Month: December 2017
Stone tools show when we left Africa
Live Science reveals the simple treasures of Wadi Dabsa, where stone hand-axes, scrapers, spear-points and hammers are among a trove of relics that might show how early – and for … Read the rest “Stone tools show when we left Africa”
Electrical brain stimulation can boost your memory. For a day.
Science News has more on how a zap of electric current, placed just so, can increase your ability to make and maintain new memories:
… Read the rest “Electrical brain stimulation can boost your memory. For a day.”The findings are the first example of electrical brain
A sticky bioprinting breakthrough.
Science Daily has more on the Osaka University researchers who have found a new way to stick together the ever-more complicated cells for 3D printing:
… Read the rest “A sticky bioprinting breakthrough.”Printed replacement human body parts
Science Art: Apollo 8 Earthrise, Christmas Eve 1968
Click to embiggen… Read the rest “Science Art: Apollo 8 Earthrise, Christmas Eve 1968”“Oh, my God! Look at that picture over there! Here’s the earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty!” –Commander Frank Borman, Apollo 8, December
SONG: Electronics Follow
SONG: “Electronics Follow”.
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE:First Digital Pill Approved to Worries About Biomedical ‘Big Brother’,” The New York Times, 13 Nov 2017, as used… Read the rest “SONG: Electronics Follow”
Music from melting glaciers.
Earther has a nice look at a University of Virginia sound artist who’s turning shrinking glaciers into his musical instrument:
… Read the rest “Music from melting glaciers.”“We’re trying to create art, but it also has other possibilities,”
We’re treating cervical cancer with cyborg sperm.
New Scientist spells out how we’re able to use sperm cells to carry chemotherapy drugs directly to tumors:
… Read the rest “We’re treating cervical cancer with cyborg sperm.”Haifeng Xu at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research
Science Art: Field Rheostats, 1907
Click to embiggenNot “field” as in “field recording,” but “field” as in “magnetic field.”
These are from a chapter on direct-current… Read the rest “Science Art: Field Rheostats, 1907”
Electric-eel power plants could fuel artificial organs
Nature gives us a charge from the possible use of electric eel generating systems to power replacement organs:
… Read the rest “Electric-eel power plants could fuel artificial organs”The prototype, described in Nature on 13 December, runs on a solution of salt
The Age of Giant Penguins. After the Age of Dinosaurs, before the Age of Giant Mammals.
So, yes, I’ve already written an OK song about giant penguins before, but this is a new and different thing. NPR is reporting on a Nature study about a 220-pound penguin that was something… Read the rest “The Age of Giant Penguins. After the Age of Dinosaurs, before the Age of Giant Mammals.”
Acupuncture seems to work to ease cancer pain.
Nature steps into the alternative-medicine fray with research showing that acupuncture significantly reduces pain for female breast-cancer patients:
… Read the rest “Acupuncture seems to work to ease cancer pain.”Oncologists who conducted a
Science Art: Red laser through irregular glass mj1, by Mariojan Photo, 2007
Click to embiggen vastlyA red laser pointer. A chunk of “bad” glass. A blank wall. And here, a remarkable thing.
From the Wikimedia Commons description:
… Read the rest “Science Art: Red laser through irregular glass mj1, by Mariojan Photo, 2007”A red laser beam passes
Falcon Heavy will carry Elon Musk’s car to Mars next month.
Ever the showman, Elon Musk has announced his plans (via Agence France-Presse) to not only launch one of the largest rockets ever into Mars orbit next month, but to have it carrying his own… Read the rest “Falcon Heavy will carry Elon Musk’s car to Mars next month.”
A living tattoo that’s also a computer.
Science Daily reveals how MIT researchers used 3D printing to create the world’s first temporary tattoo made from living cells that act as sensors or circuits:
… Read the rest “A living tattoo that’s also a computer.”The cells are engineered