http://www.zo.utexas.edu/faculty/antisense/tree.pdf
First 3D Map of the Brain’s Connections We knew anatomy could be gorgeous, but this is beyond anything else we’ve ever seen, and it’s guaranteed to be something you haven’t seen, being the first 3D image of a brain’s connections. Van Wedeen, a Harvard radiology professor, is awestruck: “We’ve never really seen the brain – it’s been hiding in plain sight.” Conventional scanning has offered us a crude glimpse, but scientists such as Wedeen aim to produce the first ever three-dimensional map of all its neurons. They call this circuit diagram the “connectome”, and it could help us better understand everything from imagination and language to the miswirings that cause mental illness. But with 100 billion neurons hooked together by more connections than there are stars in the MilkyWay, the brain is a challenge that represents petabyte-level data.
Gary's Social Media Count Click for App Store Page Original Counter and Post from 24 Sep 2009! June 2013 ‘Social’ Update (mobile, games & heritage to come) June 2012 ‘Social’ Update August 2011 Update ABOUT Living statistics – Many of us who have been following social media since the early 90s are very sensitive to today’s exponential growth in usage of the sharing web. Still Life: Bent Objects UPDATE: The Return of Bent Objects Wires transform these objects from inanimate to hilarious works of art. Little polish girl McDonalds as Sculpture Materials Yeah, this is where those come from 10 Futuristic Materials Lifeboat Foundation Safeguarding Humanity Skip to content Switch to White Special Report
Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived Additional notes from the author: If you want to learn more about Tesla, I highly recommend reading Tesla: Man Out of Time Also, this Badass of the week by Ben Thompson is what originally inspired me to write a comic about Tesla. Ben's also got a book out which is packed full of awesome. There's an old movie from the 80s on Netflix Instant Queue right now about Tesla: The Secret of Nikola Tesla. It's corny and full of bad acting, but it paints a fairly accurate depiction of his life. The drunk history of Tesla is quite awesome, too.
DIY Skylights From Used Water Bottles Replace 50-Watt Bulbs Image via YouTube video An ingenious invention by an engineer in Brazil has made an enormous difference in his town. Simply placing a bottle of water in a hole in the ceiling can light up a room with the same brightness as a 50-watt light bulb! Residents have better lighting and are using less electricity. Check out how it works in the video. Apollo Astronaut Says 'UFOs Are Real' Apollo Astronaut Admits 'The Alien Threat Is Real' On UK Radio Show Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the Moon during the Apollo project, recently appeared on a UK radio show where he claimed that aliens are real and that people at NASA has know this for many years. Radio DJ, Nick Margerisson, of Kerrang! Radio, could not believe his ears as Mitchell openly discussed the subject on his radio show on 22nd of July, 2008.
Animals Illuminated by the Sun The time of sunset is defined in astronomy as the moment when the trailing edge of the Sun’s disk disappears below the horizon in the west. There are few things in nature as photogenic as the sky at sunset, especially animals. The rich bright gold, pink and orange colors make unusually beautiful pictures of animals illuminated by the sun. Source Lifes Blueprints: Levis Takes a Cue From Bees To Make Stronger Jeans The discipline of biomimicry—defined by Biomimicry Institute founder Janine Benyus as "a way of seeking sustainable solutions by borrowing life's blueprints, chemical recipes, and ecosystem strategies"—has produced wind turbines shaped like whales' tails, solar panels modeled after butterfly wings, and cities and companies organized after mushrooms. Now Levi's is seeking inspiration in the way bees build their hives to improve the durability and strength of its clothes. The company recently took a multidisciplinary team of designers, technical and sustainability experts from across various departments and sent them out into the Montana wilderness with Benyus to look for ideas.
A Sense of Scale: Absolute Zero By Glenn Elert Posted 01.08.08 NOVA At roughly minus 460°F, absolute zero is abysmally cold, yet at least we can imagine it. Being only a few hundred degrees below zero, it's in the realm of something we can put our minds around. This is not true of the opposite of absolute zero, the theoretical highest possible temperature.