Eyam is a small village in Derbyshire, UK. In 1665, the bubonic plague hit its population. Rather than flee, the villagers were persuaded that they had a moral obligation to isolate themselves from the outside world in order to prevent the spread of that disease:

They lined up stones to mark the village boundaries, and no one was allowed beyond them. Supplies of food and clothing brought to the village from the outside were left at the boundary stones and were paid for with coins placed in a disinfectant of vinegar and water.

The horror increased as the months passed. By the end of August 1666, two-thirds of the original population had perished. Format burial services were no longer held. When the cemetery became full, the dead were buried in gardens and fields.

Only a fourth of the population had survived when outsiders made contact a year later. Today, although the village was subsequently resettled, much of it is a museum and a memorial to its inhabitants.

http://healthmad.com/health/the-plague-of-eyam-the-village-that-died-to-save-its-neighbors/ via The Presurfer | Official Website | Photo: Cressbrook Multimedia

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This video shows a neutrophil (a type of white blood cell) chasing a staphylococcus aureus bacterium. The video was recorded by biochemistry professor David Rogers of Vanderbilt University in the 1950s. Notes on the movement by med school professor Thomas P. Stossel:

Contraction waves are visible along the surface of the moving cell as it moves forward in a gliding fashion. As the neutrophil relentlessly pursues the microbe it ignores the red cells and platelets. However, its leading edge is sufficiently stiff (elastic) to deform and displace the red cells it bumps into. The internal contents of the neutrophil also move, and granule motion is particularly dynamic near the leading edge. These granules only approach the cell surface membrane when the cell changes direction and redistributes its peripheral "gel." After the neutrophil has engulfed the bacterium, note that the cell's movements become somewhat more jerky, and that it begins to extend more spherical surface projections.

http://www.biochemweb.org/neutrophil.shtml via Geekologie

Danish artist Kristine Suhr creates images that move when tabs -- like those on children's pop-up books -- are pulled. Since they're brief Flash videos, there's no way to demonstrate them in motion here at Neatorama, but at the link, you can view a whole gallery of them moving. Warning: sound effects.

http://www.pop-up.dk/VideoPlayer2008/index.htm?p=1&v=11 via DudeCraft

Olivia Putnal of Woman's Day has pictures and descriptions of eight unusual chocolate-covered foods, including crickets, Fritos, beef jerky, and squid. Pictured above is a chocolate-covered onion, which photographer Jean-Paul de Guzman described as eating a raw onion "followed by a bite off of a Hershey's chocolate bar."

http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Food/8-Curious-Chocolate-Covered-Creations.html via The Presurfer

Charting The Beatles is a project by graphic designer Michael Deal to express the history of that band through quantitative infographics. Pictured above is one describing their working activities, divided into touring, filming, and recording. Deal invites anyone to participate by contributing their own infographics to a flickr set.

Link via J-Walk Blog | flickr set

Los Angeles-based artist Ramon Coronado made furniture from shopping carts. He calls the project "Mercado Negro" and his ambition lies in "reclaiming an ordinary, everyday object and transforming it into a whole new object." At the link, you can see many more pictures, as well as photographs from his workshop as Coronado constructed these pieces.

http://www.ramoncoronado.info/_archive/2009/mercado_negro/2009_mercado_negro.html via Fast Company | Photo: Ramon Coronado

Why are humans mostly free of body hair, in comparison to other primates? Losing body hair was an evolutionary advantage in that it allowed early hominids to forage over a greater distance in harsher climates. In Scientific American, Mariette DiChristina writes:

Our forebears abandoned their easier foraging habits, traveling longer distances through a tropical landscape to acquire sufficient food to survive. Adding meat to their diets meant more calories, but finding prey also took more work. Their activity level increased and with it their need to dissipate body heat to avoid tissue damage. By 1.6 mya, protohumans had long legs for sustained walking and running. Along with that trait came naked skin and a large number of eccrine sweat glands, which produce moisture that removes body heat through evaporative cooling. The hairs on our head also help to combat overheating, by shielding our big brain from direct sun.

Link | Photo: US Department of Energy

The Lady and the Unicorn is a 15th Century Flemish tapestry, often said to be one of the greatest works of medieval European art. Artist Joey Syta copied the work in Lite Brite -- an illuminated toy popular in the United States since its introduction in the 1960s. It's called My Only Desire and is composed of 55,000 pegs.

Link via Gizmodo | Photo: Joey Syta

Crysomallon squamiferum, also known as the scaly-foot gastropod, was discovered at the bottom of the Indian Ocean in 1999 at a depth of 2420 metres. Its shell is remarkably strong because it is flexible, allowing it to absorb blows from predators and dissipate their energy, rather than shatter:

For example, the shell's outermost layer consists of strong particles of iron sulphide created in the hydrothermal vents, each around 20 nanometres across, embedded in a soft organic matrix secreted by the snail. This structure is designed to crack when hit, but in a way that absorbs energy.

Cracks spread only by fanning out around the iron sulphide particles. This "microcracking" not only absorbs energy, it also ensures that larger cracks do not form. What's more, the particles of iron sulphide may blunt and deform intruding claws, the study suggests.

Scientists who have studied the creature suggest that it might be possible to duplicate the structure synthetically for armor or pipelines.

Link via Popular Science | Photo: JAMSTEC

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We've previously posted about a ceiling-walking robot developed by the robotics lab at Ben Gurion University. Here are four more ingenious robot designs developed at that same laboratory, each of which scales walls using different mobility techniques:

First, a magnetic climber that has compliant magnetic wheels and is capable to climb on ferromagnetic surfaces. This robot can be used for inspection of ship hull or bridges. Second, is a Snail inspired wall climbing robot capable of climbing on non metallic surfaces using hot melt glue. The robot secretes the adhesive at the front and peels off the track from the wall at the bottom leaving a trail behind just like the snail does. Third, is a robot that uses sticky wheels in order to attach itself to the wall. It simply has 3Ms sticky tape on the wheels. It can climb on smooth surfaces like glass. Fourth, is a four legged wall climbing robot for climbing on rough surfaces. It has 12 claws made of fishing hooks mounted on each footpad, and it climbs like cat or other rodents.

via Gizmodo

A Japanese shipbuilding company named IHI Marine United is developing a ship that can be powered entirely by rechargeable lithium batteries. It will be able to travel 80 km while carrying 800 passengers:

Its Zero Emission Electric Propulsion Ship will use batteries that can be recharged at charging stations in ports it visits. The plug-in ship powered by lithium-ion batteries would run without a diesel engine, thus cutting its carbon dioxide or nitrogen oxide emissions to zero.

The company hopes to have a commercial vehicle available in 2015.

Link via technabob | Photo: Far East Gizmos

Nothing can escape the prying eyes of Google Street View, including Waldo from the Where's Waldo? book series. He was seen at 76 Putney High St, Wandsworth, UK by a Google Street View camera car.

Link via Great White Snark

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French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot recorded the sounds and images of birds lured to land on and pluck at the strings of an electric guitar left outside:

His installation for The Curve will take the form of a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other instruments and objects. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a captivating, live soundscape.

His resulting sound installation is on display at the Barbican Art Gallery in London starting on February 27.

via Make

What with hazy images of Jesus or the Virgin Mary appearing on toast, potato chips, and other assorted food items, artist Adam Sheldon felt the inspiration to create a mosaic of the crucifixion out of 153 pieces of burnt toast. It's on display at the Church of St. Peter in Great Limber, Lincolnshire, UK. More (and larger) images at the link.

Link via DudeCraft | Video about the Project | Photo: This Is Grimsby

In reference to the book Cranioklepty by Colin Dickey, Keith Thomson writes at The Huffington Post about the hobby of skull collecting. Among the most famous skulls held in collections might be that of the composer Ludwig Von Beethoven:

The seller is California businessman Paul Kaufmann, who first became aware that his family possessed the item in 1990. While searching among his late mother's possessions, he happened on an ancient, pear-shaped box labeled "Beethoven."

Years of investigation by historians and scientists make a compelling case that the box was labeled accurately. Exhibit A: Kaufmann's great-great uncle was a physician closely involved in the 1863 exhumation of Beethoven (and Franz Schubert) largely for scientific study; according to several accounts, the physician kept Beethoven's skull. Exhibit B: Tests of existing strands of the composer's hair point to a DNA match. For Exhibits C through Z, see Dickey's book.

The owner hopes to earn at least $100,000 for the skull. At the link, you can read about other famous collectible skulls.

Link via Digg | Photo: Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies