Scientists have discovered a new species in which the female is the individual who has the penis and the male has a vagina-like opening. According to Kazunori Yoshizawa—from Hokkaido University in Japan—these cave insects are the only documented beings in the planet with this surprising feature.
You’ve probably never stared deep into the eyes of a fruit fly—until now. Because this beautiful image reveals the inner workings of the the compound eye of Drosophila melanogaster.
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If you are a fan of the Beatles, disregard this chair. However, if you are a fan of actual bug beetles you are going to love this. This huge and very comfy looking Rhinoceros Beetle chair is fit for a beetle king.
This insect inspired chair by Maximo Riera is all kinds of awesome if you love bugs (and all kinds of awful if you hate them.) As Maximo points out, beetles are the strongest land animal in relation to their size, capable of lifting over a hundred times their own weight. So why not let let them serve as chairs?
I say we genetically alter them and beef them up and put them in our living rooms. Besides, the way the average American is getting fatter, we are going to need some new durable furniture.
Unfortunately, the Beetle Chair is just a one-off design right now, but it would be awesome if we could buy it.
[via designboom via LikeCool]
Did you know that mosquitoes inject an anesthetic into your skin, so you won’t feel a thing when they finally take that bite? When that wears off, the itching and wave upon wave of annoyance begins. That aside, mosquitoes are carriers of a multitude of diseases, too.
If you’re not a huge fan of bug sprays and insect repellent lotions, then you might consider wearing a mosquito net instead.
It may look silly, but this might just be the answer to your insect and bug bite woes. You can wear this mosquito net over your clothes, and it’s extremely breathable, so you don’t have to worry about feeling all stuffy during the summer. The 1.2-mm netting looks fine, but rest assured they’ll still allow the breeze to pass through while block off mosquitoes, insects, and other bugs. If you’re wearing shorts, you also might want to invest in a pair of mosquito net pants to round out your outfit.
The Wearable Mosquito Net goes for $34.95(USD) while the Mosquito net Pants sell for $29.95 over at Hammacher Schlemmer for $29.95(USD).
[via The Green Head]
The global human population is booming. Some studies predict that we’ll soon run out of resources (read: food) to feed everyone as this growth continues.
One of the proposed solutions? Breed insects and use them as an alternate protein source.
It might sound gross, but one day, that might be the unfortunate reality we’ll all find ourselves in.
Most people didn’t think that idea through further, but one who actually did is industrial designer Katharina Ungel. She came up with a concept called Farm 432 that’s basically a countertop breeder of insect larvae. That way, you can raise your own black soldier fly larvae (yes, she mentioned that species specifically because of its high protein content) without having to go to some farm or store to get them.
Ungel explains that the adult flies don’t need to be fed anything but bio-waste. Each batch of tasty bugs will be ready after 432 hours (hence, the name of the concept.)
Ungel writes: “Farm 432 enables people to turn against the dysfunctional system of current meat production by growing their own protein source at home.”
I’m not crazy of the idea now because I’d rather get my protein from beef, but if bugs are where we’re headed, then I think Katharina’s on to something.
[via C|NET]
Mosquitoes suck. They’re hard to kill (especially if you have bad hand-to-eye coordination) and they can infect us humans with potentially life-threatening diseases.
A project called Kite was launched recently on Indiegogo, which is essentially a patch that makes people “invisible” from mosquitoes. (It has surpassed its goal several times over, so that’s great news for all the people in Uganda who are going to get free patches, too!) But aside from warding the insects away, it would be best to get rid of them, especially if you’re constantly being bitten at home.
I’m aware that mosquito zappers – the ones that emit the bluish-violet light – are already in existence. I have one but it doesn’t really do its job well. A neat alternative is the Mostrap, and it would be neater if it actually existed and wasn’t just a concept.
The Mostrap is a mosquito-killing machine that circulates a mixture of yeast and carbon dioxide in its chamber. Apparently, mosquitoes find their way to humans because we exhale carbon dioxide. Once the mosquito flies into the Mostrap, they’re zapped into oblivion and lie dead in the bottom of the chamber.
