May 2012
137 posts
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Robo-Thespians
Humanoid robots produced by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, named Momoko (R) and Takeo (L) take part in a drama for the world’s first robot and human experimental theatre, written and directed by Japanese playwright Oriza Hirata at Japan’s Osaka University in Osaka, western Japan on November 25, 2008. The 20-minute performance was put on display for the media ahead of a...
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Ares Rocket Engine Test
On Sept. 10, 2009, NASA lit up the Utah sky with the initial full-scale, full-duration test firing of the first stage motor for the Ares I rocket. The 154-foot solid rocket motor produced heat two-thirds the temperature of the sun and its 12-foot-diameter cylinder delivered 3.6 million pounds of thrust.
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CCTV Tower in Beijing
So complex is this 768-foot-tall anti-skyscraper that the architects, the Netherlands-based Office of Metropolitan Architecture, chose to show off the structural seams for visual effect. The building is a continuous loop (resembling a twisted doughnut to some, “big shorts” to others), a shape that would normally be too stiff to stand up against the region’s famously epic...
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Rescue Bot
Robo-Q, rescue robot of the Tokyo Fire Department, collects a mock injured man during an anti-terrorism exercise conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government at Tokyo Big Sight on November 7, 2008 in Tokyo, Japan. The rescue robot is designed to collect humans from environments dangerous to firefighters. The first anti-RDD (radiological dispersal device) terrorism field training exercise on...
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Brain Array
Here, microwires emerging from the green and orange tubes connect to two arrays of 16 microelectrodes. Each array is embedded in a small mat of clear, rubbery silicone. The mats are barely visible in this image. These microelectrode arrays sit on the brain without penetrating it, a step toward longer-lived, less invasive versions of “neural interfaces” that in recent experiments...
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Hairy Hearing
Inner ear hair cells. Colored scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of sensory hair cells from the organ of corti, in the cochlea of the inner ear. These cells are surrounded by a fluid called the endolymph. As sound enters the ear it causes waves to form in the endolymph, which in turn cause these hairs to move. The movement is converted into an electrical signal, which is passed to the brain....
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EcoloBlue 26 "water from air" $1200 "7 gallons a...
Probably one of my favorite inventions, a machine that can suck out the moisture in the air, filter it and sterilize it, serving it up either hot or cold. Producing up to 7 gallons of pure water using half the the electricity of your microwave. Whats better is its available to the public for a affordable price $1200. Whether your trying to get a little extra water at your cabin or trying to...
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Gary Kovacs: Tracking the trackers +video
As you surf the Web, information is being collected about you. Web tracking is not 100% evil personal data can make your browsing more efficient, cookies can help your favorite websites stay in business. But, says Gary Kovacs, it’s your right to know what data is being collected about you and how it affects your online life. He unveils a Firefox add-on to do just that.
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TAPPING ALGAE ENERGY
Sapphire Energy, the Sorrento Valley company that’s on a mission to turn algae into the fuel of the future for cars and jets, is on a roll.
And Cynthia “C.J.” Warner who joined the company in 2009 as president and was tapped as CEO this year should know.
Last month, the company completed $144 million in financing from Arrowpoint Partners and Monsanto. Original investors include Bill Gates...
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Sazima’s Tarantula
Brazil is a regular contendor on lists like these, with animals and flora regularly being discovered in the Amazon and other biologically diverse areas. The electric blue of Pterinopelma sazimai makes it stand out, even in a roster like that, and although it’s not the first blue tarantula, it might be the brightest ever seen.
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SpaceX Dragon Capsule
Just Beautiful
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Malayan tigers and her Cub
A young tiger cub gives his mother a hug. The cub is one of four male Malayan tigers born this year at the Cincinnati Zoo.
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Backpack Radar Can Detect Ambushers Within 150...
If you’re a soldier suspecting an ambush, you probably don’t have much time to spare, and you definitely can’t afford to be carrying any unnecessary weight. That’s why so much military tech involves shrinking whatever’s portable, and why, now, a company has thrown its radar in a backpack into the ring.
The SpotterRF M600C weighs four pounds, uses just 10 watts of energy, and looks like the...
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A New Way to Keep Deep-Sea Creatures Alive at the...
The problem: Although scientists have been studying deep-sea animals since the 1860s, they still don’t know much about them. That’s in large part because the fish, octopuses and other creatures that thrive at the bottom of the ocean die quickly at the surface. In some cases, the lower pressure and higher temperature melt the lipids in their cell membranes. Even hardier animals, such as crabs,...
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Reddit's Alexis Ohanian And Activists Aim To Build...
The “blackout” of Web sites to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in January was an unprecedented show of Internet solidarity against bad legislation. But with new net-threatening measures like ACTA and CISPA popping out of Congress on a practically monthly basis, one online entrepreneur and a group of net activists want to enable regular SOPA-style mass protests at the push of a...
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Who is Priscilla Chan?
The wedding of Mark Zuckerberg to Priscilla Chan last weekend here in the backyard of their $7 million home had all the staging of a carefully orchestrated celebrity event. A publicist for Facebook eagerly offered photos afterward of the beaming couple, who met at Harvard and have dated for much of the last nine years. Well placed anonymous sources leaked to reporters the dinner menu, which...
