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Gems from Science

The warp drive is handy, but without inertial dampeners and shields you still get turned into chunky salsa.
 
http://inhabitat.com/aerofex-develops-a-working-hover-bike-thats-straight-out-of-return-of-the-jedi/

Aerofex Develops a Working Hover Bike That's Straight Out of Return of the Jedi!
by Timon Singh, 08/24/12

How many of you watched Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and wished you had a speeder bike like the ones Luke and Leia race through the forests of Endor? Well, you may not have to wait much longer. California-based tech company Aerofex has released a video of it new bike, which flies over the ground thanks to two large fans. Test flights so far have been limited to 30 mph, so while it might not be ready for a high-speed chase through the forest, it still looks pretty awesome!

Aerofex’s hover bike has been in development for several years, but it is only recently that the project has made several significant breakthroughs. The company has released several test-flight videos which show it fully functioning over a dry lake bed in a desert.

Keeping the hover bike above the ground are two large ducted fans. Rather like a fast motorcycle, the rider steers by leaning from side to the other. It was part of the project’s goals to create a natural-feeling riding experience. Previously, the company had problems with the vehicle’s stability, however that has now been fixed thanks to the inclusion of a control bar at the the users knee level. This allows the pilot to lean and balance the vehicle and keep it airborne.

While the vehicle doesn’t quite have the maneuverability of a Star Wars speeder bike, it is capable of a top speed of 30 mph and can reach a maximum height of 15 feet. Currently, the hover vehicle is being tested in California’s Mojave Desert, so hopefully it won’t be long before the rest of us get to ride on one of these cool gizmos!
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Don't recycle - these gadgets dissolve inside you

NEW YORK (AP) — As consumers we want our electronic gadgets to be durable. But as patients, we might want them to dissolve — inside our bodies.

Scientists reported Thursday that they succeeded in creating tiny medical devices sealed in silk cocoons that did the work they were designed for, then dissolved in the bodies of lab mice. It's an early step in a technology that may hold promise, not only for medicine, but also for disposal of electronic waste.

The new work is "a remarkable achievement" in combining materials to produce a working device, said Christopher Bettinger of Carnegie Mellon University. He works on biodegradable electronics but was not involved in the study.

Doctors already use implants that dispense drugs or provide electrical stimulation, but they don't dissolve. The new work is aimed at making devices that do their jobs as long as needed and then just dissolved, without need for surgical removal or risk of long-term side effects.

In the experiment, the devices — which look like tiny computer chips — were designed to generate heat, a potential strategy for fighting infection after surgery by killing germs, said John Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an author of the study.

The devices worked in the mice for more than a week, until their silk coatings dissolved enough for bodily fluids to erode key parts of the devices, he said. After three weeks, the tiny gadgets had basically disappeared.

Someday for people, similar devices might be programmed to monitor the body and release drugs accordingly, or produce electric current to accelerate bone healing, Rogers said.

The researchers used the protective cocoon envelope because silk can be processed to stay intact for varying periods of time — from seconds to weeks and potentially for years, he said. The device's circuitry itself was built from other materials that degrade in the body, such as magnesium and silicon.

The federally funded research was reported online in the journal Science.

Apart from medicine, the technology offers a way to cut down on electronic waste, or E-waste, if portable consumer devices could be made with decomposing components, the researchers wrote.

And there are other potential uses, too Rogers suggested. For example, such devices could be scattered near a chemical spill to monitor things like chemical concentrations without any need to retrieve them later.

http://www.katu.com/news/weird/Dont-recycle---these-gadgets-dissolve-inside-you-171803801.html
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http://laughingsquid.com/photos-singapores-supertrees-solar-powered-vertical-gardens/

Photos: Singapore’s Supertrees, Solar-Powered Vertical Gardens

Earlier this year, Pete Hottelet of Omni Consumer Products shared photos with us of his visit to Hacienda Nápoles, the mansion of the late Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar (which is now a theme park). He has since traveled to Singapore and photographed the recently opened Supertree Grove, a forest of mechanical solar-powered tree structures which are part of Singapore’s “Gardens by the Bay” redevelopment project. These metal-framed structures are vertical gardens, 18 in total, ranging in height from 82 to 164 feet tall. Pete dined at the restaurant found at the top of the main Supertree and states that the Roman-esque statue in the bathroom “sort of looks like Tyrone Biggums from Chappelle Show.” Later, he shot this video of the OCBC Garden Rhapsody, the evening sound and light show featuring the trees.
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The pictures in the link are lovely, but the video is kinda dull. I'm sure it was great to see in person though.
 
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http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astr...suomi_npp_pictures_of_our_spinning_globe.html
Suomi NPP is an Earth-observing satellite equipped with a camera that can see from the visible light spectrum out into the infrared. Far more sensitive than its predecessors, this camera can spot fires, the aurora, city lights, and even moonlit clouds at night. Twenty-two days of data from April and October 2012 were used to create this animation of Earth, showing a stunning and eerie view of our planet spinning in the dark of night
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Cool, cool, cool.
 
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