Alt-week takes a look at the best science and alternative tech stories from the last seven days.
Missing the end of the game, thanks to your VCR was part of the accepted technology norm during the format’s hey day in the 80s. Not for Marion Stokes, though, who managed to keep the VCR wheels turning for over three decades straight, amassing quite the archive of news coverage as she did so. Also, we’ve got one new island, and an Ice Age DNA puzzle. Where else but alt-week?
You pop on a goopy strip, and a short while later you’ve got teeth as white and gleaming as polished tile. But how do those strips work? Wired explains, and when you zoom in to the individual ions flying around, it looks a lot like a sci-fi space attack.
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The ocean is a vastly unexplored world that is all around us, and as technology continues to be refined, we frequently discover more oddities and fascinating creatures from its depths. Such research attempts are soon going to have a massive boon in the form of an ocean-based research laboratory called the SeaOrbiter, which will be […]
Although the field of childbirth has remained pretty stagnant as far as fields of medicine go, it’s been making some major strides in recent months. Though unlike other recent techniques
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Scientist have made an amazing discovery in the Chesapeake Bay. A team of researchers were drilling into the center of an ancient asteroid impact crater in the bay. The carter is known as the Chesapeake Bay impact crater and was formed when an asteroid hit the Earth about 35 million years ago. The outer ring […]
Researchers around the world are constantly working on projects that seem strange at first glance, but often have suppressing practical applications. A group of researchers in the US have been working on creating waterproof materials. One of the most waterproof materials in nature is the lotus leaf and a group of researchers in the US […]
The Earth is racked with volcanic activity. There are active volcanoes in many parts of the world and some of them are active very frequently. One of the most volcanically active places in the world is Hawaii. The island state gets new land mass every year thanks to volcanic activity. A new volcanic island has […]
This colorful map might look fun, but it’s seriously useful too. The result of NASA research, it’s one of the most detailed simulations of the Earth’s winds yet.
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Planetary Resources really wants to mine asteroids for valuable materials, but first it has to find them. So the company is partnering with NASA on a crowdsourcing project that would put the American public to work identifying and tracking near-Earth-objects (NEOs). All the data generated will be open sourced and made publicly available on the web. The effort will center on a series of challenges and contests designed to lure in citizen scientists and the results will be reviewed by Planetary Resources. Obviously, the company will be looking for mineable hunks of space rock, but it will also be giving back to the scientific community by using the data it collects to improve algorithms for detecting asteroids. And, obviously, the more of those we’re able to detect and track, the less likely we are to be caught off guard by a meteorite apocalypse. To be notified when the program kicks off, sign up for more info at the Planetary Resources site.
Filed under: Science, Internet
Source: Planetary Resources
Researchers have been using graphene to develop an assortment of technologically advanced things for a while, from camera sensors and contact lenses all the way to frickin’ lasers. That’s why it’s not a surprise to see a group of engineers from Columbia University create the world’s smallest FM transmitter using the atom-thick material. The end product isn’t just for show, either, as it can pump tunes over the airwaves to a regular FM radio — the team even used Gangnam Style to prove that it works. As interesting as the teensy transmitter is, the engineers have no plans to build a radio for ants, and this is merely part of a larger study into nano-electromechanical systems. Now all we need is for someone to make a tiny violin and a pair of tweezers small enough for us to play.
Filed under: Alt
Via: IEEE
Source: Columbia University, Nature
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