Pretty cool, huh? The Mostrap was designed by Vishakan Shivasubramaniam.
[via Yanko Design]
If you want a realistic and creepy spider robot and have a spare $1,350(USD) Robugtix will be happy to sell you this lifelike robotic spider called the T8. Put this in your home and it will likely scare all of the real spiders you have creeping around in your home. They will be lining up to leave your abode.
The robot has a 3D printed outer shell and limbs. Inside it boasts a total of 26 servo motors and that is where it gets its realistic movement.. That and a special inverse kinematic software algorithm you run on a computer to drive it. I’m torn. I want to kill it with fire. But I also want to buy it! Decisions, decisions.
The T8 Spiderbot will be available this September. It’s a good thing it has a single large eye, otherwise you might mistake it for a real spider.
For those of you without such deep pockets, there’s another option in the decidedly less realistic looking, but nonetheless just as creepy-walking Iitsii hexapod, which will ship late August for $250.
[via Engadget]
3D printing tech can be quite amazing, but it’s usually done by melting plastic – or maybe sugar. But this is the first time I’ve heard of 3D printing using bees – or as it’s being called “3-B” printing.
As part of a promotion for its new honey-infused Highlander Honey, Dewars has been putting 80,000 of its highlander honey bees to work, building 3D sculptures.
By having the bees work within custom-shaped forms, they have already made a giant honeycomb shaped like a scotch bottle, and are currently buzzing away on another sculpture – a man’s bust. Or in this case, Dewars’ “Drinking Man.”
Head on over to Dewar’s Facebook page to see the 3-B printing experiment in action, and enter for a chance to win the Drinking Man honeycomb sculpture for yourself.
P.S. That Highlander Honey is pretty tasty stuff too.
Remember that Tom Selleck sci-fi flick called Runaway? Despite being terribly cheesy, those insect-like robots in that movie always gave me the creeps. Never mind that it was none other than KISS’ Gene Simmons who was the mastermind behind the robobugs.
While this robotic insect isn’t deadly, you’ll have a really hard time catching and swatting it if it ever were to go rogue.
Created by Duncan W. Haldane, Kevin C. Peterson, Fernando L. Garcia Bermudez, and Ronald S. Fearing of the UC Berkeley Biomimetic Millisystems Lab, the VelociRoACH is claimed to be the fastest legged robot relative to its body size. It’s capable of running at a zippy 2.7 meters-per-second. Yikes. Just wait till about 10 seconds into the video below to see it scurrying along in real time.
The robot was built with a new dynamic tuning system which keeps it stable at high speeds, using an aerodynamic rotational damper which is designed to operate with less rotational energy while still maintaining crazy fast forward momentum. The robot is also equipped with a mechanism which lets it crawl over obstacles about twice its height with ease.
I’m not sure what the real-world applications from the VelociRoACH are, but I sure wouldn’t want these running around my house.
People know that smoking is bad for their health. Most of them are also aware of the fact that doing drugs might make them loopy. Yet people still smoke and use all the same.
Text warnings can only do so much, so for cigarettes, some institutions pushed for manufacturers to print graphic pictures of the negative effects on the actual boxes. One study found that cigarettes packages with these pictures on the package reduced cigarette demand by 17%.
Perhaps following this lead, Brazilian ad agency Talent put up a bunch of posters showing what would happen to you if you smoke crack.
It’s not an outright graphic image, but in time, it shows you what’ll happen to you if you continue doing drugs.
The posters aren’t printed on paper, but are actually made of thin sheets of dough. In time, flour beetle larvae (also known as mealworms) slowly eat through the dough, poking holes into the face of the person on the poster and literally eating away at his face.
The ads were run in São Paulo, Brazil, but maybe they should be run all over the world for good measure.
[via Taxi via Gizmodo via Geekologie]
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