Hasta La Gadget!

The European Space Agency’s Planck satellite has been gathering data since its launch in 2009, slowly building up a map of the cosmic microwave background radiation — a distant remnant of the Big Bang. The resulting image, seen above, is the most detailed ever put together of the cold glow that uniformly covers the universe, taking us all the way back to just a 380,000 years after the explosive inflation that gave birth to all matter, energy and time. There were some surprises, including more extreme temperature fluctuations between hemispheres than predicted by the standard model and confirmation of a pronounced cold spot that can no longer be dismissed as an artifact of previous satellite instruments. For more about just what Planck has taught us, along with a few more visualizations, check out the source link.

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Via: Wired

Source: European Space Agency

Musing on a dystopian near-future where you really don’t want to see your fellow commuters, Sony Japan’s Twitter account just offered us the above image. Is this what’s going to happen when the likes of Sony and Google have managed to supplant our affection for smartphones with eyewear tech?

Mat: “We’re going to need more charging sockets.”
James: “Perhaps not the best time to be watching Unstoppable.”
Richard Lai: “You’re seeing this ad because your fellow passengers are also watching this.”
Tim: “Nice shoes.”
Steve: “We’ve arrived? I’ll just finish the movie while crossing this intersection.”
Dan: “Trainspotting? I haven’t seen a train in years.”
Jon Fingas: “Seeing where you’re going is so 2012.”
Brad: “We just can’t get enough of that amazing Galaxy S 4 launch event.”
Edgar: “Glass? Where we’re going, we don’t need Glass.”
Ben: “Where am I? What’s happened to my life? Oooh, a new episode of Deadliest Catch!”
Darren: “Geordi La Forge is all up in these royalties.”
Terrence: Blah, blah, bah, something, something, something, private porn watching.
Brian: “You guys are going to the X-Men auditions, too? Cool. Didn’t want to miss my stop.”
David: “Do you know where we are? Hmm, about ten minutes into the season finale of Game of Thrones.”
Jon Turi: “Victims of the Krazy Glue prankster all try to go about their day.”
Michael: “Sony says all your face are belong to us.”
Don: “Wow. This is just like being on a train.”
Myriam: “So those grab-handles double as VR glasses, right?

Filed under: Wearables, Alt, Sony

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Source: Sony Japan (Twitter)

It would be an understatement to say there’s been a long build-up to the moment when Voyager 1 ventures into interstellar space: scientists thought the probe was on the edge back in 2010, and we’ve been waiting for the official milestone ever since. Researchers contributing to an American Geophysical Union journal now believe that the spacecraft may have crossed that symbolic border months ago. Measurements from August 25th onwards show a steep drop in the detected volume of cosmic rays from the heliosphere, just as the extrasolar rays are picking up. Spectrum measurements from the period also mirror those of interstellar regions. On the surface, the clues strongly imply that Voyager 1 has passed the limit of our solar system’s influence. NASA, however, disputes the claims — the agency notes that its vehicle is still traveling the magnetic highway, and it won’t have officially escaped the surly bonds of the Sun until the magnetic fields shift. We won’t break out the champagne and party streamers, then, but the dispute underscores just how close we are to having another human-made object roaming the galaxy.

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Via: BBC

Source: AGU, NASA

A new blood-testing subdermal sensor has been developed by a team of scientists in Switzerland. While that may not sound particularly notable, this half-inch prototype can instantly beam several health metrics to smart devices over Bluetooth, monitoring cholesterol, blood sugar levels as well as the impact of medical treatments like chemotherapy using five built-in sensors.

The device has already been tested on animals and while the researchers hope to begin testing soon on patients that would typically require a lot of blood tests and monitoring, the module is still several years from a commercial release. According to the EPFL‘s video, the sensor can even predict heart attacks several hours before they occur, sensing minute changes in the bloodstream ahead of time. We’ve ‘implanted’ the explanation after the break, but if you’re looking for some more medical-minded specifics, head to the source.

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Via: BBC

Source: EPFL

Living vicariously just got a bit more exciting. Google Maps had added some of the most famous (and highest) mountains in the world to Street View. The list includes Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro, Mount Elbrus and Everest Base Camp — four members of the Seven Summits, letting you explore some of the of the highest points on Earth without the aide of a breathing apparatus. According to Google, the shots were captured with the help of a tripod and a fish-eye-sporting digital camera. All of the aforementioned mountains can be reached in the source link below — or with the assistance of a good support team.

Filed under: Alt, Google

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Source: Google