if you have just shy of 7 minutes to spare you may enjoy watching this amazing youtube clip titled Ants! and that’s what it’s about - ants. more specifically, the vast subterranean ventilation system and structure of an ant colony. it’s very fascinating. the researchers poured cement into the openings of the ant colony to create a casting of how the ant tunnels looked. that process took 3 days and over 10 tons of cement! excavation of the casting took over a month! now as a former ant, i can say that having cement poured into one’s home is really jacked up. but the end result is quite amazing.
brain scientist and neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor spoke recently at the TED conference. the speech she gave is available on the TED talks site. what she talks about it is very fascinating, beautiful, and moving. from the TED talks website: One morning, Jill Bolte Taylor realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. it’s friday and it’s time to enhance your brain and perspective on your life, your mind, and your world. please enjoy Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight. it’s great!
“Enceladus has got warmth, water and organic chemicals, some of the essential building blocks needed for life,” said Dennis Matson, Cassini project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “We have quite a recipe for life on our hands, but we have yet to find the final ingredient, liquid water, but Enceladus is only whetting our appetites for more.”
the 2nd annual maker faire is going on this weekend. saturday, may, 19th from 10am to 6pm and sunday, may 20th, from 10am to 5pm. happening at the san mateo fairgounds. here’s a link with directions to the fairgrounds and here’s a pdf link of a map of the makers faire. am i going? hells yeah! lots to see! just check out the schedule! i am definitely going to check out chicken john’swoodgas pickup truck, the arts, the crafts, the mad science & scientists, hacks, mods, robots, solar inventions, tiny houses, and did somebody say sock monkey madness? yes they did. dammit - why aren’t you going?
“I think that in human evolution it has never been as necessary to have this substance LSD,” he said at a symposium in 2006, marking the centennial of his birth. “It is just a tool to turn us into what we are supposed to be.”
science time! from eepybird comes the The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments. a series of beautiful scientific tests that combines 200 liters of Diet Coke and over 500 Mentos (the freshmaker) mints. the results are lovely and messy. and there’s lots of other videos to watch of experiments (or is it experi-mints?) from eepybird as well. well done lads - well done!
there’s a great read on the site seedmagazine about prions called the prion anomoly. i started to learn about prions a wee bit while reading about mad cow disease. this article goes even further in talking about how prions control stem cell growth and how prions may pass on genetic traits - challenging the theory that genes are soley responsible for inheritance. and be sure to click the link to the related article on prions called the bipolar protien. it goes into how prion-based disease spreads and how prions work to ’signal’ other cells.
Yves Rossy has made history. the former swiss military pilot was the first man to ever fly with wings - a homemade four engine winged jet pack - strapped on his back! after ascending in a plane to 7,500 feet, yves rossy unfolded the 8 foot rigid wings, jumped from the plane, then after a slight free-fall, triggered the four jet turbines and accelerated to 186 miles per hour! rossy steered the winged jetpack with his body, performing loops, rolls, and dives! the flight took place on May 14, 2008 in the southern swiss alps near Bex. photo slideshow of the the winged jetpack on yahoo. & thanks jamie for the video link!
