November 2009
32 posts
3-D Renderings Bring Ancient Hominids to Life
For decades, paleoartists have told the story of human evolution through sculpture and drawing. Now their tools have evolved, too.
Computers allow a level of detail and control that isn’t possible with other media. Their creations can come closer than ever to bringing our ancestors to life.
‘What’s driven my work has always been, ‘I want to see that thing alive. I want to see that world,’ said...
With Its New Lighting, Siemens Wants to Improve...
At the 2009 congress of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago next week, Siemens will be presenting new lighting offerings for clinical settings that aim at improving patient experience. The company believes that by creating an attractive atmosphere, in contrast to the common ultra-utilitarian look of modern facilities, patient clinical courses will be improved and clinicians...
How We Can Help Alleviate World Poverty in Three...
How We Can Help Alleviate World Poverty in Three Easy Steps: “Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Mary Jaksch of Goodlife Zen.
Alleviate world poverty? Isn’t that impossible?
There is so much grinding poverty in the world – how could just one of us possibly make a difference? The reason it seems so impossible is that we tend to focus on the immense number of people suffering from...
Understanding the Scale of Microbiology from...
Understanding the Scale of Microbiology from Coffee Bean to Carbon Atom: “
The University of Utah’s Genetic Science Learning Center has developed a fun flash application that allows you to quickly zoom from a coffee bean to a carbon atom to see the relative size of cells, cellular components, pathogens, small molecules, and more.
From the University of Utah:
The smallest objects...
Yes, You Too Glow in The Dark
Yes, You Too Glow in The Dark: “ Glowing in the dark has always been contributed to people exposed to radiation in cartoons (think Homer Simpson) and in popular myths about nuclear accidents (Chernobyl). Turns out we all glow continuously, but with a diurnal rhythm, as long as we have a powerful enough digital camera to detect the luminescence. A team of Japanese scientists used a...
Yes, You Too Glow in The Dark
Yes, You Too Glow in The Dark: “ Glowing in the dark has always been contributed to people exposed to radiation in cartoons (think Homer Simpson) and in popular myths about nuclear accidents (Chernobyl). Turns out we all glow continuously, but with a diurnal rhythm, as long as we have a powerful enough digital camera to detect the luminescence. A team of Japanese scientists used a...
Midwest megameteor makes media madness
Midwest megameteor makes media madness: “ By now you’ve probably heard of the extremely bright fireball over Utah last Wednesday, proving once again that really cool stuff happens when I’m on travel and can’t write about it. Worse, it was seen from Denver, which means I might’ve had a shot at seeing it myself.
Sigh.
Anyway, this meteor was so bright it overexposed security cameras, turned...
News: Ancient Egyptians Also Suffered from...
News: Ancient Egyptians Also Suffered from Atherosclerosis: “
Lately vascular disease has been blamed on our modern diet, but new research on Egyptian mummies suggests that it has existed for thousands of years. A team of Egyptian and American researchers ran 22 mummies from the Egyptian National Museum of Antiquities through a CT scanner. What they discovered was that over half of those...
Michael Jackson's 3D Body Scans on eBay for $1.5...
Michael Jackson’s 3D Body Scans on eBay for $1.5 Million [Michael Jackson]: “ This just seems wrong. A U.S businessman claims he’s been sitting on 3D scans from 1996, when MJ was aged 37. It’s rumored the singer wanted a virtual or robot double, and this data, if real, would enable just that. You might remember that Jackson had once planned a 50-foot mecha with a moving...
Video: iStetho Turns your iPhone into a...
Video: iStetho Turns your iPhone into a Stethoscope [IPhone]: “ It’s only intended for recreational use, but this feels like another step towards a real-life tricorder. A new start-up called RidRx is selling an adapter that connects stethoscopes to the iPhone/iPod touch, and uses their app for fancy spectral imaging. You’ll need to attack your old stethoscope with a pair of...
iStetho Adapter and iStethoscope Pro Make a Great...
iStetho Adapter and iStethoscope Pro Make a Great Combo for iPhone: “ Dr. Blaine Warkentine MD, a partner at a startup firm RidRx, is telling us that the firm is now selling directly to consumers its patent pending iStetho Adapter that can convert an iPhone/iPod touch and an old stethoscope into an electronic one. Also, the adapter is designed to work in tandem with the powerful iStethoscope...
