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National Geographic has an incredible collection of insect egg images made with a scanning electron microscope that you should definitely check out. The structures are incredible... like something created by H.R. Giger, only less appealing because there are actual bugs involved. I'm sorry, I know bugs are amazing, but they still give the willies.
In other News of the Freaking Awesome, researchers at Ithaca College have developed a totally sweet robo-chair for disabled babies. It's built from a Pioneer 3 robot and a Wii Fit balance board, and it moves in whatever direction the baby is leaning. Before you know it, disabled children the world over will be running around in M.A.N.T.I.S. suits! (I would make a joke about all of you being too young to have seen M.A.N.T.I.S., but I bet you're not. I bet you were just smart enough not to watch it. It really was awful.)
What, you want more science of awesome? Alright. How about restoring human vision with biosynthetic corneas? Or using frog skin to find solutions to antibiotic-resistant super-bugs?
Not thrilling enough? Okay, try this one on for size. When these tobacco plants are attacked by hungry caterpillars, they send out a chemical signal which attracts "big-eyed bugs," which then attack the caterpillar. It's sort of like My Bodyguard, if Adam Baldwin's part had been played by an insect.
In energy news, apparently thorium is the next big thing and frankly, after reading up about it a bit, I don't really get why we haven't been using it forever. This article claims that with a bold new thorium initiative, the US could end its dependence on fossil fuels in three to five years. Holy shit. Not enough info on thorium for ya? Here's a Google Tech Talk to tell you all about it.
In a horrifying intersection of bureaucracy, idiocy, and global food security lurching toward failure, researchers in Russia are fighting tooth and nail to preserve the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry, which preserves rare plants and food stocks and conducts research into parasite and fungus resistance, plants that are capable of surviving extreme temperatures and other cool stuff like that. The Vavilov Institute has a long and dramatic history -- during WWII, the researchers watching over the facility starved to death rather than consume their precious seed stock -- and now the Institute's Pavlovsk collection is under threat from that most terrible of modern-day institutions: real-estate development. Apparently the developers successfully made the case in court that, because the Institute's collection is priceless, it is therefore impossible to assign a price to it, and by extension it is worthless. No, people, I am not making this up.
In news of failures of camouflage, officials at a Thai airport snagged a smuggler when they x-rayed a suitcase full of stuffed tigers and discovered there were bones inside as well. They found a sedated tiger cub in the suitcase and secured a victory against wildlife trafficking. Screw you, wildlife traffickers. I hope you die in a fire.
Speaking of people who suck, Americans in general and judges specifically continue to be idiots about stem-cell research, and now the situation is more screwed up than ever. That's okay, America, it's not like we needed scientific advancement or anything.
And speaking of advancement, scientists in Australia are monitoring a population of skinks who appear to be a living example of evolution in progress: they're switching from egg-laying to live birth. Before you know it, they'll be hunting Sam Neill through an eerie island amusement park.
In other News of the Freaking Awesome, researchers at Ithaca College have developed a totally sweet robo-chair for disabled babies. It's built from a Pioneer 3 robot and a Wii Fit balance board, and it moves in whatever direction the baby is leaning. Before you know it, disabled children the world over will be running around in M.A.N.T.I.S. suits! (I would make a joke about all of you being too young to have seen M.A.N.T.I.S., but I bet you're not. I bet you were just smart enough not to watch it. It really was awful.)
What, you want more science of awesome? Alright. How about restoring human vision with biosynthetic corneas? Or using frog skin to find solutions to antibiotic-resistant super-bugs?
Not thrilling enough? Okay, try this one on for size. When these tobacco plants are attacked by hungry caterpillars, they send out a chemical signal which attracts "big-eyed bugs," which then attack the caterpillar. It's sort of like My Bodyguard, if Adam Baldwin's part had been played by an insect.
In energy news, apparently thorium is the next big thing and frankly, after reading up about it a bit, I don't really get why we haven't been using it forever. This article claims that with a bold new thorium initiative, the US could end its dependence on fossil fuels in three to five years. Holy shit. Not enough info on thorium for ya? Here's a Google Tech Talk to tell you all about it.
In a horrifying intersection of bureaucracy, idiocy, and global food security lurching toward failure, researchers in Russia are fighting tooth and nail to preserve the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry, which preserves rare plants and food stocks and conducts research into parasite and fungus resistance, plants that are capable of surviving extreme temperatures and other cool stuff like that. The Vavilov Institute has a long and dramatic history -- during WWII, the researchers watching over the facility starved to death rather than consume their precious seed stock -- and now the Institute's Pavlovsk collection is under threat from that most terrible of modern-day institutions: real-estate development. Apparently the developers successfully made the case in court that, because the Institute's collection is priceless, it is therefore impossible to assign a price to it, and by extension it is worthless. No, people, I am not making this up.
In news of failures of camouflage, officials at a Thai airport snagged a smuggler when they x-rayed a suitcase full of stuffed tigers and discovered there were bones inside as well. They found a sedated tiger cub in the suitcase and secured a victory against wildlife trafficking. Screw you, wildlife traffickers. I hope you die in a fire.
Speaking of people who suck, Americans in general and judges specifically continue to be idiots about stem-cell research, and now the situation is more screwed up than ever. That's okay, America, it's not like we needed scientific advancement or anything.
And speaking of advancement, scientists in Australia are monitoring a population of skinks who appear to be a living example of evolution in progress: they're switching from egg-laying to live birth. Before you know it, they'll be hunting Sam Neill through an eerie island amusement park.