Science

Every few months, I come across something on the Web that completely blows my mind. This morning, a friend of mine sent me a link to Nikon's Universcale Web app. It puts the entire universe into proportion, from the smallest particle to the largest measurements of space.

From the femtometer to the light year, Universcale spans 40 magnitudes of measurement into a single cosmic Web application. It's really amazing when you zoom all the way out into stars and galaxies and then realize that every time you go a magnitude higher, everything you saw before, from the flea … Read more

I've found the ultimate Web site for worriers. Not little things like having no health insurance or not saving for retirement. Naw, this is the big stuff: your odds for facing a category 4 hurricane, or getting the West Nile virus.

Oh, and it gives you colorful maps and charts, computer projections for what climate change will do to you specifically. Not general things like "it will get hotter" or "there may be droughts."

No, because this Web site gives you projections for what will happen at a specific address, your address. The climate appraisal … Read more

New Mexico and Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson signed a memorandum of understanding this week that gives Branson the rights to lease a portion of the state's spaceport, which is being developed for private space flight, according to a story by the Associated Press.

Virgin Galactic has been planning to launch its suborbital spaceflights from New Mexico for some time, but the memorandum makes it more official. According to the story, the two groups sets the terms of a lease that would require Virgin Galactic to pay the state $27.5 million over 20 years for the use of … Read more

Want the house of your dreams? Soon, it may be possible to design it on your computer and have it delivered to you in customized, Lego-like pieces.

That's the idea behind a collaboration between Bell Travers Willson Architects and Facit. The concept was showcased at the 1:1 Making the Digital House exhibition at The Architecture Foundation in London.

Using 3D modeling programs, an entire home or building can be designed on a computer. All the dimensions and screw-hole placements for the building materials are then relayed to a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine that cuts out the customized … Read more

If you don't believe in evolution, please don't read this blog. You'd get hives.

Dinosaurs 4.0 went extinct about 65 million years ago. For more than 400 million years the Earth's climate has been fluctuating in ways scientists can reconstruct. New research says atmospheric CO2 levels can raise and lower temperatures in a predictable way. Over the past 420 million years doubling CO2 has raised the Earth's temperatures as much as 5 degrees Celsius.

So maybe those last dinosaurs sensed something was wrong. Here's a snatch of conversation: "Hey, Bronto, don't … Read more

Fresh from the Robo-One 11 bi-ped robot competition at Kourakuen Hall in Tokyo comes this impressive video of OmniZero.4.

As you can see, OmniZero.4 climbs ladders, clomps around, jumps rope, and makes crappy, shell-heavy omelettes.

According to Robots-Dreams.com, OmniZero.4 edged out the spawn of the Great Majingaa by a score of 453 to 432 to win the demonstration competition.

An earlier iteration of The Great Majingaa can be seen below, controlled by an emotionless child wearing some sort of robotic exoskeleton device.

You may also want to check out this epic Robo-One 10 battle between King … Read more

Over in Japan, the Oita Marine Center features a funky fish tank that seemingly defies the laws of gravity, matter, and sensibility: thanks to some vacuum technology, the fishies can swim "out" of the tank so that you can feed them, pat them, etc.

Cool, yes, but this would be an absolute atrocity if anything went wrong. Those poor fish! Though I must say, some hilarity would certainly ensue if water started randomly spewing out all over a crowd of unsuspecting aquarium patrons. But still...those poor fish!

(Via Geekologie)

ABC News reports a whistle-blower group in Washington is blowing its own whistle over the White House and climate research. The group is the Government Accountability Project. They say they've been reading thousands of government communications on climate research.

GAP found numerous deliberate White House efforts to stifle research and public release of climate research results.

The U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee is holding a hearing on this subject on Wednesday. That's when the GAP report will be released. GAP concludes federal law may have been violated when scientists were restricted from talking to press or … Read more

Another week, another cool touch screen video that everyone's e-mailing around the office.

The latest most-forwarded is the CeBIT demo video below, which is a collaborative effort between TouchKo, White Electronics Designs, and Groupe 3D. A cross between a monitor and a Wii controller (without the actual controller), the "touchless touch screen" responds to hand movements directly in front of it; you don't even have to come into contact with the screen.

Looks pretty neat, but also kind of exhausting. Although we haven't seen one available in stores yet, the concept of a "touchless … Read more