Disney builds a wall-driving robot.
A bit fancier than the Hall of the Presidents. New Scientist reports on a wheeled robot that uses fans to drive up walls: The eminently […]
Month: December 2015
Mouse livers could cure your sweet tooth.
Popular Science has more on the hormone from mouse livers that cuts sugar cravings: The scientists found that in the rodents, a hormone generated by […]
Science Art: Acanthophracta (detail) by Ernst Haeckel.
There’s a star in the East….
SONG: Aware of Emptiness
SONG: “Aware of Emptiness.” [Download] ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Based on “China’s dark-matter satellite launches era of space science”, Nature, 17 Dec 2015, as used in […]
The Falcon has landed… back on Earth.
Ars Technica (somewhat breathlessly) reports on SpaceX’s success, launching a rocket that made it to space and then returned home to land safely: The historic […]
Games sell candy and snacks to kids. Better than ads.
Science Daily reports on the battle ground of our kids’ psyches, revealing that kids are interacting with – and being manipulated by – ads they […]
Science Art: XLII: Milky Way from Mythographi Latini by Thomas Munckerus/Hyginus, 1681.
Click to embiggen This is the Early Modern Milky Way, as appearing in an edition of the ‘Poeticon Astronomicon‘ by the Latin author Hyginus (although […]
Weirdos are sexy. Here’s proof.
Scientific American takes a gendered view of this psychological study, using the fact that “women conforming to social standards aren’t as attractive” – but the […]
Monkey King goes in search of dark matter.
Nature reports on China’s new research venture, sending the Monkey King rocket (they do have the best names in China) out to solve some scientific […]
*Is* there something past Pluto?
Ars Technica looks at something funny out beyond the orbit of Pluto – a thing that’s practically invisible, but that maybe a really, really big […]
And about hyping the science headlines… here’s some research on THAT, too.
Nature finds that research papers have become more “novel” (and “amazing,” “phenomenal,” “encouraging,” and “unprecedented”) than ever before: Researchers at the University Medical Center Utrecht […]
“Last-resort” antibiotic beaten by resistant bugs globally.
New Scientist doesn’t usually hype the headline too much, so one gets concerned when they say that germs can now resist another “last-resort” antibiotic: Bacteria […]
Science Art: From Legal Chemistry: A Guide to the Detection of Poisons, Examination of Tea, Stains, Etc., 1884.
I found this elegant (if obscure) glassware at the public domain image repository at Reusable Art. I’m guessing it was used to detect poisons more […]
Chickens that lay medicine are here.
Nature reveals the existence of transgenic chickens, modified to produce drugs in their eggs: The drug, Kanuma (sebelipase alfa), is a recombinant human enzyme marketed […]
Bike helmets save lives. Bike helmet *laws* hurt people.
Outside has an interesting look at unintended consequences, examining a University of Colorado study into why bike-helmet laws increase injuries: Studies show that the laws […]