Science

SAN JOSE, Calif.--If you've ever wanted a chance to bust a myth like a real MythBuster, your time has come.

Starting tomorrow, MythBusters fans can try their hand at a number of myths and see some of the artifacts behind a number of the hit Discovery Channel show's greatest hits at MythBusters: The Explosive Exhibition at the Tech Museum here.

From testing whether you're more likely to get wet by running or walking in the rain to whether it's really possible to pull a tablecloth off a table without destroying everything on it to a … Read more

Countless childhood dreams dissolved today upon the news that the calculated half-life of DNA figures out to around 521 years, all but invalidating the chances of a real-life "Jurassic Park."

The DNA fact-finding project involved a team of palaeogeneticists testing 158 leg bones belonging to three species of extinct giant moa birds ranging from 600 to 8,000 years old.

After running a series of comparisons between the age of the various bones and DNA degradation within each specimen, the researchers estimated that DNA's half-life works out to about 521 years after being kept in a swamp with an average temperature of 13.1 Celsius (55 Fahrenheit). Even a more ideal preservation temperature of minus 5 Celsius (23 Fahrenheit) would only result in readable DNA from specimens up to 1.5 million years old, meaning there is no possible way we can see a 65-million-year-old T-Rex waving its tiny arms about in this time frame. … Read more

When I interviewed Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka back in 2008, I had an inkling he'd win the Nobel Prize one day for his work on stem cells. I didn't pay any mind to his appearance or background.

Yamanaka shared the Nobel in physiology or medicine this week with Britain's John Gurdon for their groundbreaking work on changing adult cells into stem cells, which can become any type of cell in the body.

It turns out that Yamanaka defied the odds. He was born in September, he's 50, bespectacled, and Japanese. According to a historical survey of Nobel laureates by the BBC, which goes back to 1901, those aren't favorable characteristics. … Read more

The "Indiana Jones" film saga contains a plethora of real-world archaeology and stunning cinematography, an epic score by John Williams, and cunning characters. Perhaps the greatest charm of the movies, however, falls upon the main protagonist played by Harrison Ford.

To celebrate the legacy of the films more than 30 years after the Indiana Jones franchise debuted with "Raiders of the Lost Ark," National Geographic and Lucasfilm teamed with X3 Productions on the Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology exhibition, which is set to open October 12 at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, Calif. The exhibit runs through April 21, 2013, and features an extensive collection of film props, set designs, models, and concept art used in the films. … Read more

If you've ever wondered what makes your ponytail sway from side to side, you're not alone. Researchers who unraveled the mysterious math behind human ponytails have been recognized with an Ig Nobel prize for their contribution to science.

As I predicted they would back in February, Joseph Keller, Raymond Goldstein, Patrick Warren, and Robin Ball took home the humorous accolade for their study in Physical Review Letters, which describes a hairy equation governing locks.

The Ig Nobels are handed out in a ceremony at Harvard University and honor research that first makes you laugh, and then makes you think. … Read more

Stanford engineer Debbie Sterling has seen a boy bias in toys like Lego and Erector sets. Lego's recent attempts at appealing to girls seem to be a little off the mark. So how do you get girls interested in engineering toys?

Sterling's answer: a Kickstarter project called GoldieBlox. It's a construction toy paired with a storybook, "GoldieBlox and the Spinning Machine."

The main character is Goldie, a kid inventor. She is joined by a cat, a dolphin ballerina, a sloth, a bear, and her dog Nacho. The construction set has a pegboard, wheels, axles, blocks, a ribbon, a crank, and washers.… Read more

Many denizens of the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley noticed a long series of cloudy numbers in the skies around noon on Wednesday, September 12. No, their coffee wasn't spiked with hallucinogens.

The ephemeral event, known as Pi in the Sky, utilized five aircraft with dot-matrix skywriting technology to write out a thousand numbers of the beloved mathematical constant pi (3.14159..) at a 10,000-foot altitude. If that wasn't impressive enough, the numerals of pi written in the sky each stood nearly a quarter-mile tall, stretched for a 100-mile loop, and undoubtedly caused mass inspiration and confusion all at once. … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Building 3D models should be something everyone can do. That's the pitch from ZeroUI, a Silicon Valley startup that has created a technology platform designed to let anyone create their own digital models, whether a robot, drum, table, or anything else.

The Cupertino, Calif., company is relying on gestural input technologies such as Microsoft's Kinect, and soon, Leap Motion's Leap controller, as well as systems built into some computers, to allow users to create their models with nothing but their hands.

The company's name comes from the fact that its system has an extremely minimal user interface. Rather than requiring users to understand the mathematics and physics of a model they might want to build, the ZeroUI system simply allows them to stand in front of the input camera and use intuitive hand gestures to craft their 3D model (see the video below). … Read more

When the Curiosity rover landed on Mars earlier this month, the world couldn't get enough of the six-wheeled dynamo.

Mass adoration for the roving Martian also successfully propelled a pet project by mechanical engineer Stephen Pakbaz, who submitted a miniature version of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover last November to Cuusoo, a site officially created by Lego that lets fans vote on brick-based concepts (similar to Kickstarter). If a proposition gets 10,000 votes, then "a Lego jury evaluates the idea's feasibility as a product and makes a decision." … Read more