Dasia Taylor is only 17, but she is not only a finalist in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, she may soon own a patent for color-changing sutures she has developed over the past year and a half.

As any science fair veteran knows, at the core of a successful project is a problem in need of solving. Taylor had read about sutures coated with a conductive material that can sense the status of a wound by changes in electrical resistance, and relay that information to the smartphones or computers of patients and doctors. While these “smart” sutures could help in the United States, the expensive tool might be less applicable to people in developing countries, where internet access and mobile technology is sometimes lacking. And yet the need is there; on average, 11 percent of surgical wounds develop an infection in low- and middle-incoming countries, according to the World Health Organization, compared to between 2 and 4 percent of surgeries in the U.S.

Sutures that detect infection would need to be low-tech to be useful in developing countries, so Taylor went to work looking for an infection indicator anyone could read. Read how she developed surgical stitches that turn purple when an incision is infected at Smithsonian.

Human beings almost always have a dominant side, a preference for using one hand over the other, which we call handedness. No other animal, even apes, prefers a consistent hand as much us humans do, and it turns out that started way back in our lineage. This video from PBS Eons shows how scientists figured that out, and offers some theories of why it happened. The video is only 8:30, the rest is an ad. -via Damn Interesting

Researchers at the MIT CSAIL have developed smart clothes that are much more comfortable than the wearable tech that is available on the market right now. The smart clothes have ‘tactile electronics’ that can track body movements while remaining the soft, breathable apparel people prefer to wear everyday. Engadget has more details on the new development: 

The textiles are machine-knitted using both conventional material and piezoresistive fibers that react to pressure and hold arbitrary 3D shapes. Machine learning helps calibrate and correct the sensors so that they produce consistent output. Neural networks, meanwhile, turn sequences of raw input into more usable data "frames" and predict poses. The result is a system that can not only capture many points of data in an unintrusive way, but infer what you're doing without requiring sensors across your entire body.

The initial prototypes cover a wide range of possibilities. Gloves can detect what you touch, while socks can tell when you're squatting or standing on your tiptoes. A smart vest can recognize poses and even the texture of the couch you're sitting on. There's also a sleeve that reacts to pressure on your arm.

The tech is made using affordable materials and would be relatively easy to mass-produce.

CSAIL envisions a range of uses for humans. Athletes could record their postures and help rookies perfect their form. Assisted-care residents could get help sooner if there's signs they've taken a fall. However, the technology could even help robots — you could teach robots to mimic tasks, or give them a "skin" with the advanced sense of touch they normally lack. In other words, this could be helpful even if it doesn't become part of your wardrobe.

Image via Engadget

When a body is buried in the ground, you expect it to decompose over time, right? In the case of the Lindow Man, however, even after 2,000 years, the body hasn’t deteriorated or decomposed that much. His bone was dissolved but complex tissues such as skin and organs were just turned pitch black, leaving the corpse well-preserved. Carolyn Marshall discusses the science behind the phenomenon in this Ted Talk. Check the full video here. 

Image via wikimedia commons 

Well, at least you won’t get arrested if you try to hack into a government system in this instance. Texas-based tech company Fathom5 launched a hackathon called HACKtheMACHINE. The event, backed and funded by the US Navy, aims to give lone hackers and small startups a chance to get military contracts by hacking the Navy’s cybersystems. Digital Trends has more details: 

“When you look at [the cybersecurity landscape today], you have Advanced Persistent Threats — APT — which is kind of like cyber community speak for Russian and Chinese hacking that’s state-funded,” Staples told Digital Trends. “These are potential competitors in the global landscape who are actively funding offensive cyber teams. We have to be proactively thinking about how we’re going to defend against that. We’ve seen Russia use cyber as a precursor to kinetic operations a couple of times, including the invasion of Ukraine [and] Crimea. I don’t think there’s been a future battle that doesn’t either begin with cyber or is enabled by cyber, even if it’s just as a way to conduct espionage.”

Image via Digital Trends 

Wow, this boss understands the need to play a new game on its launch date. A Japanese company decided to give its employees the day off on March 26 after noticing that a lot of them were booking the day off when the new Monster Hunter game will be launched. The company, Mark-On Ltd, decided to make the day an official holiday:  

The Huffington Post Japan spoke to Hiyama-san over the phone, where they said that several employees had already requested vacation on the 26th so they could play the new Monster Hunter game, which led them to make the day an official holiday. Naturally, Mark-On's employees have been grateful for the decision, and many Monster Hunter fans on Twitter have been wishing their own companies would implement a similar policy.

The Monster Hunter series is incredibly successful in Japan, with every new release seeing enormous attention. It's not a dissimilar situation to that of Dragon Quest, which traditionally sees so much interest on launch days that Square began releasing new entries on Saturdays to stop children skipping school – a fact which became its own urban myth.

Image via IGN 

Infinite libraries are pieces that are bigger on the inside. Images of these ‘infinite libraries’ are on Pinterest, and with the amount of details on these wonderful bookshelf decorative pieces, it seems difficult to make my own version of it. Well, Nerdforge shares how she makes one, and as difficult it is for me to grasp (as I lack the creative senses to make it look as good as she did), it’s fascinating to see her design and creation process. It’s also somewhat relaxing, too! If you’d like to see a step by step process to create an ‘infinite library’ for your bookshelf, this video is a good guide.

What’s the color of your birthday? Does every birthdate have an associated color? Well, a Japanese chart managed to connect every birthday not just with a specific color, but also with a personality! The chart has all 366 birthdays and connects each with a HEX code, personality description, and color keywords: 

For instance, if you were born on August 30, your color would be ultramarine and your keywords would be: motherhood, music, and elegance. Your personality is described as: "A person who plays a melody that touches the heartstrings."

According to DesignTAXI, the chart's color meanings appear to be in line with color theory. However, if you aren't able to read in Japanese, you'll have to translate the page into another language. The English translation can be found here, which will have some mistranslated words (the meanings should still be pretty clear, though).

Image via Hunker 

You know how Pokémons go through a three-stage evolution? You have the initial form, which is like a baby, then the adult form, and then the final form, which can be frightening. Digital artist Ry-Spirit imagined Star Wars characters going through that evolution. The form we are familiar with from the movies is in the middle. The "baby" forms are fairly cute, and follows the kind of thing we've seen with Muppet Babies and Young Sheldon. The final form is pure invention, but always badass.    

See 13 Star Wars characters and their Pokémon-style evolution at Geeks Are Sexy. 

These creations were compiled from Ry-Spirit's Art Facebook feed. You can see more of Ry-Spirits creations at Deviant Art.

You could spend years studying Martin Luther and the effect he had upon the Christian world, or you could spend four and a half minutes watching this animated short, which only hits the highlights. The character drawings are delightful! -via Boing Boing

Brent Davidson's glider is moving at 53 MPH into a headwind moving at 53 MPH. So he's perfectly stationary, floating motionless two and a half miles above the ground. The physics make sense, but it still seems like magic.

-via Born in Space

Ever Given is a massive container ship that is stuck in the Suez Canal, managing to halt traffic in the busy waterway. The ship became stuck in the waterway thanks to heavy winds, and while multiple tugboats were sent to try and dislodge the ship and make it refloat, the Ever Given remained stuck in its location. CNBC has more details: 

Around 6:30 p.m. ET Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which is the technical manager of the vessel, said the ship was still aground with re-float efforts ongoing.

“Dredgers are working to clear sand and mud from around the vessel to free her. Tugboats in conjunction with Ever Given’s winches are working to shift the vessel,” the firm said.

Bernhard Schulte added that there were no reports of injuries among the 25 crew members, and that no cargo has been damaged. Initial investigations have ruled out mechanical or engine failure as reason for the grounding.

The enormous cargo carrier is more than 1,300 feet long and about 193 feet wide. It weighs more than 200,000 tons. One end of the ship was wedged into one side of the canal, with the other stretching nearly to the other bank.

The 120-mile long man-made waterway is a key point of global trade, connecting a steady flow of goods from East to West.

Everything from consumer products to machinery parts to oil flows through its waters.

Image via CNBC 

A global war can make for strange bedfellows. Such was the case when the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) needed eyes and ears to find out what was going on with East Coast shipping and Axis movements on the sea.

Just months after entering World War II, the U.S. Navy was already feeling vulnerable. Enemy submarines were picking off vessels along the East Coast with alarming ease, and many believed that German saboteurs had set the massive fire that sank a French ocean liner, the SS Normandie, that was being converted into a warship in the Hudson River on February 9, 1942. The ONI suspected that longshoremen must be ferrying supplies to Axis watercraft stationed in the Atlantic, and they were desperate to root them out. Not only did the Mafia pretty much run the docks, but they were also Italian—and therefore more likely to know which Italians might sympathize with Benito Mussolini’s Fascist regime.

So the military enlisted New York mobsters and some who were Mafia-adjacent to find out what they could in an operation called Operation Underworld. Their participation was approved by Lucky Luciano (shown above) from prison, where he was serving a 30-50 year sentence. The plan was kept secret from the public for more than twenty years, but you can read about it at Mental Floss.

This may look like a facade left over from a demolished building, but no, it was built to look that way. This is the Grudge Building ("al-Ba`sa" in Arabic), the thinnest house in Beirut, Lebanon. The end you see here is only two feet wide, but the other end is 14 feet wide, which you can see in the third picture in the gallery above. Still a very small footprint for a four-story building.

According to a Lebanese urban myth, one man turned sibling pettiness into an extreme sport when he erected the country's thinnest habitable building in front of his brother's property. His intentions were simple: to block his brother's seafront views and devalue the property.

The root of the feud is said to be one brother inheriting a much bigger piece of property than the other. Or that the brother with the property in front lost some area when the road was widened. Either way, we don't know how much truth there is to the tale. No one lives there now, but it does have a history of tenants in its eight apartments. Read more about the Grudge Building at Insider. -via reddit

Don’t worry, it’s just an optical illusion, and a good one too! French artist JR created a new installation that pays homage to classic artworks that are unappreciated and unseen. The installation, called La Ferita, is a massive photo collage installed on the façade of the Palazzo Strozzi. The artwork references the adversities and challenges that cultural institutions have faced over the past year, as My Modern Met details: 

Measuring 28 meters high and 33 meters wide, this optical illusion creates a “crack” in the exterior of the building so that viewers can see masterpieces like Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera. It was installed as Italy entered another lockdown that will last until April 6, closing the doors of all cultural institutions once again. At the same time, the installation of La Ferita also launches a new public art initiative for the city by the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and philanthropist Andy Bianchedi.

“They say the museums are closed, but it's up to us to open them. Here is Florence, the city of Boticelli, Donatello, Machiavel, and Dante, we opened the Palazzo Strozzi,” JR says of the piece on his Instagram. “These last few months, we have been deprived of the possibility to be together… but we still have the freedom to dream, to create, to envision the future. Maybe it's not much, but we have that!”



Image via Instagram