In the tradition of super-science, Alejo Menchaca and his researchers at the Animal Reproduction Institute of Uruguay have modified sheep to glow in the dark, thanks to the addition of green fluorescent protein (“GFP”). This peptide is normally found in the jellyfish Aequorea victoria and causes animals to glow green under ultraviolet light. And they did this because…well, it’s a proof-of-concept, which means for now, they just did this because it’s cool. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 29, 2013 in Science
Slowly commercial manned space flight is becoming a reality! Shown below is a video of the first self powered flight of the Virgin SpaceShipTwo: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 27, 2013 in Science
If you look outdoors tonight you’ll see Saturn in opposition, which means that it will be exactly opposite the sun as seen from Earth. To find saturn when the sun sets in the west, look for Saturn to rise in the east when the sun is farthest below the horizon then Saturn will reach its highest point above the horizon. Read more…
Doing some studies back in the 1970s, NASA’s Ames Research Center had several artists make renderings of what possible space colonies could look like. Many of these artworks are what inspired many more artists and solidified that “look” that we identify with conceptual 70s space art. Pop culture was an obvious influence on them as well, I’m sure. I love this era of art and imagination that people had for the future of space travel and living – it really does have a nostalgic feel to it. Click below for more images, or see NASA’s full gallery here, now scanned in hi-res. Read more…
Posted by Ben Huber on Nov 11, 2012 in Design, Science
I must say, Mr. Greg Petchkovsky, you’ve got a creative mind. A while back Instructables had a contest called “Make it Real,” in which participants had to use some computer-made objects or materials to make a physical object. While most people just completed the bare minimum in requirements, Greg went the whole way: he created digital models of real objects, then modified them with “unreal” aspects, like the edge of a brick melting or LEGO bricks poking out from inside a chipped cement block. The process behind the whole project is pretty impressive too, maybe more impressive than the final result, so check out the video below to see everything! Read more…
Science and technology are awesome. Don’t believe me? You’re on the wrong site, partner. But check out this: a video of the world’s most advanced prosthetic limb. Nigel Ackland shows off his recent lower-arm replacement that is quite frankly, one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long while, and shows how far we’ve come with prosthetic limbs. It’s so precise he can type, pour a bottle with ease, or even peel vegetables. And it reminds me of Adam Jensen’s robot arm from Deus Ex: Human Revolution in its simple, elegant design and dark coloring. Read more…
Here’s a great way to start your week if you’re a space fan: a 9-gigapixel (yes, giga) image of the Milky Way taken by the VISTA at the ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Thousands of images that were taken by the telescope were stitched together and then released in one enormous 108,500 x 85,500 pixel picture – and it looks absolutely gorgeous. It was run through three infrared filters so we can see stars that would usually be hidden in a normal view. If you’d like you can visit the site and see higher-res versions of the image, or even download the original full-size picture! Yes, all 24 gigs of it!
