Oscar took this photo of 300+ real low income houses in Ixtapaluca while working as a helicopter pilot over Mexico City. Link

There’s only one way to find out: Edward Cussler and Brian Gettelfinger of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis filled a swimming pool with syrup and tested how fast 16 volunteers swam.

The most troublesome part of the experiment was getting permission to do it in the first place. Cussler and Gettelfinger had to obtain 22 separate kinds of approval, including persuading the local authorities that it was okay to put their syrup down the drain afterwards.

But it was worth the hassle, Cussler says, not least because his quest for an answer made him something of a celebrity on campus. "The whole university was arguing about it," he recalls. "It was absolutely hilarious."

The result? No – humans don’t swim slower in syrup.

Link

MIT Professor Matt Wilson found that after running a maze, rats mentally replay the action – backwards!

… following a spatial experience such as running laps on a track, the awake animal replays the memory so precisely that its recorded brain activity corresponds exactly to the places it has just been. However, to the researchers’ surprise, the episode is replayed in time-reverse order, with the most recent locations first, proceeding sequentially back to the beginning of the task.

This backward instant replay may play a significant role in reinforcing learning, Wilson said. "Understanding this replay is likely to be critical in understanding how animals – and humans – learn from experience. This phenomenon may constitute a general mechanism of learning and memory."

Link

In the 1970s, a Czech magazine published a DIY guide on how to make your very own paper pinhole camera:

Its creators, Martin Pilný, Mirek Kolár and Richard Vyškovský, came up with a functional pinhole camera made of stiff paper, designed for 35 mm film, which resembles a real camera. It may not be the most practical of devices, but it works!

Link

Protecting her 7-year old son, Lydia Angyiou of Ivujivik, Arctic Quebec, fought a polar bear hand-to-hand – and lived to tell about it!

Angyiou, 41, who lives not far from the youth centre, was outside with her two younger children when she saw the polar bear eying the boys. She immediately ran towards animal: all she could think about was protecting her seven-year old son.

Link