When you drop Mentos into a plastic Coke container, you might have a rocket. Or it might not work at all. Or it might surprise you! -via I Am Bored
The physics of crossing the street just got more complex. I think that I'll just jaywalk.
Link via Geekosystem | Photo: Jeff Wysaski
Previously: Class Cancelled due to Portal
The late Paul Johnson of Carbon Hill, Ohio, collected pencil sharpers starting in the 1980s. His collection grew to over 3,400 distinct sharpeners, which he eventually housed in a shed that served as a museum. Johnson passed away recently, so the collection was moved into a regional welcome center last Friday.
The Logan Daily News reports Johnson started collecting after his wife gave him a few pencil sharpeners as a gift in the late 1980s. He kept them organized in categories, including cats, Christmas and Disneyland. The oldest is 105 years old.
Link | Photo: Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations via Flickr user queenofdesign
Planarians, a type of flatworm, reproduce by asexual fission. Cut one in half, and the missing parts will regrow until you have two planarians. Scientists have known for a while that the regeneration took place among a cluster of cells called cNeoblasts. Some wondered if was possible to grow an entire worm from a single such cell, and so performed an experiment:
Wang and Reddien harvested a single cNeoblast from one type of planarian. Then they gave a different kind of planarian, one that did not have its own neoblasts and couldn’t regenerate, a lethal dose of radiation. Its tissues started to die, from the head down toward its tail. Then they implanted the first worm’s neoblast into the tail of the second, dying worm.
They watched as the transplanted cNeoblast multiplied, differentiated and “ultimately replaced all the host’s tissues,” according to a news release from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Descendants of the single neoblast cell differentiated into neuronal, intestinal and other adult cell types, taking over the jobs of the host’s dying cells. The newly restored worm was an exact genetic copy of the cNeoblast donor. All this from one single cell.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-05/flatworm-regenerates-new-body-single-cell via GearFuse | Photo: Flickr user puuikibeach used under Creative Commons license
This would, in all actuality, be a great movie. Or at least a short film. The pairing of Wolverine and Animal is good, but Beaker is automatically funny in all things.
deviantART user Rahzzah made this image to mark the 21st anniversary of the passing of Jim Henson.
Link via The Mary Sue
This looks like a painting, but it is a photograph. Photographer Frans Lanting took this picture of camel thorn trees in Namib-Naukluft Park in Namibia. The orange is a sand dune rising in the background. It was chosen as the photo of the day for today, but it is also a part of the National Geographic feature story Namibia's Coastal Parks, about how a newly-independent nation set aside large tracts of land to be protected for posterity. Link -via The Daily What
(Image credit: Frans Lanting)
Yes, really! The post isn't mislabeled. This is tattoo of a protein named after the Sega video game character. The man with this image writes:
I got the tattoo because I am a cell biology student and love the ridiculous naming of proteins done by the geneticists which discover it. I figured, for my first tattoo, it might as well be something completely unique. I love it though, great conversation starter and very few people have any idea of what the hell it is at first glance.
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What do we know about this madness? Nothing, but the stark computer programming manuals beside Pikathulhu tell us enough.
via Kotaku | Photo: unknown
Graduation Brain Cell - $9.95
Are you still looking for the perfect gift for your favorite graduate? Get them the Graduation Brain Cell from the NeatoShop. Yes, I know they wanted cash. Yes, this is an adorable neuron wearing a graduation cap instead. Come one, were you going to give them cash? No, I didn't think so! At least this gift proves you are educated and fun.
The Graduation Brain Cell is also available in keychain form!
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Plush Toy fun!
This lime-green Lego bike was just one of the highlights of the Brickmagic Lego convention in North Carolina earlier in May. Check out their Flickr photostream for tons of other amazing creations.
http://www.obviouswinner.com/obvwin/2011/5/12/id-ride-that-man-builds-full-size-lego-bicycle.html via Geekologie
While some contend that there could exist extraterrestrial civilizations that have been around for a billion years and therefore a billion years more advanced than us, others stand by the Fermi Paradox which asserts if they were out there we would have heard from them.
If there are old civilizations out there, I wonder what one billion year generation iPhones look like.
Fermi reasoned, if there are other advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, then why is there no evidence of such, like spacecraft or probes floating around the Milky Way. His question became famously known as the Fermi Paradox. The paradox is the contradiction between the high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and yet the lack of evidence for, or contact with, any such civilizations.
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When I was a kid I planted a tree that grew over the rooftop of my house. At the time I thought that was pretty cool, but now I have seen this great gallery of The Strangest Trees on Earth, which you will agree are pretty strange. See full gallery at the link.
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Japan has been developing an alternative source of energy using wind power, however instead of traditional windmills this giant wind tower can utilize wind from different directions.
Japan-based ZENA Systems is working on developing a new type of wind energy generator that will dwarf anything before it. The 50 meter-tall hexagonal building essentially acts as a huge scoop that compresses wind from all directions and then runs the rushing air through a series of ground-based generators.
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If you think American football and rugby are rough, then you should check out some of these Ancient sports. While some may be comparable to modern mixed martial arts, boxing and wrestling, others are pretty extreme including “The Game” which was played by rowing out into the middle of the river and beating your opponent to death with your oar. Now I’d watch that on ESPN 2.
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