Science Archive

  • Would a Lava Lamp work on Jupiter?

    Would a Lava Lamp work on Jupiter?

    Posted on April 13, 2010 | No Comments
    Interesting question no? Would something so simple like a lava lamp work at the higher gravity found on Jupiter? The easy solution would have been to just do the research, crunch the numbers, and get an answer. This clever YouTube jockey decided to do it the hard way: he built his own centrifuge out of [...]

    Full Story

  • New Hitachi tech to double lithium-ion battery life

    New Hitachi tech to double lithium-ion battery life

    Posted on April 6, 2010 | No Comments
    Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere, powering small gadgets, cars or even buildings. It's not a surprise to see a number of companies currently working on improvements. Just a few weeks ago, we reported about Japan-based Eamex, which claimed their prototype battery can be charged and discharged over 10,000 times and can be used for about 20 years. And now Hitachi is claiming a new material they developed could double the life span of lithium ion batteries. The company has partnered up with Shin-Kobe Electric Machinery, saying batteries based on the material could be used in smart grid applications (Hitachi says that segment alone will be worth $32 billion by 2020).

    Full Story

  • The world’s most valuable autograph belongs to famous space-man Neil Armstrong

    The world’s most valuable autograph belongs to famous space-man Neil Armstrong

    Posted on April 2, 2010 | No Comments
    No clue what makes this list authoritative, but it's Friday, and it's the day before life as we know it changes with the release of... something. Anyhow, it's a list purporting to show the most valuable autographs you can find. It's almost relevant because of the person whose autograph has been deemed most valuable. Any guesses as to who's number one before I give it away? Wait—I already gave it away in the headline. Oops.

    Full Story

  • Coming soon: 50% lighter LCD TVs

    Coming soon: 50% lighter LCD TVs

    Posted on March 24, 2010 | No Comments
    Another possible breakthrough for LCD TVs? Researchers at Japanese chemical company Teijin and Yamaguchi University claim they have developed a new technology that makes it possible halve the weight of LCD TVs. Conventional LCDs are based on silicon solid-state devices on glass substrates, which "sandwich" liquid crystals. These devices generate heat when used, prompting manufacturers to go for heat-resistant (heavy) glass substrates.

    Full Story

  • Mission to Mars simulated by 250 days in a sealed environment

    Mission to Mars simulated by 250 days in a sealed environment

    Posted on March 22, 2010 | No Comments
    Someone call Pauly Shore, because there's a new closed environment that'll need his madcap hijinks to stave off boredom and no doubt save the day. The Mars500 project, located in Moscow, hopes to simulate the experience of a manned mission to Mars. It's the mission to part that they're testing, and not the actual Mars part. It takes a long time to get to Mars, and once you start there's no pitstops. So a lucky group of international astronauts will be working together to see what's its like to live in 550 cubic meters for the better part of a year.

    Full Story

  • Mosquitos of the future may vaccinate against malaria, instead of spread it

    Mosquitos of the future may vaccinate against malaria, instead of spread it

    Posted on March 19, 2010 | No Comments
    Mosquitos are one of the major ways that malaria is spread, causing an estimated two million deaths per year. Wouldn't it be cool if those mosquitos could be genetically modified to spread a malaria vaccination instead of the disease itself? Scientists have theorized about just such a solution for years, but recent work from Jichi Medical University in Japan proves that it's actually possible, not just theoretically possible.

    Full Story

  • Breakthrough? New spreadable electrode may pave way for cheaper LCDs

    Breakthrough? New spreadable electrode may pave way for cheaper LCDs

    Posted on March 18, 2010 | No Comments
    A research team from Japan-based Mitsui Mining & Smelting and Tohoku University says it managed to develop a spreadable electrode that may lead to lower prices for LCD panels in the future. The key element of the technology are indium tin oxide particles of 5-10 nanometers in diameter (pictured) the team has created.

    Full Story

  • Man and machine: chips successfully placed in living cells

    Man and machine: chips successfully placed in living cells

    Posted on March 17, 2010 | No Comments
    Computers are getting smaller and smaller. One need only look at the proliferation of smartphones for proof of this. The trend toward miniaturization is only going to continue. Pretty soon, we'll have computers inside our bodies, rather than carrying them around with us! Scientists have recently successfully inserted silicon chips into living cells. The initial applications for this research seem focused on intracellular sensing and data acquisition, but that's only just the beginning.

    Full Story

  • Brains, brains, scanning brains

    Brains, brains, scanning brains

    Posted on March 12, 2010 | No Comments
    Researchers would be wasting their time, and their patrons' money, scanning my brain. They'd quickly find nothing but World of Warcraft Auction House strategies and an incredible amount of space devoted to translation Marca, A Bola, La Gazzetta Dello Sport, and France Football every morning. Maybe if they'd scan, say, the brains of Fez Whatley or Vince McMahon, then they'd find something interesting.

    Full Story

  • PANIC! Study finds that students are addicted to their iPhones!!

    PANIC! Study finds that students are addicted to their iPhones!!

    Posted on March 9, 2010 | No Comments
    200 students surveyed in a Stanford study were found to be "addicted" to their iPhones. "When asked to rank their dependence on the iPhone on a scale of one to five – five being addicted and one being not at all addicted – 10 percent of the students acknowledged full addiction to the device, 34 percent ranked themselves as a four on the scale, and only 6 percent said they weren't addicted at all."

    Full Story

  • Desktop lamp powered by hamster cells

    Desktop lamp powered by hamster cells

    Posted on March 8, 2010 | No Comments
    This seems a bit odd, but here's another take on alternative power; Dutch designer Joris Laarman came up with a concept for a desktop lamp that glows from bio-luminescent hamster ovaries. Seriously, I'm not making this stuff up.

    Full Story

  • Magnetic quantum dots

    Magnetic quantum dots

    Posted on March 8, 2010 | No Comments
    Scientist #1: "You got your manganese in my germanium!" Scientist #2: "You got your germanium in my manganese!" Both: "Wow! Magnetic quantum dots!"

    Full Story

  • Nippon Oil and Hitachi aim at mass-producing microbe-derived biofuel

    Nippon Oil and Hitachi aim at mass-producing microbe-derived biofuel

    Posted on March 8, 2010 | No Comments
    Major Japanese oil wholesaler Nippon Oil and Hitachi subsidiary Hitachi Plant Technologies are developing a technology that's supposed to make it possible to mass-produce eco-friendly jet fuel from Euglena, single-celled organisms that live in ponds and lakes. To be more exact, both companies are cooperating with and acquired shares in a Tokyo-based venture called Euglena, Inc., which is trying to find a way to extract oil from these organisms to produce fuel.

    Full Story

  • Science vindicates afternoon naps, yet again

    Science vindicates afternoon naps, yet again

    Posted on February 22, 2010 | No Comments
    We all know that sleeping is a good thing. It refreshes us. It gives us that "get-up-and-go" we need. There have been studies going back about as far as I can remember that an afternoon nap makes you more productive. The latest research finally gave me a sophisticated way to describe the afternoon powernap: "a biphasic sleep schedule". Telling your boss that you are pursuing a biphasic sleep schedule to maximize afternoon productivity is sure to be met with a better response than just telling your boss that you're taking a nap.

    Full Story

  • Researcher finds new, cheaper way to produce ethanol fuel from waste

    Researcher finds new, cheaper way to produce ethanol fuel from waste

    Posted on February 18, 2010 | No Comments
    Reducing gasoline dependency has been a hot issue for the developed world for some time now. Unfortunately, it hasn't been very successful. Alternative fuel sources have been more expensive, or more toxic, to produce than gasoline, so gasoline is still the primary fuel source for many vehicles. New research coming from the University of Central Florida may be changing the game, though, with cheap and environmentally friendly ethanol produced from common organic waste products.

    Full Story

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »