A Möbius strip is a ribbon of material that has only one side. A group of nanotechnology researchers experimenting with manipulating tiny objects was able to reshape a DNA strand into a Möbius strip.
The ability to create complex structures on the tiniest of scales is one of the great challenges of nanotechnology. In particular, chemists are looking for particular topological structures, or structures that keep their basic properties no matter how much you stretch or twist them. A Möbius strip is a good example of such a structure, because no matter what you do it (short of tearing it, of course), it will always have only one side.
Kimbra Hickey is a hand model, and her hands grace the cover of the novel Twilight. She earned $300 for the photo. After seeing so many people attached to the franchise rise in fame and fortune, Hickey would like to get a piece of the action:
"I see people reading it on the subway, and I say, 'Those are my hands! I'm a hand model!' " she explained. "I'm sure they think I'm crazy -- a crazy lady on the subway."
The good-natured Hickey sometimes hangs out near the cash register at the Barnes & Noble near her Greenwich Village apartment to spread the word. Surprised customers sometimes ask her for her autograph or to trace the outline of her hand on the book jacket.
She even carries around a Gala apple in her purse at times so she can recreate the pose for people.[...]
Hickey's agent, Danielle Korwin, said her hands are in demand because they are "veinless" -- not the sort of hands a vampire would like.
Batten down the hatches and prepare for a cuteness overload: rabbit goodness now comes in cup-sized servings. Their dark, violent thoughts are perfectly hidden.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo created an interface that allows a rat to move a small car around with just his thoughts:
The rats were trained on the car by towing it around an enclosed area with the motors disengaged. A vision system positioned above tracked the rats by following colored markers on their backs and the vehicle. It fed the positions into a "locomotion estimation model" program that correlated the motion of the animals with readings from the electrodes.
Next the rats were suspended more tightly to the car so their limbs touched the floor only slightly. The researchers then switched the system into "neuro-robotic mode," with the neural signals used to help drive the car. Six out of eight rats used in the study adapted well to the car.
The researchers hope that this project will lead to the development of thought-controlled mobility aids for disabled humans.
Artist Robert Mathy created "Light Sensitive Fingertips" -- a musical instrument that has light sensitive phototransistors in the tips of the fingers. It's played by moving the sensors over light sources of varying intensity:
Light, emitted by the displays of activated mobile phones, functions as the origin of the sounds. As each mobile phone's display generates a different light frequency, each results in an audio signal with a different pitch. In addition, other electronic devices, such as flashing bicycle lights, can be used to generate rhythmic tones.
In the links, you can find a video of Mathy playing this instrument.
Sadly, there are people who have email accounts, but only a limited grasp of basic computer or social skills. Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal has a new set of comics up illustrating the foibles of such folks.
Itasha is, reportedly, a Japanese hobby of decorating cars with female anime characters. Photographer Tomoyuki Sakaguchi took 23 pictures of some of the finer examples of this style.
Flight attendants on board a Cebu Pacific Airlines flight remixed Katy Perry and Lady Gaga in their unique presentation of their jet's safety features:
Candice Iyog, vice President of Marketing at Cebu Pacific Airlines, said: "Cebu Pacific has always been known as a fun airline, we wanted to get the message across to our customers that flight safety doesn't have to be boring.
"This was an experiment that we hope to repeat and also a chance to showcase the talent of some of our cabin crew staff."
The performance took place while the plane was at cruising altitude, with the cabin crew giving a normal safety demonstration before take-off.
As a publicity stunt for his upcoming movie Megamind, Will Ferrell gathered 1,580 people dressed as superheroes in order to break a Guinness World Record for that feat:
A total of 1,580 costumed individuals showed up to the event, which was more than enough to break the record of 1,500 set by a New Hampshire children’s hospital way back in… August.[...]
Then Ferrell majestically appeared on a rising stage platform, and Guinness spokesman Stuart Claxton verified the world record, to the sound of cheers. “Everyone in a Spider-Man outfit wins a new car!” joked Ferrell.
Link via Fanboy | Photo: Valerie Macon/Getty Images
The Michael Bayifier takes any photo and makes it look like a still shot from a Michael Bay movie (e.g. Transformers, Armageddon). Pictured above is Alex and his kids on one of their action-packed vacations.
In the 1960s (of course), psychologist Paul Bindrim, building upon the work of Abraham Maslow, invented a form of psychotherapy that involved everyone getting naked:
Nude therapy was based on the idea of the naked body as a metaphor of the "psychological soul." Uninhibited exhibition of the nude body revealed that which was most fundamental, truthful, and real. In the marathon, Bindrim interrogated this metaphor with a singular determination. Bodies were exposed and scrutinized with a science-like rigor. Particular attention was paid to revealing the most private areas of the body and mind-all with a view to freeing the self from its socially imposed constraints. "This," Bindrim asserted gesturing to a participant's genitalia and anus, "is where it's at. This is where we are so damned negatively conditioned" [...] Determined to squelch the "exaggerated sense of guilt" in the body, Bindrim devised an exercise called "crotch eyeballing" in which participants were instructed to look at each others genitals and disclose the sexual experiences they felt most guilty about while lying naked in a circle with their legs in the air [...] In this position, Bindrim insisted "you soon realize that the head end and the tail end are indispensable parts of the same person, and that one end is about as good as the other.:"
http://people.stu.ca/~nicholson/Ian_Nicholson/Research_files/Baring%20the%20Soul.pdf via io9 | Unrelated photo of Bob Newhart statue via Flickr user Digital Sextant, used under Creative Commons license
The security company ADT wanted to convince apartment and condo owners in Santiago, Chile that it's really easy to break into their homes. So the ad agency DDB made spring-loaded boxes and shoved them under the front doors of prospective customers. At the link, you can see a video from the ad agency showing how they work.
Flickr user Monica Wagner turned an old computer monitor into a bed for her dog, Zelda. At the link, you can view fourteen images of it. Sometimes the cat takes over.
Dutch artist Boukje Voet shreds books into elaborate sculptures. Pictured above is the novel Catching Butterflies (according to Google Translate), which Voet shaped accordingly.
