smartphone Chips | Popular Science

BBC News - Ramones manager Linda Stein's PA jailed for murder

BBC News - Ramones manager Linda Stein's PA jailed for murder

BBC News - Ramones manager Linda Stein's PA jailed for murder

BBC News - Ramones manager Linda Stein's PA jailed for murder

Rush Documentary Wins Tribeca Audience Award | Billboard.com

Rush Documentary Wins Tribeca Audience Award | Billboard.com: "news-1004088330

Inexpensive Nano-Grooved 'Traffic Cop' Filter Could Supercharge Fiber-Optic Data Speeds | Popular Science

Inexpensive Nano-Grooved 'Traffic Cop' Filter Could Supercharge Fiber-Optic Data Speeds | Popular Science: "Inexpensive Nano-Grooved 'Traffic Cop' Filter Could Supercharge Fiber-Optic Data Speeds
By Clay Dillow Posted 05.04.2010 at 12:15 pm 1 Comment"

Pearltrees Launches Embeds - Makes Bookmarks More Useful

Pearltrees Launches Embeds - Makes Bookmarks More Useful

It's a beginning :)

Starting now I will be blogging mostly articles concerning science, technology and cool gadgets. Also from time to time I will be dipping into social commentary, and interesting news items. I hope this will be an interesting place to stop by and see what I have discovered to share. See you soon I hope