Partial H1N1 immunity can come without exposure to...
Partial H1N1 immunity can come without exposure to virus: “
The arrival and rapid spread of the latest strain of H1N1 flu virus, termed S-OIV, raised fears of a dangerous global pandemic. But, as the virus has continued to spread around the globe, initial fears regarding its potential lethality have gradually subsided; it can be deadly, but...
More Details About The New GE Vscan Ultrasound...
More Details About The New GE Vscan Ultrasound System: “
Dr. David Winchester, our colleague at Medgadget’s sister site Echojournal, is attending the ongoing American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2009 in Orlando, Florida. Via a company rep, he obtained some more details on the amazingly tiny GE Vscan portable ultrasound device that we recently covered. Additionally, GE has...
A New Form Factor for Personal Water Filtration
A New Form Factor for Personal Water Filtration: “
Korean designers Woo sik Kim and Duck soo Choi have a new idea for a water filtration system to be used by people living in remote environments. The ‘happy basin’ is placed onto unclean water and, as it’s pushed down, filters the water to create a contagion free source for drinking and washing up.
From the designers...
Photo of the Day #764: Snow leopard [Laelaps]
Photo of the Day #764: Snow leopard [Laelaps]: “ A snow leopard (Panthera uncia), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
Read the comments on this post…”
(Via ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science.)
Cochlear Implants, Psychic Powers, and Why Some...
Cochlear Implants, Psychic Powers, and Why Some People Reject the Bionic Life [Health]: “ There were some perks to dating a cyborg. My ex-boyfriend Josh was born mostly deaf, but had some hearing in one ear thanks to a cochlear implant—a spiral of electrodes threaded into his cochlea to stimulate the auditory nerve, bypassing damaged parts of the ear. The surgery, which is irreversible,...
Why we fight
Why we fight: “ Lack of skepticism can kill.
[NSFW language and some effects.]
See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.
(Via Bad Astronomy.)
“YOOX.COM Style Gift Guide” nuova Applicazione per...
“YOOX.COM Style Gift Guide” nuova Applicazione per iPhone e iPod Touch: “
E’ da poco disponibile YOOX.COM Style Gift Guide sull’App Store, applicazione che permette di fare shopping attraverso il nostro iPhone o iPod Touch. Il nuovo software è stato sviluppato interamente dal team di YOOX Group e offre ai clienti la possibilità di scoprire la selezione di moda e design di yoox.com sempre e...
This Is How an Earthquake Propagates Through the...
This Is How an Earthquake Propagates Through the Entire Planet [Graphics]: “ Wired thinks that Roy A. Gallant’s 1950 classic science books need to be updated with 21st-Century style and information. They’re right, but while their artwork may be flashier and more accurate, it is not necessarily clearer. Take these two examples. In the first one, you can try to see how earthquakes...
Lunar Impactor Finds Clear Evidence of Water Ice...
Lunar Impactor Finds Clear Evidence of Water Ice on Moon: “
There is water on the moon, NASA confirmed today, and lots of it.
In the first look at results from the LCROSS mission, which sent a probe crashing into the Cabeus crater near the moon’s south pole, NASA’s main investigator said their instruments clearly detected water, despite the underwhelming plume.
Within the field of view...
Popular Science names 2009 top innovations
Popular Science names 2009 top innovations: “ Popular Science has picked a stethoscope as its tech product of the year, with Natal, Wolfram|Alpha, Canon’s EOS 5D and Mercedes among the category winners. Wolfram|Alpha picked up the gong for the top innovation in computing for 2009, Canon’s EOS 5D Mark II the gadget of the year and 3M/Littmann’s Electronic Stethoscope Model...
Revisiting FOXP2 and the origins of language [Not...
