Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have discovered the neurochemical process that leads to memory formation, opening up the possibility of developing a pharmaceutical treatment for traumatic memories:

By looking at that process, Huganir and postdoctoral fellow Roger L. Clem discovered a "window of vulnerability" when unique receptor proteins are created. The proteins mediate signals traveling within the brain as painful memories are made. Because the proteins are unstable, they can be easily removed with drugs or behavior therapy during the window, ensuring the memory is eliminated.

Link via MArooned | Image: Columbia Pictures

At BBC News, Professor Marcus du Sautoy of the University of Oxford writes about diagrams that have substantially changed the way people look at the world or processed information. Pictured above is one created by Florence Nightingale, depicting fatalities among British forces from April 1854 through March 1855 during the Crimean War:

Although better known for her contributions to nursing, her greatest achievements were mathematical. She was the first to use the idea of a pie chart to represent data.

Nightingale had discovered that the majority of deaths in the Crimea were due to poor sanitation rather than casualties in battle. She wanted to persuade government of the need for better hygiene in hospitals.

She realised though that just looking at the numbers was unlikely to impress ministers. But once those numbers were translated into a picture - her Diagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army in the East - the message could not be ignored. A good diagram, Nightingale discovered, is certainly worth 1,000 numbers.

On the chart, blue areas represent deaths by preventable diseases, red areas represent deaths by wounds, and black areas represent deaths by other causes.

Link via The Presurfer | Image: Dynamic Diagrams

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YouTube user klapstoelpiloot created a home automation interface in the visual style of modern Star Trek (TNG, DS9, VOY). He writes:

Shown in this video are:
- Agenda/Calendar
- Shopping list (Groceries)
- Rain radar
- Train departure times (because the train station is nearby)
- Library & Media player (connected to home cinema set)
- Internet browser

Not shown, but also operational is bluetooth support (notice the Transfer button to send the shopping list to your telephone)

via CrunchGear

Previously: Star Trek Fan Went Bankrupt & Got Divorced Turning Home into Spaceship

There's an overhead screen in Beijing that measures 250 meters long and 30 meters wide. On November 21st, one man rented it to play a massively multiplayer online game (MMO). He probably paid about $15,000 to do so:

It is Asia's largest and the world's second largest LED screen at present. According to understanding, as the guild leader of a famous online game, the mentioned man spent a large sum of money playing the game via this giant sky screen for the sake of distinguishing gaming experiences.

Video at the link.

Link via DVICE | Screenshot: DVICE

Flickr user Sewsew-a-Gogo made a large, detailed cross-stitch sampler inspired by the classic video game Punch-Out!!:

After about two years and almost 80,000 x's, my Super Mega Punch Out Project is finished. It measures about 12" by 28" so it's pretty big and I have yet to find a frame that will actually fit it. I really don"t want to spend $150 to custom frame it so I'm not sure where it's going to go yet. I'm kind of sad to see it finished because now I have nothing to do. :(

Link via Make

Defense contractor Battelle has developed an improved pneumatically-launched grappling hook. From a press release:

The Tactical Air Initiated Launch (TAIL) system is used to launch a titanium grappling hook towing a Kevlar line for use in Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS) operations. It also can be used for fire rescue operations, life vest deployment, or other activities. The TAIL system, using compressed air to launch the hook, can clear an obstacle up to 100 feet high and up to 60 feet away. “The TAIL system lets the user fire a grappling hook without the noise, explosives, or safety issues of powder-driven units,” said Jim LaBine, the TAIL system designer. “That’s important for special operations but the system is adaptable and can be used in many applications.”

Link via Technabob | Photo: Battelle

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This video shows two performers spotted a few times in subway terminals in New York City. The man plays an accordion while the woman puts on a puppet show. Her puppet appears to be a plastic bag shaped into a ballerina. She controls it with her hands and her toes.

via Urlesque (where there's another video)

Haidar Taleb, a man from the United Arab Emirates, plans to travel 200 miles across a desert in a solar-powered wheelchair that he designed and built himself. If he succeeds, it'll be the longest continuous distance ever traveled by wheelchair:

"I want to send out a message to disabled people that there are no obstructions. Whatever you think about, you can do," he says. "Give disabled people a chance and they can perform miracles."

Along the 200 mile trip across all seven emirates, Haidar plans to stop at schools, universities, and centers for the disabled to share his inspiring message, reports Gulf News. And, by the time his ambitious trek is completed on December 2, he will have broken the record for distance traveled in a solar-powered wheelchair -- a record he set himself just two weeks ago.

Link via Popular Science | Photo: The National

Hero of Alexandria (10-70 CE) was a Greek engineer and mathematician who lived in Roman-ruled Egypt. He invented many gadgets and wrote at length about them. In his book Pneumatics, he described an early vending machine. It dispensed holy water only when a coin was inserted. Here's a selection from an English translation of the book:

If into certain sacrificial vessels a coin of five drachms be thrown, water shall flow out and surround them. Let A B C D (fig. 21) be a sacrificial vessel or treasure chest, having an opening in its mouth, A; and in the chest let there be a vessel, F G H K, containing water, and a small box, L, from which a pipe, L M, conducts out of the chest. Near the vessel place a vertical rod, N X, about which a lever, O P, widening at O into the plate R parallel into the bottom of the vessel, while at the extremity P is suspended a lid, s, which fits into the box L, so that no water can flow through the tube L M: this lid, however, must be heavier than the plate R, but lighter than the plate and coin combined. When the coin is thrown through the mouth A, it will fall upon the plate R and, preponderating, it will turn the beam O P, and raise the lid of the box so that water will flow; but if the coin falls off, the lid will descend and close the box so that the discharge ceases. (37)

Link via The Adventures of Roberta X | Image: Bennet Woodcroft

Previously: Strange and Wonderful Vending Machines

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The common coffeemaker is a simple but brilliant piece of technology. How does it work? Bill Hammack, who explains engineering principles in a way that laypeople can understand them, tells us in this video. The coffeemaker is able to heat both water and brewed coffee with with only one heating element using a bubble pump. If I understand Hammack correctly, it has only one moving part.

Official Website via Make

In 1950, Tony Sale was 19 years old and serving in the British Royal Air Force. He built a human-sized robot out of scrap metal from a crashed Wellington bomber. Sale named the robot George and got quite a bit of press attention at the time. George was used for several years and then put in storage for the next 45. Sale, now 79, recently decided to see if George would still work:

'I dug him out of the garage where he had been standing for 45 years,' he said.

'I had a fair bit of confidence he would work again and luckily I was right.

'I put some oil on the bearings and added a couple of new lithium batteries in his legs, switched him on and away he went. It was a lovely moment.'

Mr Sale has always been interested in mechanics and built his first ‘George’ using Meccano when he was just 12 years old. The instructions for making the robot were in the Meccano manual and it could walk at a steady pace by shuffling its feet.

In 1945 Mr Sale made a second George the robot and three years later at the age of 17 he improved it by making it bigger and controlling it by radio.

Link via Gizmodo | Photo: Geoff Robinson/Daily mail

University of California neurobiologist Herwig Baier thinks that fish -- or at least one species of fish -- may be able to suffer from mood disorders. He examined zebrafish that became inactive and listless when isolated from other fish:

Baier looked at the genetic mutations in the "frozen" fish and found one in the glucocorticoid receptor, a protein that is found in almost every cell and that senses cortisol--a hormone involved in the stress response. In the normal response to a stressful situation, the hypothalamus in the brain sends corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) to the pituitary gland, which releases adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) to the adrenal gland. The adrenal gland in turn produces cortisol. Cortisol then effectively reduces levels of ACTH and CRH, completing the normal response that allows both humans and zebrafish to deal with stress.

In the frozen fish, however, Baier found that levels of all three hormones--CRH, ACTH and cortisol--were higher than normal. He guessed that the animals were unable to respond properly to chronic stress--a problem that is known to trigger anxiety or depression in humans. On the basis of that diagnosis, he started putting the antidepressant fluoxetine (originally marketed as Prozac) in their water. After four days, they started swimming around normally. Other antidepressants and anxiolytics--drugs used to treat anxiety--also worked as a pick-me-up, he says. "There's a long literature on chronic stress being related to depression, but the causal link is unknown," says Baier. "Now we might be able to simulate this in fish and study it."

Other researchers suggest that Baier's findings may lead to the use of zebrafish to screen pharmaceuticals developed for humans.

Link | Photo: NIH

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This video shows a man in Turkey jumping out of a motorcycle's sidecar and onto a moving truck. He steals one of the sheep in the back. What do you think: real or staged?

via Nerdcore

Justin Mitchell has cataloged his dice collection and put photos of them online. Some of them are quite unusual, either made of uncommon materials or offering unconventional ranges. Pictured above is a 36-sided die.

Link via Boing Boing

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Artist Chris Burden built "Metropolis II", a representation of road traffic in Los Angeles. It shows 1,200 toy cars moving along 18 lanes:

Two years ago he created a 65-foot Erector Set skyscraper that stood in Rockefeller Center, and in 2004 he made “Metropolis I,” composed of 80 Hot Wheels toy cars zooming around two single-lane highways along with monorail trains chugging on tracks of their own. The piece was snapped up by the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan.

“I was happy with ‘Metropolis I,’ but it kind of disappeared once it went to western Japan,” Mr. Burden said in a telephone interview from his studio in Topanga Canyon in Los Angeles County. So in 2006 he and a team of eight studio assistants, including an engineer, began “Metropolis II,” a far more ambitious version. It includes 1,200 custom-designed cars and 18 lanes; 13 toy trains and tracks; and, dotting the landscape, buildings made of wood block, tiles, Legos and Lincoln Logs. The crew is still at work on the installation.

In "Metropolis II," by his calculation, “every hour 100,000 cars circulate through the city,” Mr. Burden said. “It has an audio quality to it. When you have 1,200 cars circulating it mimics a real freeway. It’s quite intense.”

Link via DVICE