27 Science Fictions That Became Science Facts In 2012 We may never have our flying cars, but the future is here. From creating fully functioning artificial leaves to hacking the human brain, science made a lot of breakthroughs this year. 1. Quadriplegic Uses Her Mind to Control Her Robotic Arm At the University of Pittsburgh, the neurobiology department worked with 52-year-old Jan Scheuermann over the course of 13 weeks to create a robotic arm controlled only by the power of Scheuermann’s mind. The team implanted her with two 96-channel intracortical microelectrodes. 2. Once the robot figures out how to do that without all the wires, humanity is doomed. 3. Photo Courtesy of Indigo Moon Yarns. At the University of Wyoming, scientists modified a group of silkworms to produce silk that is, weight for weight, stronger than steel. 4. Using an electron microscope, Enzo di Fabrizio and his team at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa snapped the first photos of the famous double helix.Source: newscientist.com / via: davi296 5. 6. 7. 8. 10.
Plant Hopping Insect Uses Gear Mechanism to Jump Evolution beat humans to the development of the gear mechanism. Researchers from the University of Cambridge discovered that the juvenile Issus, a common plant-hopping ivy-eating insect, uses an interlocking cog mechanism when it jumps. A scanning electron micrograph image of the intermeshing gears is pictured above. The Cambridge scientists used a combination of anatomical analysis and high-speed video capture to reveal the tiny gears. They found that the juvenile Issus has "hind-leg joints with curved cog-like strips of opposing 'teeth' that intermesh, rotating like mechanical gears to synchronise the animal's legs when it launches into a jump." The Issus loses its hind-leg gears on reaching adulthood. Co-author Gregory Sutton, now at the University of Bristol, says, "We usually think of gears as something that we see in human designed machinery, but we've found that that is only because we didn't look hard enough." Take a look:
The world's most awesome igloo. Pegman vs. Clippy. SCORE 141 Clever wall art. When the queen shows up to your wedding. When doctors become teachers. Horn mustaches. My 2 cats are quite special. Science & Environment - Why time travellers cannot kill Hitler Our pick of the week’s science and tech stories, including the recruitment drive for hackers and the problem with going back in time to assassinate leaders. Why you can’t travel back in time and kill Hitler Lauren Davis | i09 | 7 September 2013 All kinds of reasons, according to writers who have gamed this one through. For example, you may find you are part of a predestination paradox: “Katherine Heigl travels to 1889 Austria in order to kill the infant Hitler. She succeeds in killing the baby by jumping into a river with it, but Adolph’s mother buys another baby and raises it as her own. Geeks on the front lines David Kushner | Rolling Stone | 11 September 2013 US government and corporate recruiters vie to hire hackers, as cyberwarfare escalates. Mindless Adam Gopnik | New Yorker | 9 September 2013 On the reaction against neuroscience as the answer to everything. Did the NSA secretly make a major math breakthrough?
Adonna Khare and her Pencil Science & Environment - We’re all Martians, aren’t we? The notion that life on Earth has extra-terrestrial origins has provided fertile ground for scientists and science fiction writers alike. With one key difference. It’s the greatest story ever told. But any decent publisher would most likely reject even the latest draft of the complete chronological Book of Life. No, the script’s Achilles’ heel is its opening pages. New evidence presented at a recent geochemistry conference in Florence has breathed new life into the old, and previously rejected notion that life may have only begun here after first starting on Mars. It’s an interesting theory, but shifting the origin of life to another world means having to explain how primitive life managed interplanetary travel. However even if Mars did offer more favourable conditions a few billion years back, achieving abiogenesis – something living somehow assembling itself from just the right set of chemical building blocks – still seems like the longest of longshots. Kick-start life
Rashad Alakbarov Paints with Shadows and Light « Cat in water Artist Rashad Alakbarov from Azerbaijan uses suspended translucent objects and other found materials to create light and shadow paintings on walls. The best part is that you can easily create something similar at home – all you need is one or two lamps and some items from your desk. The stunning light painting below, made with an array of colored airplanes has found its way to exhibitions like the Fly to Baku at De Pury Gallery in London. Rashad adds, “Above the cloud with its shadow is the star with its light. Above all things reverence thyself.” Comments comments
Tamu Massif is Largest Single Volcano on Earth Tamu Massif is the largest single volcano on Earth. It is the size of the state of New Mexico. It is located about 1,000 miles east of Japan and is the largest feature of Shatsky Rise, an underwater volcano range in the northern Pacific Ocean. Scientists say Tamu Massif is nearly as big as the giant volcanoes of Mars. The scientists discovering the huge volcano were led by William Sager, a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Houston (UH). Tamu Massif is believed to be about 145 million years old. Until now, it was unclear whether Tamu Massif was a single volcano, or a composite of multiple eruption points. Sager says in a release, "Tamu Massif is the biggest single shield volcano ever discovered on Earth. Image courtesy Will Sager
String Rainbows of Color, Color, Color: Ethereal Thread Art Installations I can’t believe I haven’t posted Gabriel Dawe‘s work on here before: his large-scale installations made of thread are bursting with color that fades in and out of different opacities and hues. This ethereal effect is created using sets of string that can measure up to 50 miles long in total, and the carefully placed threads are delicate yet dense in their combined form. Each installation is a marvelous exploration of color, space, and even shapes– from different angles, the threads take on different forms and tones as they overlap one another visually, and the pieces fill the installation space with color and lightness and depth. Dawe’s creative inspiration for these pieces is also interesting, as he was inspired to really challenge culturally-embedded gender norms: Gabriel Dawe was born in Mexico City where he grew up surrounded by the intensity and color of Mexican culture.
Eine Gaswolke in der Milchstraße erzeugt eine Fata Morgana des Quasars 2023-335 Gaswolke in unserer Milchstraße erzeugt Vielfachbilder vom Kern einer fernen aktiven Galaxie 5. September 2013 Eine ionisierte Gaswolke in unserer Milchstraße spaltet das Bild eines Quasars in mehreren Milliarden Lichtjahren Entfernung in mehrere Teilbilder auf. Wie das Bild des aktiven galaktischen Kerns im Detail zerlegt wird, hat ein Team herausgefunden, an dem auch Forscher des Bonner Max-Planck-Instituts für Radioastronomie beteiligt waren. Phänomene dieser Art wurden bereits in den 1970er-Jahren theoretisch vorhergesagt, nun aber erstmals auch beobachtet. Bild vergrößern Schematische, nicht maßstabsgetreue Darstellung, die zeigt, wie die von dem Materiestrahl (Jet) des weit entfernten... © Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF Auf den Quasar 2023+335 in fast drei Milliarden Lichtjahren Entfernung von der Erde sind die Wissenschaftler im Rahmen einer Studie an einer Stichprobe von rund 300 solcher Objekte aufmerksam geworden. Neue Erkenntnisse über turbulente galaktische Gaswolken werden greifbar
Batman graffiti The fact that the Batman has become one of the most popular superhero shouldn’t be a surprise. He’s a saviour with the flawless moral principles, the fearless fighter against injustice of any kind, the rich who is helping the poor—the noble version of Robin Hood. Plus, he is the only famous superhero without any superhuman abilities.