Revisiting FOXP2 and the origins of language [Not Exactly Rocket Science]: “Today, a new paper published in Nature adds another chapter to the story of FOXP2, a gene with important roles in speech and language. The FOXP2 story is a fascinating tale that I covered in New Scientist last year. It’s one of the pieces I’m proudest of so I’m reprinting it here with kind...
2 Online Guides to Check Your Illness Symptoms...
2 Online Guides to Check Your Illness Symptoms Online: “ There are times when we want to check certain illness symptoms we or our loved ones are experiencing. We may not be sure if the symptoms warrant further investigation or we might just want to satisfy our curiosity about health and fitness in general.
In this article, let us look at two online guides to check your illness symptoms...
Nature's Most Wicked-Looking Robot, the...
Nature’s Most Wicked-Looking Robot, the Bacteriophage [This Cyborg Life]: “ I can’t lie; I’ve been waiting for an excuse to post a picture of a bacteriophage, the microscopic spider virus that lands on bacteria to inject its own DNA, for a long time. This Cyborg Life gives me an excuse. Rather than attacking typical plant or animal cells, the bacteriophage uses bacteria as...
Neutered HIV Virus Delivers Treatment to Fatally...
Neutered HIV Virus Delivers Treatment to Fatally Ill Boys | 80beats: “ Researchers may have taken a step towards curing the rare, inherited brain disease made famous by the movie Lorenzo’s Oil–and also towards ushering a new era of gene therapy. To help two young boys suffering from the disease, researchers tried an experimental treatment using a deactivated version of the HIV virus. The...
Newborn Babies Cry With Mothers Accent
Newborn Babies Cry With Mother’s Accent: “ French and German scientists decided to analyze the crying of newborns from the two countries for differences in intonation. Turns out that German babies have a different ‘accent’ to their cry compared with those from France, which implies that language learning perhaps begins even in the womb.
The analysis of crying conducted...
Close Encounter with Saturn Moon’s Fantastic...
Close Encounter with Saturn Moon’s Fantastic Plumage: “
Earlier this week, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft took its deepest dive ever through the center of the icy plume shooting out from the southern pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus.
NASA reports that the spacecraft survived Monday’s flyby in good health, and is now transmitting eagerly awaited data and images back to Earth. At its closest...
In Depth: So what do £50,000 speakers sound like?
In Depth: So what do £50,000 speakers sound like?: “ Any quest for audio perfection should ultimately bring you to within listening distance of TAD loudspeakers. The brand, which since the 1970s has been a subsidiary of Pioneer, is arguably the most respected of all the sonic super-brands, but it’s also the one least heard – given that a pair of Reference One floorstanders will set...
Review: HTC HD2
Review: HTC HD2: “ The HTC HD2 is the world’s first Windows Mobile-toting phone with a capacitive screen, and also packs the world’s largest mobile phone display too. It’s also the first WinMo phone to use HTC’s Sense UI, previously used on the company’s Android handsets, bringing with it Facebook integration and direct Twitter access, as well as masking well...
Oldest Preserved Spider Web Dates Back to...
Oldest Preserved Spider Web Dates Back to Dinosaurs: “
The world’s oldest known spider web has been discovered on a beach in Sussex, England, trapped inside an ancient chunk of amber.
Scientists found the rare amber fossil in December, and have now confirmed that it contains remnants of spider silk spun more than 140 million years ago by an ancestor of modern orb-weaving spiders. After...
Gamma-Ray Mystery Traced to Star-Birth Frenzy
Gamma-Ray Mystery Traced to Star-Birth Frenzy: “
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Astronomers have for the first time traced gamma rays, the most energetic form of light, to galaxies undergoing a frenzy of star birth. The finding, which has revealed a new class of galactic gamma-ray sources, is not unexpected. But it provides new hints about the origin of many cosmic rays, the high-speed protons and...
The Beginner’s Guide To Minimalist Travel
The Beginner’s Guide To Minimalist Travel: “Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Karol Gajda of Ridiculously Extraordinary.
‘Is that all your stuff?’
While embarking on my current 100+ day sojourn I’ve been asked that question almost daily. Most people take more stuff for a 3 day weekend break than I’ve taken on this long trip.
If you’ve struggled to pack what you need in a carry-on I...