"Eye On The World"
Science
Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved
Aug 19th
A large number of aircraft and watercraft have disappeared over the years without a trace in the area of the western Atlantic Ocean (east of Florida and north of Cuba and Puerto Rico) known as the Bermuda Triangle or the Devil’s Triangle. Many have attributed these disappearances to aliens, paranormal activity and other strange theories.
Now scientists have discovered a more plausible cause for the disappearances:
Enormous Eruptions of Methane Gas (AKA “Natural Gas”)
- Surface: Any ships caught within the methane mega-bubble immediately lose all buoyancy and sink to the bottom of the ocean.
- Air: If the bubbles are big enough and possess a More >
The Christmas Tree Star Cluster – A Sparkling Spray of Stars
Dec 16th
Image: ESO
Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) created this image of the region known as NGC 2264 (2600 light years from earth) from images taken with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) which is a special astronomical camera attached to the 2.2 meter Max-Planck Society telescope at the La Silla observatory in Chile. The La Silla observatory is located in the Atacama desert in the foothills of the Andes and has some of the clearest and darkest skies on the planet.
For a full screen – Hi Res view
For larger images
When Things Start To Think
Nov 17th
‘When Things Start To Think’ – book by Neil Gershenfeld now online:
Neil Gershenfeld offers a readable tour of what the world will be like tomorrow as computers become invisible, such as wearable computers, nanotech implants, and interactive digital books with electronic ink.
Neil Gershenfeld
Professor Neil Gershenfeld leads the Physics and Media Group at the MIT Media Lab, and directs the Things That Think research consortium. His unique laboratory investigates the relationship between the content of information and its physical representation, from developing molecular computers (which led to the first experimental demonstration of a quantum computation), to smart furniture (seen in the Museum More >
Lithium Batteries to Store 8X More
Nov 13th
South Korean Professor Cho Jae-Phil of Hanyang University and his team have developed lithium batteries that are 90% more efficient than current models. You will be able to do stuff 8 times longer – cell phones, notebook computers, cameras, etc. They replaced the graphite in the batteries with three-dimensional porous silicon particles. Professor Jae-Phil has hinted at merging this technology with solar panels. For More Info: Hallyutech.net
Bioengineering Shopping Cart
Nov 8th
The Bionic Body Shop
Combine your bioengineering with a wearable robotic suit
to live your best life now!
HAL – Hybrid Assistive Limb
See Also:
Telekinesis – The Brain-Gate Neural Interface System (BGNIS)
Nanoglue and Carbon Nanotube Technology
Extracellular Matrix – re-generate limbs and heal wounds
WhiteBoard PONG
Nov 7th
WhiteBoard PONG – 1:30
Irregular Pong played on a regular Whiteboard with regular Whiteboard markers is a demonstration of a Physics Engine responding to it’s real life surroundings, the computer sees and recognizes the black shapes on the whiteboard and the virtual ball behaves accordingly. ENESS, based in Melbourne, Australia is a multidisciplinary design team that specializes in interactive design. Their objective is, “…creating more intuitive, tangible and humane ways of interacting with technology.”
ENESS – (Steven Miescelewicz, Alan Want & Nimrod Weis) have been collaborating since grade 3. They are best known for their Interactive Digital Installations – creations with the visual aesthetic More >
Take Your Sub-orbital Space Flight
Oct 26th
via: spacemonitor.blogspot.com
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, or EADS for short, has recently announced its plans to enter the suborbital space tourism race:
The flight will consist of two stages on a space jet comparable to a business jet sized vehicle and will carry four passengers. The space jet will take off from a conventional airport and normal jet engines will carry the craft to an altitude of 12 km when the rocket engines will be ignited. In a mere 80 seconds the rockets will have propelled the space jet all the way up to an altitude of 60 km. The More >
Bucky Paper – Harder than Diamonds
Oct 19th
10 times lighter than steel, while 250 times stronger and highly conductive of both heat and electricity, future planes and cars may be made of ‘buckypaper’:
from: buckpaper.com
Buckypaper is made of tube shaped carbon molecules (AKA carbon nanotubes) that are 50,000 times thinner than a human hair.
The Florida Advanced Center for Composite Technologies (FAC2T) , at Florida A&M University is working on developing real world applications for the material:
Among the possible uses for buckypaper that are being researched at FAC2T:
- If exposed to an electric charge, buckypaper could be used to illuminate computer and television screens. It would be more energy-efficient, More >
Best Science Images of 2008
Oct 17th
via: National Geographic
2008 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge Winners
The awards are sponsored jointly by the journal Science and the National Science Foundation
First Place, Illustration: "Zoom Into the Human Bloodstream"
– by Linda Nye
Deft manipulation of perspective gives viewers a detailed look inside the human circulatory system. This unusual view won artist Linda Nye first place in the illustration category.
Honorable Mention, Illustration: "Visualizing the Bible" – by Chris Harrison
A colorful rainbow brings to light the interconnected nature of the Bible. Chris Harrison and Cristoph Romhild collaborated to display the complexity of the Bible in a way that is more beautiful than functional yet More >
Where Science Meets Culture
Oct 12th
Phylotaxis is an exploration of the space where science meets culture done by Jonathan Harris for Seed Magazine. Select a position on the bar and then click on one of the stories.
From Number27.org (The Work of Jonathan Harris):
Singularity – Exponential Computing
Oct 4th
Do you hear it? That whooshing sound? Sure you do. Just listen:
It is there – the future rushing toward us ever faster!
I am fascinated by potential. In this case the potential of “computing” to increase from the equivalent of a mouse brain to that of a human brain in about 12 years from now, then that of many human brains, then all human brains, and past that we can only speculate.
The term “Singularity” was mentioned in the 1950s by John Von Neumann, then solidified by Vernor Vinge in a 1983 article in Omni magazine when he coined the term “technological More >
CERN Black Hole – The Big Rewind
Sep 16th
View this FULL SCREEN for best effect!
CERN’s massive particle collider (Large Hadron Collider or LHC) is a 17 mile ring of supercooled magnets buried 330 feet underground on the Swiss/French border. LHC’s computational and data infrastructure is made up of tens of thousands of computers around the world. The first particle collisions will occur in October 2008. The collisions will be recorded on LHC’s detectors – huge digital cameras that weigh thousands of tons and capable of taking millions of snapshots per second. The LHC experiments could reveal more about dark matter/anti-matter and hidden dimensions of time and space.
from Discovery News:
Particle Smasher’s More >
