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Tech NewsWatch a Nickel Transformed Into a Tiny, Intricate Sculpture
Imagine an alternate world where our coins are graced not by unsmiling presidents but Frankenstein, ET, skulls, pirates—hell, even a butt. That’s the funny, fanciful world of Italian artist Paolo Curcio. Curcio has created some truly remarkable hobo nickels, an art form originally popular, as their name would suggest, among hobos during the Great Depression. … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsCleaning Up Former Meth Houses Is a Booming Business
Even if intrigue and criminal activity aren’t quite up your alley, you can still cash in on meth. That’s because riding on the coat tails of our nation’s meth epidemic is the growing industry of meth lab cleanup. You won’t be Walter White, but you can still to wear a fluorescent hazmat suit, and hey, … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsUh Oh, Drone Operators Can’t Tell a Weapon From a Shovel
You know how it feels to squint at a pixelated video. Now imagine if being able to tell what you’re looking at were a matter of life or death. According to a searing first-hand account in The Guardian, that’s a situation drone operators face all the time. Heather Linebaugh, a former imagery analyst in the … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
ScienceBiology
Australian Sharks Will Now Be Tweeting Their Locations
There’s a great, bloody shark war going on in Western Australia right now. After six deaths in two years—making Western Australia the deadliest place on earth for shark attacks—the state has ratcheted up its side of the war by deciding to kill sharks. Lots of ’em. Any shark within one kilometer of the beach will … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
ScienceBiology
Why These Bison in California Were Put on Birth Control
This is a story about bison, Hollywood, and a glycoprotein. A rocky outpost off the coast of Los Angeles, Santa Catalina Island was originally home to exactly zero bison. In 1924, however, when the island was owned by William Wrigley Jr. of chewing gum fame, a film crew imported 14 buffalo for a movie shoot. … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
This Gorgeous Stained Glass Landscape Is Actually a Rice Field
Who knew growing rice on a mountain could be so beautiful? The Ailao Mountains in Yunnan, China, have been carved into thousands of gradual steps, each a paddy growing red rice. The rice terraces stretch out over some 400 square miles of mountains and valleys. The Hani people moved into the area and began carving … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Cloudy With a Chance of Space Weather
Worried about an important satellite transmission? The UK’s Meteorological Office will begin offering daily space weather forecasts to warn against solar storms that can knock out power grids, radios, and satellite-based tech like GPS. Solar storm activity follows a 11-year cycle, and we’re approaching a maximum right now. [BBC] Image courtesy of NASA
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Soviets Spent $1 Billion on “Unconventional” Science and Mind Control
Not to be outdone by U.S. military research that inspired men to stare at goats, the Soviets also seem to have poured a nice chunk of change into investigating telekinesis and mind control. A new survey of Soviet “unconventional” research on the server ArXiv has the details. Based on Russian publications and recently declassified documents, … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Redesigning Our Cities and Highways to Help Feed Monarch Butterflies
On highway medians, atop old landfills, in backyards—these are some of the places a monarch butterfly revival could begin. The yearly migration of monarchs from the northern U.S. and Canada to the warmer environs of Mexico was once a spectacular sight, and a now a rare one. Their numbers have dwindled. There’s no single cause, … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Who needs Christmas lights when you have glowing mammalian cells? This wreath, assembled from cells with proteins and structured stained different colors, was made by Dr. Donna Beer Stolz at the University of Pittsburgh. It won 19th place in the 2011 Nikon Photomicrography Competition—but top honors for holiday cheer. [Nikon]
By Sarah Zhang -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
How Your Christmas Presents Were Shipped—As Seen in Clouds From Space
Today’s as good a day as any to ponder how massive amounts of stuff gets moved around the world. iPhones from China, sweaters from Bangladesh, chocolates from Switzerland—they all make the intercontinental journey in containers stacked like Lego blocks on cargo ships. And these ships can seed their own clouds, tracing out their paths across … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Iceland Stops Work on a New Highway That Would Destroy Elf Habitats
A lawsuit that halted a new highway in Iceland was filed on behalf of elves. The road construction project is now being delayed until Iceland’s Supreme Court rules on a case from Friends of Lava, a group concerned about destruction to elf and wildlife habitats. Their ideas may not be as bizarre as it first … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
ScienceHealth
The Flu Shot Is Less Effective in Men With High Testosterone
For years, Sabra Klein has been trying to start a conversation about sex. The Johns Hopkins immunologist studies why women have stronger immune systems than men—a phenomenon that underlies the fact that women are three times more likely to develop autoimmune diseases—but are also better protected by vaccines. The latter, however, has gotten very little … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
5 Crazy Places We Can Go Looking for Diamonds
Hold on to your engagement rings. Diamonds, according to an industry report, are falling off a supply cliff in 2018. As existing diamond mines are depleted even as worldwide demand increases—thanks, especially to a newly rich Asia—three months’ salary might soon buy you a much punier rock. But look at the big picture: A diamond, … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Plant Cells “Talk” With Electric Signals, Too
A particular detail has always stuck with me from The BFG, Roald Dahl’s dark-as-hell children’s book that’s actually about giants snatching kids from their bedrooms. The one good, non-kid-eating giant tells his friend about superhuman hearing: “if I is twisting the stem of the flower till it breaks, then the plant is screaming. I can … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Archaeologist Uses 2,000-Year-Old Sky to Study Roman Ruins
If archaeology was once about digging through dirt, it is increasingly—like almost every other profession—about programming computers. Bernie Frischer, an Indiana University “archaeo-informaticist,” has came up with a new theory about two Roman monuments. His finding are based on 3D reconstructions of the monuments using video game technology and calculations of the sun’s position 2,000 … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Fresh Fish! Sliced and Diced! Tested for Radioactivity
Hundreds of pounds of freshly caught fish are express-mailed to a building in the small town of Onjuku, Japan, everyday. There, a team quickly slices and dices the fish into fillets. But this is no kitchen, and the fresh fish are definitely not for consumption. The building belongs to the quasi-governmental Marine Ecology Research Institute, … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
All Along, That Wasn’t Really Styrofoam
Dow Chemical Company would like to clear up a massive misunderstanding. STYROFOAM™, registered trademark, is not the foamy white stuff that makes up coffee cups or takeout trays or packing peanuts or egg cartons or even movie props. No, STYROFOAM™ usually comes in light blue sheets, and real STYROFOAM™ is used for building insulation and … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
CERN Hid Lego Figurines All Over During Its Google Street View Shoot
If simply getting a peek inside the guts of CERN isn’t cool enough, the lab’s computer security officer, Stefan Lüders, has a secret treat for the nerds among us. Just before Google Street View came to visit, he and his crew hid Lego figurines all over CERN’s Computing Center. About 20 of them—including aliens, a … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
ScienceBiologyAmazing Landforms Shaped By Animals
Humans have their dynamite; wind and water have time on their side; but animals, too, can reshape their landscape on a massive scale. None of these are the work of a lone gopher or even a single mighty elephant, but generations and generations of animals slowly chipping away. Mima Mounds Photo courtesy of Arthur M. … Continued
By Sarah Zhang
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