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 9, 2012 in Science, Tech
You know all those people who swear they saw a flying saucer or UFOs in the middle of the 20th century? Well, they could have actually been onto something, as the US government has just declassified documents that show that the Air Force was developing a flying saucer in 1956. “Project 1974” was intended to hover through the air at supersonic speeds. Wow! Read more…
With the success of the Curiosity rover, Mars is hot right now. NASA wanted to create a series of artwork about life on the red planet, and artists Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick delivered. Their collection of photographs, titled Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea, depicts two women exploring the Martian landscape and ruins, empty from the apocalypse of a human colony or possibly some earlier civilization. Read more…
Though sci-fi is an incredibly broad genre, modern sci-fi can occasionally feel pigeonholed into following the most popular franchises. That’s why this map by Ward Shelly is so fascinating, even if it’s been around for a while. It charts the growth and many off-shoots of fiction to show where science fiction came from and its relation to other genres and its own subgenres. From the horror of Frankenstein to the fantastic ideas of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, through the pulp magazines and dystopian novels, all the way to the Star Trek and Star Wars explosion, it’s an intriguing look at where some of our most popular stories come from. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 23, 2012 in Science
I was heartbroken to read that Sally Kristen Ride has passed away. On June 18, 1983 she became the first American woman (and also the youngest American at age 32) to enter space. She went on a second ride in 1984 and spent a total 343 hours in space, but more importantly she inspired a generation of girls to get involved in science. Here is a wonderful photo of her on the job: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 16, 2012 in Science
A few years ago Pluto suffered the public humiliation of being demoted from being a planet, but perhaps things are looking up for the little guy: Last week a fourth moon was discovered to be orbiting around Pluto and Charon which is starting to make some folks feel that Pluto may in fact be a binary planet. Although there is still a larger debate on where to draw a line between double-planet and a planet–moon system, so poor Pluto may have to wait a bit longer…
Two years ago, NASA’s Kepler space telescope identified the planet designated Kepler 22B — a super-earth orbiting a yellow dwarf similar to our sun. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 27, 2011 in Cinema, Science
While reading an interesting interview with a medical ethicist and I was suddenly struck by how much this premise reminded me of the 1982 classic film Blade Runner: “Do you think that granting corporations the rights of people in the Citizens United case is disturbing? Then contemplate the fact that corporations have been patenting human genes and tissues at alarming rates — in the last 30 years, more than 40,000 patents have been granted on genes alone.” Read more…
The amazing video below (which is from The Sagan Series) uses audio from the Carl Sagan audio book The Pale Blue Dot and is a wonderful argument for a return to the moon:
Err, you know what I mean. Another science show. It’s totally different than the other one; this one deals with horrific experiments, fringe science, and … okay, okay, I get it. But this one’s about real science! That’s right, Fringe‘s John Noble will be hosting a new show on the Science channel called Dark Matters, dealing with the dark side of science using real historical examples. The first six episode descriptions read like Fringe summaries, which is, of course, wildly appropriate. Expect to see body transplants, reanimation, and more, with Noble’s trademark mug to guide you through the creepiness. Who could ask for anything more? Read more…
Brooklyn artist Donato Giancola has made his living on illustrating scifi book covers, but the US Postal Service grabbed him for a slightly more grounded task — that is, if you can call what astronauts do “grounded.” He’s the artist for two of the USPS’s new commemorative astronaut stamps, including the one above, featuring Alan Shepard. So what was it like illustrating real space travel, as opposed to works of fiction? It’s all in the details, he says. “When you’re creating art that’s going to be a historical record like these stamps, there’s no room for mistakes.” That kind of work pays off for Giancola, whose work is now in circulation to the tune of millions of stamps nationwide. Read more…
This video has been making the rounds on twitter for the past few days, and while I don’t exactly find it humorous — especially considering how many people are still suffering overseas — I found it very interesting watch. For those of you who don’t speak Japanese, it’s a government sponsored propaganda cartoon that insists that plutonium is not as harmful as activists may have led you to believe. I’m not sure when this film was drawn, but judging by the fact that it’s completely hand-drawn, I’m sure it’s safe to assume it wasn’t recent. I certainly hope any kid ever exposed to this would know better by now.
Posted by Michael Sacco on Mar 18, 2011 in Science
Science has a lot of really cool (and weird) stuff to read about, but sometimes you have to wade through a lot of other words to find it! What a pain, right? Out of Context Science cuts all that out, giving you single sentences of science weirdness without all the work. Where else can you read the sentence ” The aim is for the robot to be able to propel itself in any fluid mucus without having to carry its own reserve of mucus along”? Besides the original paper it was in, anyway. I think this way is a lot better. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Feb 22, 2011 in Science, Tech
Japan recently announced that they’re considering sending a talking humanoid robot to the International Space Station in 2013. In addition to offering companionship, and being generally creepy — it’s suppose to monitor the astronauts while they sleep — it’ll communicate with Earth via twitter, where it’ll tweet images to its followers on the ground. Sadly, I don’t think the robot will posess super-human strength, or any form of self-awareness. After all, I doubt Japan has any cyberneticists capable of crafting the appropriate positronic components. Read more…
